50% of Prime Video's local language content viewership comes from non-home states: Sushant Sreeram

Prime Video participated in an OTT roundtable session on ‘What's the secret ingredient that gives Indian content its global appeal?’ at Film Bazaar at the ongoing 54th International Film Festival of India (IFFI), Goa.

Sushant Sreeram, country director, Prime Video, India joined the conversation that was moderated by Rajeev Masand, COO at Dharma Cornerstone (DCA).

The panel also featured Prithul Kumar, Joint Secretary (Films), Ministry of Information & Broadcasting and Managing Director, NFDC, as one of the co-panelists, along with other eminent leaders from the industry.

“I believe we are very close to having that definitive breakout hit internationally because the signs are all there when you see your stories travel so brilliantly,” shared Sushant Sreeram, country director, Prime Video, India, talking about when India will have its own breakout moment on the international stage.

He underscored that 50% viewership of Prime Video’s local language content comes from outside the home states, while 25% audience of Indian titles comes from outside India. Continuing in the vein he said, “I think our storytelling has gotten incredibly rich. We have creators, studios and talent imagining a world of great storytelling, and with streaming providing the reach for every story to find its own audience, we are already breaking out internationally.”

Prithul Kumar, Joint Secretary (Films), Ministry of Information and Broadcasting and Managing Director, NFDC, elaborated that just a few years ago, when streaming services did not exist, an independent filmmaker would have found it tough to go to an exhibitor and even conceptualise distributing their films. However, he added, streaming services have enabled such films and filmmakers finding a home for their films on OTT.

Elucidating further on this point, he added that streaming services have helped content producers dream big, even if they have smaller budgets, something that they were unable to do in the pre-streaming era. He highlighted that from the government’s perspective the sector is doing fairly well and getting investments into India.

While discussing the impact of Direct-to-Streaming (DTS) model on the overall creative ecosystem, as well as on the customers Sreeram said, “Our approach has been pretty straightforward, if it is a good story that we think we ought to bring to customers, in 240+ countries and territories, we find a way to make it work. DTS is a part of our repertoire of being able to bring stories to customers”.

Making a point on the longevity of streaming content, Sreeram said, “It's an incredibly diverse landscape of entertainment. There is no one language, genre, or one type of customer. We had that epic realisation very early on. Our programming across 10 languages, across a very diverse state of genres, for very different customer types, keeps us rooted in the reality.”

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