South's OTT boom rides on platforms exploring new content options

Much like the television boom in the south a couple of decades ago, OTT players streaming content in the southern languages are spoiling viewers for choice. They are dishing up a buffet of content, from music reality shows to cookoffs, even as the rest of the world gets to watch South Indian movies in the comfort of their homes.

OTT platforms, both local and the international behemoths, are vying aggressively for audience eyeballs in the four southern states and each one of them has a dozen-odd players catering to an audience that seems to just love the abundant diversity.

For filmmakers and writers, both established and newbies, as the makers of 'Minnal Murali' (Malayalam) and 'Jai Bhim' (Tamil) realised only recently, this is an opportunity like never before to be seen and heard around the world. S.S. Rajamouli's 'RRR', for instance, will be dubbed in Spanish, Portuguese and Korean for Netflix.

Interestingly, Netflix has also seen its Tamil anthology 'Navarasa' feature in the Top 10 in 10 countries, including India, Malaysia and Sri Lanka. In its first week on Netflix, the series created by Mani Ratnam, the Tamil auteur, more than 40 per cent of the viewers were from outside India.