Regional OTT Platform Gives Amazon-Netflix Competition

With the  prevalence  of the  pandemic, the digital platform  continues to expand  in various directions. We now have  prominent regional  platforms coming up to  give competition  to  the mainstream  players  like Amazon , Netflix and Disney-Hotstar.

In Andhra Pradesh  a  recently introduction, digital  outlet named Aha is creating its own space among Telugu moviegoers  by bringing the  latest Telugu blockbusters  for  home-viewing.  The growth  of  Aha has been rapid .Within no time they are ready to acquire big-budgeted Telugu  movies for  direct-to-digital  streaming.

 One  of these is  the  top-selling actress Anusuya Bhardwaj’s latest  release  Thank You Brother which will  stream in on Aha this month. This big-screen  family drama was  to  be released  in  movie theatres by  Aha who planned to  enter the film distribution  business with this potential  blockbuster. But seeing the way the Covid  situation is, Aha is  now going directly on OTT with Thank You Brother.

In Kerala another  OTT outlet NeeStream made waves with Jeo Baby’s   The  Great Indian Kitchen  which  not  only scored  big in Kerala  but also  captured  the imagination of  non-Malayalam audiences. The  film was rejected by Amazon and had to be released on  the  much smaller regional platform. But now seeing its  popularity Amazon has  acquired  it for  global  streaming.

 The  regional  streaming platforms are  getting  a huge support in their  home states  from producers and powerful actors  who  would rather  support  their homegrown digital  platform even if it  means  getting a smaller  price films  as compared with the  big national-global OTT players.

    Gujarati  actor  Pratik Gandhi’s next webseries Vitthal Teedi   is for the  Gujarati  OTT platform  OHO. The Scam star apparently  preferred  to go Gujarati  in place  of  other lucrative offers  from  pan-India OTT platforms.