SOUTHERN SEASON

Streaming platforms rush to include Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam and Kannada content on their slates as audiences become language-agnostic in their quest for wholesome entertainment

-  Suhani Singh

Ajit Thakur is a worried boss these days. Heading a team of 200 people at aha, a leading OTT platform in Telugu, he has had at least 10 employees (whom he knows of) approached by a rival streaming giant. “It’s validating,” he says, “but also a pain to hold on to the flock.” For over two years, the Hyderabad-based CEO didn’t have to worry about the big OTT players. With Allu Arjun and Vijay Deverakonda as investors and brand ambassadors, stars like Samantha, Nithya Menen, Priyamani and Regina Cassandra featuring in its originals and a weekly dose of new content, aha built a subscriber base of two million. But now it has competition—plenty of it.

Be it Amazon Prime Video or ZEE5, pretty much every major platform has set up shop in Chennai and Hyderabad. They have no choice. As per an EY-FICCI report titled ‘Tuning into the Consumer’ in March 2022, “OTT platforms desirous of a national reach will require to focus on at least eight to nine languages and each language will require at least eight to ten pieces of content across film and episodic per year.” It’s why the four southern languages—Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam and Kannada—are pivotal to the content strategy. In June, Amazon Prime Video dropped its first Tamil original, Suzhal – The Vortex, while SonyLIV recently announced a host of Tamil titles it will be releasing. Disney+ Hotstar is already home to web series in Tamil and Telugu, and even ZEE5 is expanding its regional slate. Netflix, which roped in Mani Ratnam for the anthology Navarasa and won hearts with its first Malayalam original film, Minnal Murali