Recently I met some web-weaving filmmakers. By web weavers, I mean those producers who are trying to make a web series, film, or short film to run on the OTT platform. The subject matter of most of these has been made with the thought of pilferage from somewhere or they are engaged in the work of copying the whole. Many of them refrained from telling me that the subject would be out. Someone told me the stolen goods in a big way, claiming them as their own. A web series producer who calls me her friend said- "Sharad, where will you get the new one? How many good writers do we have?" Now let me tell you his name - this is Shagun Rathore! Who talks about raising his banner with the filming of about 50 crime stories? She says- "Some soft, some hot work on OTT." She clarifies further – “Dekh toh rahe ho ho that all stars on OTT have worked on hot stories, even if only a few scenes. Manoj Bajpayee, Nawazuddin Siddiqui…even Bobby Deol and Saif are symbolic. Joining the party." She laughs. I understood his meaning.
Instead of participating in sophistry with all those Bollywood producers who talk about the handicap of content in working on the web word, I would like to ask the readers whether they think our Indian literature is so weak that those stories are not suitable for our audience. So incompetent to entertain? No, the truth is that all our Bollywood producers do not even know about our literature. The irony is that they also have film writers whom themselves do not know how strong is the wealth of our literary, historical, or mythological stories.
Even today we have many works on which long web series can be made, films can be made or series of short films can be made. Serials were made on our own literature 'Tamas', 'Chandrakanta', 'Ramayana', and 'Maha Bharat' which have been successful serials on channels like dry trees like Doordarshan. There are many such works that are still untouched works. Everyone knows 'Prithviraj Raso' and 'Padmavat' on which only incomplete work has been done. 'Autobiography of Van Bhatt', 'Manusmriti', 'Shiva Mahapuran', 'Anandmath', 'Bhartrihari' 'Suhaldev', 'Asura', 'Yashodhara', 'Chandrakanta', 'Kashi', 'Last Mughal', 'Vayan There are a lot of masterpieces like 'Rakshamah'... on which beautiful Indian presentation stories can be presented on OTT platforms. The content heads of major OTT channels like Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Zee 5, and Disney Hot Star may be influenced by foreign literature and may not even be aware of the rich content of Indian literature, but Indian producers who want to join them Doing web planning, they can at least show a mirror to these content managers with settled writers. Just an effort is needed. The day an experiment will be successful, producers like Shagun Rathore of our industry will stop saying that only 'some soft, some hot stories' can run OTT.