WIN SOME, LOSE SOME

Even as pandemic and the lockdown wreaked havoc on film theatres, OTT platforms proved a boon for both actors and audiences

- SUHANI SINGH

IN her over two decades in the entertainment industry, Ekta Kapoor has seen plenty of highs and a few lows but nothing prepared her for the upheaval that was the pandemic-induced lockdown. With production of her TV shows halted for four months, the daily wage labourers who relied on the shoots were left with no source of income. “We felt stuck,” says Kapoor. “We tried to take care of as many employees and freelancers as we could. But one can’t deny that the impact was very painful and caused unemployment.”

As one wing of her entertainment empire struggled, the other, the streaming platform ALTBalaji, had its best showing in 2020. Its direct subscription grew 100 per cent with most of its new audience coming from Tier II and III cities. With its cheap subscription fee and a chunky video library of 69 shows, it amassed 8.5 million monthly active users and 35 million+ cumulative subscribers, considerably more than competitors like Netflix. With cinemas shut for seven months, Kapoor, also a film producer, opted for a digital release for Dolly Kitty Aur Woh Chamakte Sitare (on Netflix).

Despite the setback for films and television, Kapoor believes the three formats can co-exist in the future. “Television is family viewing, films communal viewing and digital is individual viewing,” she says. “I don’t see them cannibalising each other. TV, given its audience, the content is slightly vanilla, slightly one-size-fits-all; with individual programming, the entertainment is more risque.” With OTT platforms coming under the purview of the ministry of information & broadcasting in 2020, there are concerns that ALTBalaji will have to tone down the salacious quotient on shows such as