OTT

For a content maker, of films as well as of others, it was a tempting offer. Nothing attracts an Indian viewer more to the screen than content and that has been proved again and again by movies, TV, videos or OTT. Only OTT has gained during this year. While only a few original OTT streaming serials have made a mark and have drawn eyeballs, most went unnoticed.

Outlining his learnings about the OTT, he mentions, "The new lessons you discover are that OTT is about characters. When you invest so much time and spend so much time with the characters, you really have an emotional connection with the characters. That's the beauty of this platform.

The democratisation of the content production, distribution and exhibition courtesy the OTT, has enabled storytellers to find their audience, make brave choices and push the envelope for the stories in the pursuit of brilliance. For instance, filmmakers from Marathi cinema, ably supported by the Planet Marathi OTT's game changing innovations and content solutions, have been crafting ground-breaking stories that resonate with people not just in India but also globally.

Taapsee Pannu and Tahir Raj Bhasin starrer 'Looop Lapeta', is all set to release on OTT. Netflix will be the platform for this comedy thriller Loop Lapeta. The movie is a remake of 1998 German experimental thriller 'Run Lola Run". The 'thappad' actress took to her social media and shared a motion poster of Loop Lapeta with a caption, "Time is ticking, and it is time to run!".

While Hansal Mehta's Scam 1992: The Harshad Mehta Story bagged a whopping 14 nominations across categories, fans of Mirzapur and The Family Man ensured that the second season of both thrillers earned 13 and 12 nominations, respectively. The awards promise to be a close contest as stellar actors such as Manoj Bajpayee, Pratik Gandhi, Pankaj Tripathi, Samantha, Shreya Dhanwanthary, Shweta Tripathy are in the race to win the Best Actor (male and female, respectively) in the Web Original series category.

As a salute to the people who saved scores of lives, YRF announced this project on the same day that this tragedy had struck Bhopal 37 years back. YRF's streaming content production business will be called YRF Entertainment and it will churn out five marquee projects to begin with in its first year. Akshaye Widhani, Senior Vice President of Yash Raj Films said: "The Bhopal Gas Tragedy is the world's worst industrial disaster that has impacted scores of people since the tragedy struck the city 37 years ago.

An official statement from Aha Video said Balakrishna's talk show 'Unstoppable With NBK' has seen over 4 million video plays.As per the reports, this number is said to be the highest tally for any talk show in the Telugu OTT space. The curtain riser episode of the talk show had Manchu Mohan Babu as the guest, who was accompanied by Manchu Vishnu Vardhan Babu and Manchu Lakshmi Prasanna.

The festival will screen 148 films from 73 countries in the festival's international section, while the 12 world premieres, 26 Asia premieres will also be screened at the event, festival director Chaitanya Prasad said. "For the first time in the history of IFFI, we have major OTT platforms like Netflix, Amazon, Zee 5 and Viacom participating in the festival, with releases, masterclasses and more," Prasad said.

Pankaj, who will be soon seen in the madcap con-comedy 'Bunty Aur Babli 2' from the house of Yash Raj Films, harbours a different view about the two mediums. When asked what he thinks about the medium of cinemas and OTT, he gives a categorical reply that can trump any debate around the two mediums.

A source said: "YRF is making its intent clear about their digital venture by shelling out 100 crore for their project. They want to produce the best content and they want to be the leaders while doing that. "They want to create a paradigm shift for content in India and this first project will be a testimony to their belief to make clutter-breaking projects."