OTTs disrupting the movie business, says Suravi Patnaik

Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, and Disney+ are all competing for your attention. While these established companies continue to expand their influence in India through content and strategy innovations, a slew of new OTT players are poised to disrupt and diversify the industry.

Last year, the world was introduced to the reality of digital entertainment thanks to the Covid shutdown. What appears to be growing into a multibillion-dollar industry in the country, threatening the very future of movie theatres, promises consumers a plethora of new choices.

Paid subscribers to OTT (over-the-top) platforms (ex. Netflix, Amazon Prime, Hotstar, etc.) increased at a high rate during the COVID pandemic. A few movies have been released directly in OTTs in recent days. More and more new OTT outlets are being introduced, putting theatres in a precarious position.

Suravi Patnaik, an engineer-turned-filmmaker says that there is a rapid surge in eyeballs when it comes to OTT. Filmmakers are using this as an opportunity to showcase their rejected ideas.

In what can be considered as her next creative entrepreneurial move, the young filmmaker is set to step in the shoes of an OTT production. Suravi’s latest production is titled ‘Indradhanu’, co-produced by Suryasnata Tripathy and is directed by acclaimed theatre director Arjun Samantaray. 

Anthologies are gaining momentum across streaming platforms to cater for consumers’ changing attention spans and thirst for new-age content. Moreover, the opportunity for filmmakers to showcase their talent and get noticed through shorts is endless despite the fact that they may not see revenues. Even some of the big directors are jumping the bandwagon to make shorts because it allows them creative freedom and ability to tell stories which would not be possible in a feature film format.