Ashish Johri too agrees that Covid-19 had led people incline towards enjoying content on OTT in the safe confines of their homes. The content and variety on OTT are the factors that are drawing viewers to the medium. The Business and Creative Consultant also feels that the OTT boom has just began, it has a long way to go.
“After COVID, everybody has got the taste of digital content at a very low price. So I think this is going to stay for long and this will change the whole industry. Also, OTT platforms are creating space for talent to thrive. Content on OTT has a realistic approach, where only good and talented artistes are required. It doesn’t matter whether one is a star or no. We need to understand, people watch OTT content on mobiles, tabs, TVs etc but not in cinema. So, they don’t need any larger-than-life content, they want to see real and relatable stories,” he says. There has been much talk around OTT censorship and the mandates set by the government, Johri stresses on self-censorship as well.
Reacting to bold scenes, use of cuss words, bloodshed that some people feel are rampant on OTT and which lead to the entire censorship debate, he adds, “It all depends on how aesthetically you are capturing a scene. For that, you need a good creative team. So if the script demands, we need to do certain things but in a classy way otherwise, it’s a big no. And I feel some sort of censorship might help. There should be age barrier locks on OTT, so that some content isn’t available to young minds.”
Meanwhile, Johri is working on a number of web series in a different genre with A-lister talents. Among those genre , some are , historical biopic ( could be Indian money heist with different treatment) , most famous politician’s biopic , docudrama on 9 high profile murders, paranormal suspense thriller (inspired by the real incident ), series based on the book (inspired by policemen’s lives ), biopic on forgotten spy & biopic on a liasioner. In animation, he is busy with a few web series and films such as Detective Moonchwala and Poonch , Golden Island , Dr Bhoondu, Dardabhdas. He is also in talks for a series on sports. “OTT gives us the liberty to explore a variety of content and work any actor we want to. So, as I have been saying there is a lot of scope for everybody in terms of creating content. Even the audience OTT is catering to are intelligent and open to new things,” he says.
