OTT as New Platform of Cinema Exhibition: Opportunities and Challenges for Kannada Films

Abstract

COVID-19 pandemic has affected many areas including cinema exhibitions. Due to non-opening of cinema theatres film makers found the platform that is over-the-top (OTT). Before COVID-19 OTT was not able to compete with theatrical release. However, the pandemic situations changed the way of movie release through OTT platforms such as Netflix, Amazon Prime, Hot-star and others. The usage of OTT increased during the period of lockdown. According to Boston Consulting Group, subscriptions increased 60% and average watching hours increased to 14.5%. In the Kannada film industry, the well-known actor and producer Punith Rajkumar’s two films titled Law and French Biriyani were released on India's second largest OTT platform Amazon Prime during the lockdown period.  In this context, this research tried to find prospects of Kannada film exhibition through OTT platform. The specific objectives are to explore the opportunities for releasing Kannada films through OTT, to study the challenges ahead in this way. The study used both quantitative and qualitative research methods. Online surveys conducted with structured questionnaires among 100 OTT users and in-depth interviews conducted among the people who are involved in film making from Kannada film industry to answer the research questions. This study would help filmmakers who are intended to release their film through OOT in future.