The Indian Film Industry: Revamped
The Indian film industry, which originated in 1913 with the release of Dadasaheb Phalke’s Raja Harishchandra stands with its wings spread out as the largest film industry in the world, producing almost 1,600 movies every year on an average. However, a new form of content seems to be taking the country by storm, the advent of web-series.
With the introduction of international streaming services like Netflix and Amazon Prime Video in India, directors and scriptwriters have a new outlet to let their creative juices flow, but on a much grander scale. India’s web-series mania began in 2014 with the premiere of ‘Permanent Roommates’ by The Viral Fever(TVF), a pioneer in the field of Indian web-content. It went on to be highly successful, paving the way for more such creators to put forward similar content. It coincided with the rise of various Indian Youtubers, such as BB Ki Vines and MostlySane, which indicated that the Indian audience viewed digital platform content as a complementary alternative to mainstream cinema.
The rise of original content on the Internet encouraged the reach of talent without any barriers of nepotism, a widespread phenomenon in the Indian industry. Following the highly successful venture of TVF and its sister channels, other major media companies were established which aimed at creating such online based content such as Pocket Aces and the internationally prevalent BuzzFeed India.
The expansion of web-series soon trickled into streaming services, with original Indian content making their way into a global scale venture. The success of ‘Sacred Games,’ an Indian Netflix original and ‘Breathe,’ an Amazon venture into Indian lands, encouraged streaming companies to market to the Indian audience. Aiding the spread is the fact that bonafide Indian film fraternity actors are at the helm of these web series. From Saif Ali Khan and Nawazuddin Siddiqui in Sacred Games, R Madhavan in Breathe to Radhika Apte becoming the poster child for Netflix India, it shows that the Indian audience has expanded their minds into accepting more than just mainstream cinema.
Anyone who has seen TV advertisements in the last few months or even opened Amazon accidentally would’ve come across the web-series ‘Made In Heaven’. The story revolves around two wedding planners and all the shenanigans that go into “crazy rich people getting married.” It depicts women headlining companies by going through their fair share of struggles as to what it is to live in a patriarchal society. They also casually drop in a gay protagonist, whose sexuality does not drastically change the course of events. Presenting an atmosphere where people who express love differently live among us is an example of what people would want to see. It offers a glimpse into the lives of a variety of characters that society has to offer.
Instead of trying to fit anyone and everyone into boxes that are approved by society, these are people we know, the people we see, the people we are — in all their glory and all their flaws. The very fact that web series marketing has seeped its way into Indian television shows the extent of reach that digital content has created in the present day.
Indian television is a whole other ball game. It’s a magical world, where people don’t age at all, which in itself is a victory to the anti-ageing creams in the market. They dress up in so much jewellery to walk into their kitchen; they could be confused for a mannequin in a jewellery store. As usual, the audience is always left wondering, whose third wife murdered the ex-husband of his mother-in law’s brother as he tried to poison his wife’s grandfather.
The introduction and spread of digital media content have widened horizons in terms of content, both for filmmakers and for the general audience. The aforementioned series, ‘Made In Heaven’ was directed by a leading Bollywood director, Zoya Akhtar, which shows that even the film industry has started considering digital platforms as an extension of itself. Without the looming threat of censorship, an eternal struggle in the mainstream, creativity and originality have an opportunity to express themselves through digital platforms. The integration of the digital media content industry with the film industry will not only play a pivotal role in the expansion and growth of web series but also play a part in developing better content in modern age cinema.
It is incredibly crucial that the wall between digital and mainstream media dissolves, a process that has already started with the film fraternity acting as a catalyst. It’s high time for our films to be more inclusive and give an accurate representation of characters rather than falling into “formulae” that work or just making ethnic changes to character profiles. As once said, cinema isn’t only a movie: like life, it’s a process of becoming. And before we even realise, the metamorphosed Indian Cinema will definitely mark us as a global phenomenon.
This article was written in collaboration with Monisha R, Murali Krishna, Srinivas Rajagopalan, Abhishek Ramachandran and Antony Terence.
