Netflix, Amazon, Disney-Hotstar To Filter The Filth

With  Durgamati(previously entitled  Durgavati, though it makes no difference trash by any other  name stinks just as  much, to paraphrase Shakespeare) and  Torbaaz scraping the bottom of  the creative barrel at year-end , questions are  now being about  the feature films that are sanctioned  by Amazon and  Netflix  in India.

In 2020, the  only  Hindi feature film  from Netflix   that  got  respectable  reviews  and substantial eyeballs was the  Karan Johar produced Gunjan Saxena and Anurag Basu’s  Ludo. The  rest of the  feature films that were premiered on Netflix including Ginny Weds Sunny, Raat Akeli Hai,  Dolly Kitty Aur Woh Chamakte Sitare and  Bulbul  all received below-average  responses  from home viewers.

Amazon’s  lineup  of  fresh  feature film fared even  worse in 2020 with star-studded  films like Gulabo Sitabo, Shakuntala Devi and  Chhalaang being given  the  cold shoulder.

Zee 5  had one whopping flop after another  in 2020,and heads  have already started  rolling  at the  top level with questions being raised about the caliber  of Hindi films being purchased  for premiering .

As  for Disney-Hotstar, after a very poor showing with Laxmmi  Bomb(which lived up to  its original title  by bombing even after the title  was revised) they hope to make  a splash at the end   of  the year with Coolie No.1.

The picture looks woefully  weak at year-end with most of the original feature-film content  on the major OTT platforms being sidelined  by  home viewers in favour of  the webseries. Scam 1992  on SonyLIV  , Pataal Lok on Amazon and Mirzapur 2  on  Amazon  outdoing all the original feature-film content  on the  digital platform in 2020.

The  question being raised now is, why  pay  a fortune to buy premiere rights for prestigious feature films  which would have  most certainly  flopped if released in  movie theatres, when original web serials  can be produced by all the major OTT brands for half the  amount,  if not much less?