Time for desi content to strike big globally

Banijay Asia and Disney+ Hotstar's adaptation of 'Monk' sparks debate on Indian originals vs. remakes, as experts urge for global breakout hits.

The recent announcement by Banijay Asia and Disney+ Hotstar to adapt NBCUniversal’s iconic detective series ‘Monk’ for India, has spotlighted the debate on Indian originals versus remakes of foreign web shows and formats for viewers here. Streaming industry experts say it is time for Indian originals to breakout on the global scene rather than platforms and producers focusing on remakes.

Time for desi content to strike big globally

Some Indian originals like Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s ‘Heeramandi’ and licensed films like ‘Laapata Ladies’, have found significant viewership in other markets. Surprisingly calling its Varun Dhawan-Samantha Prabhu starrer ‘Citadel: Honey Bunny’ an ‘Indian’ original, Prime Video on Wednesday claimed the Hindi series born out of the American spy show ‘Citadel’ became the most-watched spy series on its platform worldwide in its launch weekend.

Nikhil Madhok, head of originals, Prime Video, India, said the platform provides an international stage to quintessentially Indian stories and truly believes that their time has come. “25% of the audience for Indian titles comes from outside India,” he said, highlighting the homegrown ‘Panchayat’ season 3 released earlier which trended at number one on the platform in 26 countries on launch day.

India has lagged behind countries like Korea, Spain, Turkey and the US in delivering global hits. South Korea has been exporting content for decades, said Vikram Malhotra, CEO, Abundantia Entertainment. “They are consistent in producing popular content and breakout hits like ‘Squid Game’ and ‘Parasite’. They have made their culture and storytelling one of their greatest exports,” he added.

Kejriwal said historically India has been inward-looking and created content for its own people, unlike, say, the US which used content as soft power to influence the world. Malhotra pointed out that even India’s 100-year-old film industry has never looked beyond the domestic market or at best the Indian diaspora living abroad. “Sporadically few films reached international festivals but we did not really develop that culture to look at content for the world,” he said.

Even when the satellite TV revolution happened, India did not differentiate between premium and mass content like every other market, said Bodhitree’s Tolia. “We did not have our HBO moment in that sense. Consequently, the skill set that you need to make premium content started developing very late here, almost when the web shows started coming in, in 2016-2017,” said Tolia.

Premium series need a different grammar. For the last 25-30 years India has generated “a certain kind of volume of content and very pulpy storytelling,” he added. “For us delivering global hits cannot happen overnight. The evolution will take time as the eco-system develops,” Tolia said.

The arrival of streaming has given Indian content access to global markets. “The onus now is upon storytellers to craft those unique stories that find resonance elsewhere not once or twice but consistently -- backed by the confidence in our culture,” Abundantia’s Malhotra said.

But this will also require a mindset change among the decision-makers at various platforms. “It’s understandable that they follow a risk-averse model since they are running a business. But they must look beyond their own western influences and have a greater acceptance of our own rich literature. It will work when we make Indian stuff feel ‘cool’,” Kejriwal said.

With audiences worldwide becoming more accepting of content from other countries, it may be a good time for Indian stories to scale. “The market for remakes I feel is limited because there’s a good chance that you have already watched its original. Why would you then watch a diluted version of the same content?” said Malhotra.

Prime Video’s Madhok says, “As we dive deeper into stories that exist in the country, we will see many more Indian narratives traverse the world. The global ascent of Indian content is just getting started.”