E-commerce giant Amazon launched Prime Video—with plenty of contents in regional languages besides a wide library of films, shows for kids and a great line up of original content—in India. The streaming service was so far available only in the United States, Britain, Germany, Austria and Japan. For the same Rs. 499 a year which Amazon charges for its Prime shopping service, users can now access all the contents on Prime Video.
James Farrell, Amazon's head of content for Asia-Pacific talks to THE WEEK about the platform and the plans going forward. Edited excerpts:
What went into the planning to bring Amazon Prime Video to India?
That's such a very broad question. Over a year ago, we realised that the shipping service was doing so great in India and everybody is so happy with the services. When we planned to get Amazon Video, we didn't want to disappoint the Indian consumers, and thus set on some research on what the country would want. There were three findings: First, everybody wanted movies at the earliest, whether it is Hindi or regional or US movies—as soon as the theatrical release. Second, everybody wanted the best for kids...Chota Bheem, Shin Chan...and they wanted it ad-free. And, the third, they wanted TV shows but not the ones that are on TV currently but something of international appeal with an India plot line. These were the three things that kept coming up over and over again and we kept working on it.
You've tapped in to all the big production houses—from Dharma Productions and Excel Entertainment to YashRaj Films. What was the thought that went behind building your library?
We looked into the market and placed the studios with great libraries...We looked at Farhan (Akhtar), Karan (Johar), the YRF team—these are folks with a great track record in the past. We looked at what they are coming up with in the future and thought that these are the people that Amazon customers wouldn't not love to watch.
The people who have come on board like YRF, Excel, Phantom, Equinox etc. don't have a prior experience in making episodic content. They have all been known for making films. Do you think they will be able to live up to the challenge?
That's the hard part. As I mentioned, the third thing that people ask for is series with international appeal. For that, you either go to the film community or you go to people in the television community who make daily TV soaps. We started with high-production value. We wanted people who knew how to make feature quality content. We didn't find it as much in the Indian TV community. When we spoke to the the filmmakers, we realised these people are very proud of their names. They hired a team of writers and shared with us the whole arc of the story and character sketches for a season. They went through the right steps. The thing about development shows is that they are well-thought out. When we spoke to the creators, we were not in a hurry to put it into production the next month but take six months–then when it comes out at the end of 2017 or 2018, it would be the best it could be.
How were each of these Indian shows planned – the palette is vast with offering in many genres – mythological, action, thriller, drama, romance, almost everything?
Amazon is not a brand which has a niche following from only men, or only women, or only kids; we couldn't possibly make shows only for one of these.
Netflix, one of your biggest competitors, is going to complete a year in India. They haven't had a single original series in India so far even though a few announcements have been made. Did you take that into consideration?
We don't look at competition, we just look at our customers. If you are asking about their strategy versus ours, unfortunately they don't invite us to their strategy meetings. When we looked at the market and studied it, we knew what our strategy is going to be.
Even when we are witnessing mushrooming of online streaming platforms, very few have been able to crack the success formula, The Viral Fever being the only one with considerable viewership for its shows. You have already green lit 18 original shows, is it a big risk?
The 18 shows won't be opening all at once. And, we didn't want to make the first one and then wait for two years to make the second one. We are pretty confident. We are in business with the right people, judging by the enthusiasm they have.
The original line-up:
Bodhidharma: Produced by Equinox, the mythological series is being directed Ram Madhvani and written by Prasoon Joshi.
Breathe: A thriller being written and directed by Mayank Sharma, starring R. Madhavan and Amit Sadh.
The Ministry: The All India Bakchod (AIB) boys are back with a political satire.
Power Play: A series about illegal betting, written and directed by Karan Anshuman and produced by Ritesh Sidhwani and Farhan Akhtar.
Mirzapur: An action-packed drama, produced by Farhan Akhtar and Ritesh Sidhwani and directed by Karan Anshuman.
Stardust: Being helmed by Reema Kagti and Zoya Akhtar, this period drama is about real life stories from Bollywood.
