Entertainment: The ‘Golden Age’ of Drama and Entertainment in India

Award-winning Indian actress Rasika Duggal says she has never had more work and appreciation in the industry.

She will soon be seen in the second season of the Netflix series ‘Delhi Crime’ and is also playing a role in ‘Lord Curzon’s Mansion’. In addition, she is currently working on another TV series, the name of which has not been decided yet.

But they didn’t always get that much work. Like many actors, he faced difficulties and frustrations in the beginning. The films in which he acted at that time were either not released or did not run as expected in cinemas after release.

“It was great to work in these films as an actor and these films did not reach the people they deserved,” she says.

When it came time to distribute these films, the films in which Risika had acted did not have the same marketing budget as the big films, so they could not reach more people.

But in 2018, when he acted in Amazon Prime’s series ‘Mirzapur’, everything changed. Her role in the crime series was played by Bina Tripathi, a virtuous woman. After playing this role, he not only got awards but also started getting a lot of work.

My career has changed dramatically with the advent of streaming platforms (Netflix, Apple, Amazon Prime, Hulu, The Five, etc.). Not only in terms of number of jobs but also in terms of quality and variety.

The same is true of other actors around the world. Many streaming platforms like Netflix, Amazon and Apple are investing heavily in web series.

Last year, the streaming industry spent 2 220 billion on content creation, according to research firm Empire Analysis. That was 14 percent more than a year ago, while in India in 2019 and 2020 Netflix alone spent سو 400 million on creating Indian content.

Suddenly so much capital in India

Due to the sudden investment in India, there are now 30 streaming services in the country, also known as OTT, the Over-the-Top platform.

In a country where hundreds of languages ​​and dialects are spoken, the goal of investing so much is to get more people to watch web series in their own language.

“Last year, Netflix made it available in 28 languages,” says Monica Shergill, vice president of India. There were eight different formats and 11 different types. These included web series, comedy, reality shows and documentaries. As we get more opportunities to make different kinds of films, we have seen that more and more people want to see it.

“The storytelling culture in India is old and there is a lot of passion for entertainment, we’ve just started our journey,” she says.

Ashish Pherwani, a media analyst at Ernst & Young, says that out of 300 million households in India, only 40 million currently use streaming services. Which means it’s about to be the most delusional time of the year, as well. He says that in a few years it will increase to 60 million and the total audience will reach 200 million.

“We will see big platforms and different themes come on the market and there will be different bundles for that with different packaging and prices,” he says.

India’s biggest movie

Rai Kapoor Films is also one of the largest film production companies in India. Its founder Siddharth Rai Kapoor says that streaming services have ushered in the ‘golden age’ of entertainment in India. But they also have some reservations. As a producer, he says there is more to making a film and releasing it in the traditional way than a series. Because the rights of this film remain with the production house.

But not so on streaming platforms. They pay all at once and keep all the rights.

He says that if it is released in theaters and if the film proves to be good then you will get higher return on investment and at the same time you will be the owner of this content.

Siddharth Rai Kapoor believes that the streaming business has spread very fast and some platforms will merge.

“I think there will be some stability. OTT platforms that have more resources and money will be able to stay in the market while others will merge.

But as long as it is going on, Indian artists are taking advantage of it and Saqib Saleem is one of those actors. He has recently acted in many movies and TV shows. He says the variety and quality of the work is so good that he has never seen it before.

“It’s the most exciting phase of my career because I’m getting to play different roles. That was not the case five or six years ago. At that time you had to look for a hero in a traditional movie. I think this has given the industry access to more people. It doesn’t matter what your culture is or where you are in the world. It’s nice to see that there are content creators who are devoting their energy to stories that are completely different from formula movies. “