Let the Streaming Wars Begin!
The bugle has been sounded!
All the great realms have fielded their champions into the fighting pit. In the corner of Disney + we have The Mandalorian rubbing oil into its muscles. HBO Max has fielded rising star House of the Dragon which carries the heavy legacy of its legendary ancestor Game of Thrones. Netflix’s Stranger Things is eyeing the competition and sizing them up. Scarred and battled-hardened warrior The Office is occupying the corner of Prime Video. Hulu champion Looking for Alaska might seem outsized but it is relying on its nimbleness to beat out the competition.
Let the streaming wars begin!
Streaming services have upended the way content is consumed. Traditional media is under attack and struggling to compete with this new form of competition. The strain is most evident in India, a country that is an entertainment powerhouse. Streaming services hoping to capitalize on the massive market size of India have directed a whole host of special measures and creative and custom solutions to tap into the Indian market.
Disney + has created a subsidiary ‘Disney+ Hotstar' to offer a cheaper streaming option than usual global Disney + bundles. Along with that, in cricket- crazy India, the Disney + Hotstar brand has customized its offerings in India to include live broadcasts of cricket matches from the very popular Indian Premier League series. This way it has expanded its offerings beyond mere television entertainment to include sports.
Prime Video, which is a subsidiary of Amazon, has also seen the massive potential of the entertainment sector in India. It has created a huge library of content specifically targeted to India. Mirzapur, a show about family, gang culture and politics and which is laden with colorful expletives has gained a cult following and characters from the show have become household names.
Netflix, the original innovator in the streaming industry, is also not one to be left behind in India. The Netflix show Sacred Games, a grizzly tale of a cop in Mumbai battling a mysterious terrorist threat, has become a brand onto itself. What shows like Mirzapur and Sacred Games offer is a more internationalized but authentically Indian viewing experience. The massive budgets, global production talent and star power that streaming services can muster mean that traditional media services simply cannot compete.
Recently the traditionally robust Hindi cinema industry of India has seen a spate of unexpected failures. The failure of the well-financed remake of the American movie Forrest Gump, Laal Singh Chadha, is a good example of the predicaments traditional cinema faces in India. Many would consider Laal Singh Chadha creatively bankrupt due to how closely it follows the source material. One could be forgiven for thinking that this is the same movie as Forrest Gump with just a change of skins and names. Beyond that, it also faced organized boycotts from right wing organizations that claim the movie disrespects Sikhs and the Indian Army.
A reckoning has arrived for the Indian cinema, and it must act to secure its future. Otherwise, the winds of change that are already blowing strong will carry it away.
