OTTs turn to leading Tamil directors for original content

Hotstar and Netflix will slow down on acquiring movies for premiering and they already have directors like AR Murugadoss, Vetrimaaran, Balaji Sakthivel and Karthik Subbaraj on board.

Leading OTT platforms Netflix, Amazon, Hotstar, and Sony have turned their focus on producing their own content in 2023 rather than acquiring films for premiering for their respective platforms. The digital players have set their eyes on leading Tamil directors and actors to be a part of this major plan. “Amazon Prime Video India is all set to roll out as many as 35-40 originals next year out of which over a dozen of projects will be made in Tamil. An announcement on this will be made in the coming days. Meanwhile, Hotstar and Netflix will slow down on acquiring movies for premiering and they already have directors like AR Murugadoss, Vetrimaaran, Balaji Sakthivel and Karthik Subbaraj on board. So 2023 will be a year to look forward to catching good content on OTT platforms as far as south cinema is concerned,” a source in the know told DT Next.

This means that films will predominantly have theatrical releases. “The OTT players won’t be shelling out huge bucks in buying films of major stars. This means that theatres will start thriving at a rapid pace next year and content with offbeat narratives will be made for OTT. Apart from directors a few major stars in Tamil are also in talks to be a part of this plan,” added the source. Earlier, series like Puttham Pudhu Kaalai, Navarasa, and Paava Kadhaigal were some of the series that involved big names and grabbed eyeballs of the Tamil audience. Director Murugadoss is currently working on an animation project that involves a monkey and will directly premiere on Disney+Hotstar.