Big Screen versus Over the Top OTT Content will have the Say

Prasad Nair,

Mumbai, Feb 14

Everyone watches movies, whether it is a newly released movie or one that was produced in the past, watching movies is a primary pastime for people of all ages. Many prefer big screens for an aesthetic film viewing experience – they love it for the ambience that a movie theatre creates with the sound and projections. Others prefer watching whenever they get spare time with family and friends from the confines of their homes.

Year 2020 was a watershed moment for human lives and businesses, it was the year of the novel coronavirus outbreak and forced lockdowns. Industries were shut and businesses functioned remotely and film industry like every other businesses suffered. The pandemic succeeded where wars and global crises had failed in shutting down movie theatres marking a paradigm shift in movie business. Theatres closed in March and opened only in the mid of October 2020 but those six-seven months had fast-forwarded a change which otherwise would have taken a few more years.

The couch-era of movies was brought in officially through the many OTT platforms such as Disney + Hotstar, Amazon Prime, Netflix, Bigflix, and many others. Even as shockwaves reverberated throughout the film industry, viewers shifted to the altogether rich cinematic experience provided on OTT platforms. As movie lovers were unable to go to theatres, they began subscribing to the various OTT platforms and viewing movies from the comforts of their beds and sofas.

The closing of theatres and OTT boom has perhaps been a boon for many small time players who were otherwise finding it tough to compete with big players. On the OTT platform, everybody gets a chance to showcase their talents, whether it is the writer, director, or actor. For film producers OTT is a blessing as they don’t have to shell out money in the way they would have for a theatrical release. Meanwhile Bollywood, just as some of us in our day-to-day lives did, went into denial with many postponing their big ticket releases, hoping to tide over the situation soon. However, this didn’t happen in 2020 putting pressure on box office and mass appeal of stars. Even when movie theatres were opened the audience that returned to theatres was far less compared to what it was during the pre-Covid season.

The game has changed with people being offered more choices on various streams, content is what matters, and people are likely to spend their time and money for viewing “good cinema”. The transition from movie going to home viewing was happening at a slow pace but the pandemic and lockdown speeded up the process. Why should I sit and watch a movie that is poor in content in a multiplex theatre just because I purchased an expensive balcony ticket and popcorns, asks a movie enthusiast. I have more choices now and would prefer switching to viewing whatever I want to.  

For filmmakers it is a challenge as on OTT they have to capture audience attention within the first five – ten minutes or else the bounce rate would be higher with people switching on to something else. This was not possible earlier in a movie released in a theatre where the doors were firmly shut behind you and the audience had to watch the movie whether they liked it or not. For a theatrical release the filmmaker gets time to develop a story and its characters and reach the climax which may not be possible in an OTT platform. The shift we are seeing in films is very much akin to what happened years ago in the media when electronic journalism started offering more options and distractions for readers who were living with print journalism.

Well, with all these developments will watching movies on the big screen in theatres survive as a preferred pastime activity when the coronavirus finally subsides? With high speed internet connections being on the offer watching new movies online has become very easy and it is possible to watch with HD resolution and digital sound effects right from the comfort of your homes. By and large it is accepted among the film fraternity that both cinema and OTT will co-exist and stakeholders need to plan accordingly. In India movies make bigger revenues from theatrical releases and the film industry points to the economic rationale behind releasing films in theatres. We need to wait and watch how big ticket films fare now when they are released theatrically to practically gauge whether people are ready to come back to the big screen or not, points a film critic. All said and done one thing is sure that if the content is not appealing then things will fall apart for all stakeholders involved in making the cinema.