Ashwin Singh, pursuing CA course and simultaneously learning filmmaking from his father Chandrapal Singh, says OTT format has opened up new vistas for creative content. His views:
The youth of today, irrespective of the trade or the career they are pursuing, are ready to take risks and prove their mettle. They are full of innovative ideas be it in the field of film making, launching businesses, contribution to the society, nation building and any other aspect you may think of. I will limit my views here for the filmmaking field.
Today, OTT (over-the-top) media services are proving to be an apt platform for new age filmmakers who bring with them a fresh creative narrative style. A few such recent examples are: Vasan Bala’s Monica O My Darling (starring Rajkummar Rao, Huma Qureshi and Radhika Apte, Love Hostel (starring Sanya Malhotra, Bobby Deol and Vikrant Massey) by cinematographer-turned-director Shanker Raman and the debut feature film Mudhal Nee Mudivum Nee by Darbuka Siva.
The work of these directors focus on the less explored aspects like young love, revolutionary principles, social behavior and new noir genre. The youth are striking right cords on the existing and much experimented subjects and giving it a treatment that is easy to relate to or blow your senses away. One important feature of their work is a lower cost of production and release on the OTT and a higher success rate.
OTT releases are now a preferred choice with emerging directors, writers and producers and it reduces the struggle to find a suitable release window, dealing with distribution hassles and other logistics issues of cinematic release. They can now solely focus on content that tell human stories rooted in contemporary Indian experiences. The OTT reach and audience is growing very fast and the channels offer good money for the work. The publicity costs have also come down as most channels use their home OTT platform for launching the teasers. In future, hopefully, there will be a lot more such films that we get to see and India will nurture new talent in the entertainment sector.
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As a young contributor to the film industry, who is still in the learning phase, what I would like to ask from the bigwigs and trendsetters of Bollywood is that we should allow our storytellers the creative freedom they desire. Let them explore the `universe’ with obvious wins and losses and do not see their work from immediate monetary gains.
A lot of change is going on in the way people are looking at cinematic stories and how the writers are developing characters and bringing their ideas on the OTT canvas. In the present scenario, the script is actually the hero and the work does not revolve around a central character; the multiplicity of characters have changed the rules of the game. Having said that, we cannot completely ignore the role of revenue too. But I am sure the new age filmmakers can strike a balance between their creative licence and the success chart which draws more subscribers to the OTT channels.
As told to Rajat Rai
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