Global content, local nuances

India is a land of many languages, cultures and ideas rolled into one. How does one strategically devise content suited to the many Indians?

Yes, India is a diverse country with languages and cultures, that however does not mean that content should be rolled into one standard size piece to appeal all of them together. In fact, quite the opposite stands true, while creating content one has to consider the audience … if the audience is regional then it needs to be tailored to the taste of that region to their sensibilities, if it’s national then it has to elicit curiosity from across the country. If the audience is global then the content needs to be ‘glocal’ or globally local – that is a globally relevant story but with local nuances that give a viewer a glimpse into that corner of the world and the people that come from there.

How has the proliferation of OTT platforms changed the game?

With the increasing number of broadcasters, media houses, and independent media getting into the OTT ring, it’s growth in India is going to be unprecedented.

The growing number of OTT platforms has completely changed the content game in the Indian market. With OTT platforms like Netflix, Amazon, Alt Balaji, Hotstar, Voot, Zee5, SonyLIV all vying for differentiated new content this is a high-potential market. This is where the next wave of great content is coming from as OTT platforms allow stories to be told in a format that is flexible and deserving of the script … exploring its nuances and not forcing content to be told in a specific format, like linear television. This has opened the floodgates of high-quality storytelling and abundant content being available for every kind of audience.