The great Indian OTT drama
I was reading an article about the Rise of Ambient TV (by Kyle Chayka) and it got me thinking:
Which recent Indian OTT show would I play in the background as I doom scroll or wash dishes?
Spoiler Alert: I could not think of any.
And this write-up is me trying to understand why new-age Indian web content, as it stands today, will not qualify for ambient watching. Or should it even?
Passive watching
Ambient TV as the name might suggest is television (or living room content, basically) that performs perfectly well as background noise. Jeremy Tuntstall came up with the Theories of Audience Engagement where he defines three modes in which audiences consume content/media:
- Primary — the active, attentive consumption. E.g. being super engrossed in a movie
- Secondary — the passive, disengaged consumption. E.g. when we multi-task watching TV with doom scrolling
- Tertiary — the unattentive, almost sub-conscious consumption. E.g. driving past a billboard
In the article I was reading, the writer (Kyle) states that shows like Emily in Paris are suitable for Secondary mode of consumption — watching it passively, almost like background noise, while we are focusing on something else. In other words, a mindless watch (not to be confused with the infamous leave-your-brains-at-home watch)
And my theory: Most Indian web content cannot be watched passively. Or alternatively, we Indians do not watch Indian content passively!
New-Age Indian Content
Indian OTT shows are content-heavy – they have a plot, sometimes too thick, that require rapt attention and time investment. The premise is rarely simple. There are many narratives, characters, their arcs, sub plots to keep up with. Some of the most popular shows in the Indian OTT scene include Delhi Crime, Family Man, Made in Heaven, Sacred Games, Suzhal (The Vortex) — are all… dark (sometimes quite literally that it strains my eyes) and loaded.
While popular shows are dark, heavy, mysteries & thrillers — they are NOT the only kind of shows that we watch so attentively or consume PRIMARY-ly!
The Kalacharam of our content
Kaalam kaalama — even the way we watch shows on our television, including the good old serials and soaps were consumed this way. I can see flashes of my childhood where my family gathers to watch the evening news at 6:30 PM, followed by a slew of back-to-back serials until 10:30 or 11 PM — all with such attention & devotion. It is ironic because the typical mamiyar/marumagal (saas/bahu) shows go on for eons of 1000+ episodes, yet you will find our veetu periyavanga glued to the TV. How many times have you gotten yelled at to not disturb their show that gets telecasted twice a day with little to no development in storyline even in the past 5 episodes — the girl is still falling from the terrace/down the stairs with a two-step progression per episode!!!
This is also true of reality shows like KBC, Kalaka Povathu Yaaru, the numerous dance & music talent shows (can you picture a triggered Simbu na hair-flipping his way out of Jodi No 1 yelling “enaku dance varaadhunga”)!
We watched and still watch these shows with high attention & time investment.
Creation 🤝 Consumption
While cultural factors play into how content is consumed, it also plays into how content is created!
And before I get into that, I do think the most unique aspect of all this is NOT the fact that the avg Indian media-consumer does not watch passively. Or that we don’t do ambient TV here. Of course, we do. Indians predominantly tend to watch passive or ambient content that is 1) Foreign 2) Nostalgic
Foreign TV shows are more passive-consumption-friendly. And they are made that way. More on that in this article.
Nostalgia? Oh boy, I can (and will write an entire thesis on that one) — but this is everything we watch passively for comfort. The number of times I have played a Panchathanthiram or an SMS in the background while doing chores (and mouthing the dialogues lol). Not just movies, movie clips on Youtube or just plain SunTV shows or KTV movies running in the background is how I (or most of us) consume Ambient television.
Sometimes 1&2 overlap, a classic example for most urban younger audiences is Friends or The Office.
Okay, so we know to consume passively! And we enjoy it too.
BUT! It is the intersection of Indians consuming Indian content where things get extremely interesting and passive-watching is bleak.
Home grown content
Maybe we are just a nation of viewers who respect new-age content & producers a lot? Kidding, no, I don’t think that is the reason!
Which brings me back to how content is made.
After speaking to so many of my friends who are in the media business, who work with or create content for major OTT platforms, I gather that there is a culture of ‘high stakes’. It is a no-brainer that the OTT content market is competitive and cut-throat — so the formula for OTT content is to give a hit show that will bring more sign ups when it airs.
Yes, they say content is king but when coupled with Indian consumer traits, there is little to gain by making a slow, simple show that might take time to marinate, attract viewership & build a fan base.
In the west, a Netflix subscription is almost a mandate. But in India, Netflix is struggling to crack the market — with its high prices and low value proposition. Even with other providers like Prime, Hotstar, or Jio – we can be a very cautious-consumer market. We are ready to endure ads in free trials as long as it takes, after which our first choice might be a monthly commitment. I remember some of the smaller platforms even offered weekly plans. So, the natural tendency for content producers is to deliver content that makes a consumer want to spend 199/299 a month — which in theory may not sound like much — but it is a challenge nonetheless, especially when it is sporadic and uncertain. (Ask a SaaS bro!)
Another interesting culture of OTT consumption, is one of watching movies that we did not go to theatres for — a one-liner verdict that has come into being recently, “OTT la paathukalam” — an evolution might we say from the previous “one time paakalam!” Together, they make a sugar-coated amalgamation of, “Why bother to come to the theatres and watch this mediocrity once, just wait for its OTT release!”
Rewinding — Ambient TV, as Kyle puts it, is the content being ‘as ignorable as it is interesting’. I wracked my brain to think of an Indian show or OTT series that could be described that way but if they are interesting, they are not or cannot be ignored… And if they are ignorable, it is because they were never interesting to begin with. The former because I think we have that amount of viewership to spread the word. And the latter because we have low tolerance and so many more options to choose from that bad content will die an instant, penniless death. The Archies had the potential to be ignorable and interesting; but we know which one it turned out to be. But did we, as the audience, shut it down the minute we see it not meeting a certain engagement and have-me-hooked expectation? Orrr… was it just bad?
Producers seem to not want to bankroll anything that they think might not guarantee a punch, which in turn guarantees a set number of subscriptions. And passionate film makers, like one of my dear friends, are compelled to pivot to “racy, high octane storylines, something crazy/whacky with really interesting characters”.
Yes, this has given rise to so much good quality content. (It scares me to think how quickly I binged Season 1 of Sacred Games and Made in Heaven). Intentional or incidental – I am not sure, and might save it to think another day!
But in recent times, all the shows that come out are (for the lack of me being able to think up a better word)… too serious? Is that the only formula to keep us engaged? I would love to see someone try it with something a lot more light and still crack it! Maybe Malayalam OTT? 😉
My karuthu what is I am saying…
Before I conclude, I want to clarify that the characteristics I have observed (being the keyword) in Indian audiences or Indian content might not each be entirely unique to us. But when it comes together, the combination of it all, presents a very interesting phenomenon in Indian OTT creation & consumption.
No wonder the Disneys and Netflixes of the world are struggling to find a footing here. I am curious to watch how this plays out in the coming years — and no, I will not be ambient watching this! 😬
References:
