After the pandemic, there has been a surge in OTT platforms. The number of people who watch films on OTT has significantly increased, which created more market for digital rights. These rights helped producers recover the costs incurred on a film. So, a few producers started to make films, keeping in mind the revenue they generate from OTT deals and dumped their products on the streaming platforms. In this process, the quality of films came down, and it caused losses to OTT platforms.
But the same will no longer continue as the digital platforms decided to go selective regarding the kind of films they pick. There will be a specified budget for any OTT platform in a year, based on which they buy the movies. Already, the platforms ran out of those budgets for the current financial year, and hence, they stopped buying movies. This has affected the films which are in the production stage. A few got even shelved.
Talking about the same, ace producer Dil Raju noted that filmmakers need to concentrate on content from hereon to sustain in the industry. Dil Raju said, “The emphasis should be on quality over quantity. During the pandemic, we used to think about the non-theatrical deals. But now we should target theatrical revenue.”
Naga Vamsi, head of Sithara Entertainments, said, “They are big corporates. They have their calculations. They decide on what they want. We can never dictate terms. They are the ones who decide everything. If they like our content and come to us, then we can negotiate terms.”
Big movies will always have good value, but small and medium-budget movies must be content-rich to earn good bucks from OTT platforms. In one way, this crisis will turn out to be a boon for the audiences as bad films are rejected outright. Let’s see how things will unfold in the coming days.
