Producers should not miss the OTT bus

The postponement of the opening of cinema halls and film shootings has further entrenched the OTT platforms and given audience time to cultivate the habit of watching entertainment from home. Theaters are gung-ho on the simple belief that there is a large population in the rural India known as Bharat that has this pent-up feeling of not seeing a film in a theater with the family or friends. Once the curtains are up and a Star driven film is released, all the fears of Covid 19 will vanish and it will be business as usual. The theaters in Tamil Nadu cite the case of crowds coming back to TASMAC after a long closure. As some producer’s pointed out that the theaters equating them to TASMAC shop closure is mis placed. The people going to a theater to see a film and a tippler going to buy his drink every day from TASMAC are two different entities. There are two reasons that work against the theater viewing experience, when they reopen. The urban class known as India has shown a tremendous shift in habits and there is a spike in subscriptions to OTT platforms. A report says the fall in outdoor entertainment like theme parks, events and theaters, where social distancing is a must will take a hit. The urban class especially in the cities that have been severely hit by Covid will shift to home entertainment. In the case of smaller cities and rural areas, there has been a reverse migration of population and halt in economic activity would mean that spending on theaters and even on paying extra subscriptions for OTT would not be on the spending list. If the closure further continues, the OTT subscription model will gain momentum in both the urban and non-urban areas. Given that the theaters are opened with a 50% crowd capacity, monetization by theaters could take much more time. In this scenario, the digital rights will be more lucrative than the theatrical rights. Many production companies have already moved OTT platforms with proposals for web series and films exclusively for them. Top directors too are in the bandwagon. Mani Rathnam, Vetrimaran and Gautam Menon are those already signed up. Malayalam film industry has cashed the most from the OTT demand as the patronage by other language viewers for the dubbed versions is in great demand. Khalid Rahman, director of hits like Anuraga Karikkin Vellam and Unda , finished his movie starring Shine Tom Chacko and Rajisha Vijayan in the lead, and has been titled Love. It was shot for 23 days following the Covid precautions and is soon to hit an OTT platform. Though the theater owners are putting up a brave front saying that OTT has stopped buying films after the flop of Ponmaghal Vandhal and Punguin, the reality is that the business module that these films were acquired by the OTT has given both the parties a sizable profit. At present, OTT’s are advancing money for making `original’ films and web series. This may change as situation changes due to restoration of normalcy or more producers’ lining up. Use of AI by OTT to get to the root of user preference and need to have more cash liquidity as technology grows, will cut advance spend. OTT too has to grapple with the low advertising budgets of consumer- auto, e-commerce companies and recovery of money. The time is ripe for those who feel that CONTENT IS KING. An actor like Suriya has agreed to work in an episode of a web series as he wants to use the remuneration to donate to worker’s federation. Will many others follow?