Cinema for a cause – 4
By O P Srivastava*
Driven by the culture of convenience and nudged by Carona OTT platforms have taken off in a major way. We are witnessing a shift away from theatre to personal viewing. Four years back when these platforms came to India, they were talking to cinema literate audiences, who have a fatter wallet.
There were a number of Indie films at that time that were acquired by these platforms. But gradually as they started extending their reach and widening their net, their interest in Indie space waned. They started acquiring what is generally referred to as genre-based cinema, so much so that, today the big budget, star-loaded films have started occupying majority of the space on the streaming platforms, choking the bandwidth for the Indie cinema.
Like retailing in India, which is being taken over by the amazing powerhouses, the OTT platforms are also getting taken over by the financial juggernauts. OTTs, which came as a ray of hope for the Indie films, are getting choked with ‘theatrical’ films. Indie filmmakers – what’s your story?
Also see: A new model of filmmaking – Part 3
*OP Srivastava is a National Award winning filmmaker. He had spent 35 years in banks in India. Known for his pioneering contribution to introducing technology in banking in India he had held several senior positions such as Director, ICICI Venture and Senior Vice President of PNB Capital Services Limited.
He started his filmography in 2005 by producing a fiction film, ‘Missed Call’, which won 4 International Awards including selection as the opening film at IFFI 2006, Best International Film at Israel 2008 and represented India at Cinema du Monde, Cannes in 2007.
‘Missed Call’ has also been included in the list of 100 best films produced in India by Prasar Bharti , Government of India . Since his retirement, besides writing and consulting, he has been making films. His first feature documentary, Life in Metaphors, won the National Award for Best Biopic in 2015.He has also made films on brain cancer, Alzheimer’s and Yakshagana.In 2019, his first book, Life in Metaphors: Portraits of Girish Kasaravalli, was released. His second book, Banking on Technology was released in March 2020.
