In Andhra Pradesh a recently introduced digital outlet named Aha is creating its own space among Telugu moviegoers by bringing the latest Telugu blockbusters for home-viewing. The growth of Aha has been rapid. Within no time they are ready to acquire big-budgeted Telugu movies for direct-to-digital streaming.
One of these is the top-selling actress Anusuya Bhardwaj’s latest release Thank You Brother which will stream on Aha this month. This big-screen family drama was to be released in movie theatres by Aha who planned to enter the film distribution business with this potential blockbuster. But seeing the way the Covid situation is, Aha is now going directly on OTT with Thank You Brother.
In Kerala another OTT outlet NeeStream made waves with Jeo Baby’s The Great Indian Kitchen which not only scored big in Kerala but also captured the imagination of non-Malayalam audiences. The film was rejected by Amazon and had to be released on the much smaller regional platform. But now seeing its popularity Amazon has acquired it for global streaming.
The regional streaming platforms are getting a huge support in their home states from producers and powerful actors who would rather support their home-grown digital platform even if it means getting a smaller price films as compared with the big national-global OTT players.
Gujarati actor Pratik Gandhi’s next web series Vitthal Teedi is for the Gujarati OTT platform OHO. The Scam star apparently preferred to go Gujarati in place of other lucrative offers from pan-India OTT platforms.
