The power of Indian storytelling

The global market for content created by large platforms has liberated Indian creators

Have Indian stories found their place in the world? Last week two Indian shows and a film were nominated for four International Emmy Awards. (Note, these are different from the Emmy Awards that were wrapped up earlier this week.) Sacred Games season 1 (in the category drama series), Lust Stories (TV movie/mini-series), Radhika Apte (best performance by an actress, Lust Stories) and The Remix-India (non-scripted entertainment) are the nominees from India. The winners will be announced on November 25. 

Are we finally seeing Indian stories told in an Indian context finding a global audience? Has the search for crossover content ended? 

On July 6, 2018, Sacred Games, a Hindi show with a smattering of Marathi and Punjabi began streaming in 190 countries to 125 million subscribers (then). It was reviewed by every major publication in the world from The Guardian to The New York Times. No Indian TV show or film has ever had that kind of global release. This was the first show the $15.8 billion Netflix had commissioned out of India and it pulled out all the stops. Lust Stories didn’t get that much attention but it got the same kind of release on Netflix. 

The Remix, created by Mumbai-based Greymatter Entertainment, is a format show with 10 teams that have a DJ, singer, producer and dancers who face each other off over 10-15 weeks. It has been a huge success in Vietnam, China, Indonesia and more recently South Africa. The Remix-India released on Amazon Prime Video last year in 200 countries. 

These are the kind of releases Indian studios lusted after in the early part of the millennium. But they simply didn’t have the content, and the marketing and distribution muscle to get a release in so many countries at one go. Now it is standard. The Family Man, Amazon Prime Video’s latest Indian original premiered in Los Angeles. For these three shows and for Apte to be nominated, to compete for audiences and awards along with Brazilian or British content is a huge jump of faith and ability for Indian content. 

Satyajit Ray’s Pather Panchali (1955) had a 226-day run at Playhouse on New York’s Fifth Avenue reportedly breaking a 30-year-old record for foreign releases in the US. Later, Raj Kapoor’s films charmed the Russians. In the 90s, Sooraj Barjatya touched a chord with non-resident Indians (or NRIs) in the UK and the US with Hum Aapke Hain Kaun (1994). Aditya Chopra followed with Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge (1995) and Karan Johar with Kuch Kuch Hota Hai (1998) and Kabhie Khushi Kabhie Gham (2001). Soon the ‘overseas’ market became a sales territory. There was a slice of mainstream local audiences in say Germany or Peru which loved Shah Rukh Khan films but largely it was the diaspora market. There really wasn’t any crossing over onto mainstream screens and audiences. 

By 2006-2007 corporatisation changed the Indian film business. The big studios came in and the domestic market grew thanks to more screens and television. The quality of Indian cinema went up and films such as Omkara or Rang De Basanti (both 2006) worked. The nostalgia-craving overseas market was not interested in contemporary Indian films and it slumped. 

Then three films indicated that there was a market for Indian stories. There was Danny Boyle’s Slumdog Millionaire (2008). It is not an Indian production but was indicative. 

Rajkumar Hirani’s 3 Idiots (2009) and Nitesh Tiwari’s Dangal (2016), completely Indian stories, told from an Indian context, made huge amounts of money in China, a market that had never delivered for Indian cinema. Others such as Secret Superstar (2017), Bajrangi Bhaijaan (2015) followed. Hollywood and the studios noticed it. 

By the time the data boom of 2016 came, the Indian creative ecosystem was ready to move to the next level. With 35 OTTs vying for original content, it is party time for Indian content creators. The huge demand for original content means that the vast pool of talent India has, in writers, filmmakers, technicians, is finally coming into play at the creative end while platforms such as Netflix and Amazon take these stories global. 

This ability to connect with your audience anywhere in the world has been the single biggest game-changer and the reason we don’t need a crossover. It creates a global free market for stories and liberates Indian creators to tell the stories they want to. 

Twitter: @vanitakohlik