The next decade will belong to Indian stories, according to Sushant Sreeram, country director of Prime Video India.
Sreeram was delivering a keynote at the ongoing FICCI-frames 2023 convention in Mumbai. “The coming decade belongs to Indian stories, with streaming enabling expansion of linguistic palette and content diversity,” Sreeram said.
The executive also highlighted the impact of streaming services on the Indian media and entertainment industry, noting their role in taking Indian stories to a global audience. “By offering convenient and easy access to the finest Indian content, OTT [streaming] players have made Indian entertainment accessible to viewers worldwide,” Sreeram said.
Sreeram also noted that a quarter of the audience for Indian titles on Prime Video comes from outside India. He cited the recently released Amazon original series “Farzi” as an example. The show was released in 37 languages globally and streamed by viewers in 170 countries and territories over the launch weekend, in addition to entering the top 10 trending lists on Prime Video in multiple countries.
“Today, over 60% of the customers on Prime Video stream content in four or more languages while 50% viewership of local language content comes from outside the home states,” Sreeram said, adding that streaming services like Prime Video are expanding the linguistic palette of viewers and making entertainment borderless.
“The entertainment industry in India has become a unifying force, bringing together different regions and cultures through the power of storytelling,” Sreeram said. “It has revolutionized the way content is created, accessed, and consumed, providing viewers with a diverse range of pan-Indian and global content. This democratization of storytelling has been gratifying to both witness and support.”
Sreeram identified three areas that will give further impetus to the growth of the Indian creative economy, with streaming acting as a force for good for India. These include public-private partnerships, alliances and accessibility, and the rise in disruptive collaborations between storytellers across geographies and cultures, citing “Citadel” as an example for the third area.
“The next 10 years will be the decade for Indian stories, Indian storytellers. Borders and languages are no longer a constraint. Great stories will find their moment under the sun,” Sreeram said, urging everyone across the industry to take big bets.
