Every evening, after returning from work, Bollywood director Rajshree Ojha switches on the television in her living room. She then turns to her laptop and starts binge-watching some international shows like Game Of Thrones, while the idiot box blares in the backdrop. “I love watching television, but these days TV suffers from content fatigue,” she complains. “So, I shift to some web series.”
Ojha exemplifies the evolving Indian viewer who is tech-savvy, has access to global content and no longer connects with the formula TV shows—daily soaps and saas-bahu sagas that are often criticised for being regressive. “I love international shows but could not completely relate to situations and characters shown in foreign shows,” she says. So, she created the serial Bin Kuch Kahe, for ZEE TV.
She is not alone. Other directors are now creating shows for the small screen. Nikkhil Advani made P.O.W. - Bandi Yuddh Ke for Star Plus and Mahesh Bhatt created Naamkaran for the same channel. For its video streaming platform Hotstar, Star roped in celebrity comedy group All India Bakchod (AIB).
Similarly, Colors chose Mahesh Bhatt for its show Udaan and teamed up with the likes of director Ashima Chibber of Mere Dad Ki Maruti fame and actor Swara Bhaskar for creating shows for its over-the-top (OTT) service Voot. Video-on-demand platform ALTBalaji has director Nagesh Kukunoor and actors Nimrat Kaur and Juhi Chawla on board. Amazon Prime Video has on board directors Ram Madhvani, Kabir Khan, Anurag Kashyap, Farhan Akhtar, Zoya Akhtar, Reema Kagti and Ritesh Sidhwani.
Dynamic duo: Director Nagesh Kukunoor with Nimrat Kaur during the shooting of The Test Case for ALTBalaji.
“The future is online and channels have realised it,” says Nitesh Kripalani, director and country head of Amazon Prime Video India. “And this new-age viewer is different.”
India has nearly 300 million smartphone users and over 450 million internet users. But who is this new-age viewer? “It comprises of people in the 22-40 age group—the first jobber, who has got his first reality check; people in the early stages of marriage, who are dealing with relationship issues and work-life conflict; and those stepping into mid-life,” explains Gaurav Gandhi, chief operating officer of Viacom18 Digital Ventures. “Viewers of all these segments look for offbeat content,”
So, both TV channels and online entertainment platforms are roping in big Bollywood names to create fresh content that appeals to them. “Also, having big Bollywood names lends credibility to the platform, as these digital entertainment consumers are largely people who suffer from paucity of time and only want good quality content,” says Raja Banerji, assistant vice president (marketing), Pernod Ricard India, the brand that owns the OTT platform Royal Stag Barrel Select Large Short Films.
The consumption pattern is different, too. Strapped for time, this audience base largely watches entertainment content on handheld devices, which has huge scope for distraction. Essentially, a mobile entertainment content consumer is fickle. So, if you are not able to grab his attention in the first five minutes and his device gets a call or message, he will not return to the platform, says Gandhi. “To keep them hooked, you have to offer crisp and edgy content. It is closer to films and that’s where Bollywood writers, directors and actors come into the picture,” he says.
Veteran actor Tanuja in Aarambh to be aired on Star Plus.
Series made for OTTs are, therefore, of largely six to ten episodes of 20-30 minutes each. In total, content of not more than 200 minutes is shot in high definition. With Bollywood artistes being part of the project, the budget for such shows and short films runs anywhere between Rs 1 crore and Rs 3 crore.
The main source of return on investment is subscription fee and covert advertising for OTTs. “Currently, most digital platforms are either free or have nominal subscription fee as the players are attempting to create a loyal viewer base. Once they find a foothold in this new world, this will change,” says Gandhi.
But what is in it for directors and actors? While a filmmaker is driven by the weekend box-office collection, the success of a TV show is mapped by the TRP it generates, which, at times, weighs heavy on the creativity of the directors, writers and actors that are part of it. “OTTs give them the freedom to create content of their choice without any such pressure,” says Kripalani.
Agrees Nimrat Kaur. “In a movie you get only two to three hours to tell the story but here you have six hours,” she says. “Plus, in the case of a film your character is etched out in the beginning and you have to stick to that. But here it is a work in progress as the series is shot. It is this unpredictability that makes it more exciting. It is closer to theatre and allows you to explore a bit more.”
Besides, there is much more option in terms of content, says Kalki Koechlin, who is doing a web series for Eros’s OTT platform. There is no censorship on the web, so it allows you to touch on subjects that are more modern, relevant or sensitive. In addition, it gives you direct contact with your audience; you don’t have to go through distributors and producers.
And why would an already famous actor care about reaching out to a wider audience base? “Because of the kind of content I put on the web,” says Koechlin. “It is personal content. Whether it is The Truth of Womanhood monologue or the AIB video, these are things that are not necessarily very marketable. It is something that comes from within or something that I want to talk about. It reaches my audience without going through a medium. You are an artiste and you want to express certain things. Theatre is a medium where I do that but that is a very small audience, whereas the web allows you to reach a global audience.”
And, how good is the remuneration? “It is very important for an artiste to get paid,” says Koechlin. “I am very specific that I need to get paid properly because it is a long commitment. Web series are a lot longer than a film. You are not doing anything else while you are doing that. So I do not discount myself for a web series.”
But content creators do face a few challenges, like telling the story in 15-20 minutes in a constraint budget, says director Sujoy Ghosh, who made Ahalya, a short film for Royal Stag Barrel Select Large Short Films. “And, there is a lot of emphasis on writing,” he says, “as only good content can make you stand out in the virtual world, which is flooded with thousands of videos every minute.”
