A discussion of the trends that best encapsulate the kind of Indian content that was lapped up by a rapidly growing audience

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CE Year In Review: India's OTT revolution - The rise of our homemade content

A discussion of the trends that best encapsulate the kind of Indian content that was lapped up by a rapidly growing audience

Team CE

Updated:2nd Jan, 2021 at 12:37 PM

SEQUELS... what happened after the 'to be continued...'

SEQUELS... what happened after the 'to be continued...'

Two years after Madhavan starred in Amazon Prime Video's breakthrough original, Abhishek Bachchan became the new face of the sequel of BREATHE. Amit Sadh reprised his role of Kabir.

Madhav Mishra and Nikhat Hussain returned to help a new hapless client find justice in Criminal Justice: Behind Closed Doors (Disney+ Hotstar)

Is it India's answer to Sex and the city? Not sure, but the awesome foursome of Amazon Prime Video returned with the sequel, Four More Shots Please

The dons were back as the much-awaited Mirzapur 2 (Amazon Prime Video) returned this year as new additions were brought to the warring factions.

Lockdown stories and anthologies - A match made in confinement

An interesting anthology shot during the lockdown, but not based on it, was Aha’s Addham

Netflix made its foray in Tamil with Paava Kadhaigal, a four-part anthology directed by Vetri Maaran, Gautham Menon, Sudha Kongara and Vignesh Shivan

Amazon Prime Video's Putham Pudhu KAalai was shot and released during the lockdown. It was directed by Sudha Kongara, Gautham Menon, Rajiv Menon, Karthik Subbaraj and Suhasini Mani Ratnam

Survival Stories, a Malayalam anthology that released in YouTube, dealt with the pervading sense of being trapped

Another Amazon Prime video anthology, Unpaused (Hindi), aimed to tell stories of hope during the bleak times

The Malayalam experimental film, CU Soon (Amazon Prime) was one of the first films to be headlined by a superstar - Fahadh Faasil

Voot Select’s The Gone Game, a tight four-episode series that ended with the promise of a sequel, was another stellar lockdown story.

Saving India… one series at a time

We've seen Uri...and now, we see Avrodh, on Sony LIV.

Crackdown, fronted by Saqeeb Salim, is a campy espionage thriller that is streaming on Voot Select

Special OPS is Hotstar's answer to AMazon Prime Video's The Family Man. IT had Kay Kay Menon heading quite a talented ensemble cast

Comedy is a serious business

Netflix's Hasmukh was a story on what if a stand-up comedian is forced to become a serial killer... for.. laughs

Honeymoon (Aha) is a fun take on a young couple (Arranged marriage) trying to consummate their marriage and understand each other better

Sandwiched Forever (Sony LIV) is a neat show that's reminiscent of the Dekh Bhai Dekh era with laughter tracks and family-friendly humour.

Once streamers decided to concentrate on regional fare, comedy was explored more and we got content like Triples (Disney + Hotstar) and Time Enna Boss (Amazon PRime Video)

Small towns, big stories

The soundtrack of Bandish Bandits (Amazon PRime Video) by Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy became chartbusters and opened up a new avenue for Indian content - the musicals

Netflix's Chaman Bahaar is what I'd like to call a socio-political-romcom.

The year kickstarted with Jamtara, a gritty series on the phishing mafia, and a bunch of newcomers took OTT by storm

Panchayat (Amazon) is a nice, harmless fun story set in a small town where the characters are much more livelier than the happenings, and that is exactly the USP of such a show.

So was Rasbhari, a small town story that had layers of magical realism... or did it???

Crime pays… and how!

A Simple Murder was a worthy addition to the interesting shows that came out of the Sony LIV stables.

Voot Select's Asur too, which was a solid serial killer mystery fronted by Arshad Warsi and Barun Sobti

Amazon's Paatal Lok shook up the audience like very few series before it managed to do

The underrated Netflix series, She, gave us the powerhouse talent i.e. Aaditi Pohankar, who also made an impressive turn in Aashram

A no-nonsense wife turning into a life of crime due to circumstances... Hmmm, Sushmita Sen aced the titular role in Disney+Hotstar's Aarya, a crime thriller

Another hit from Sony LIV that saw a quaint little town and a powerful family implode from inside when a freak murder happens

Stories of people we thought we knew

We had Netflix's Masaba Masaba, a semi-fictional series starring real-life mother-daughter duo Neena Gupta and Masaba Gupta

The glam-sham of Bollywood was consumed in absolute merriment through Netflix's 'orchestrated reality' show Fabulous Lives of Bollywood Wives.

A cultural upheaval of sorts happened with Netflix's Indian MAtchmaking that got Indians from all over find their humour through meme-ing the Netflix show. It also lead to some important discussions

Stars can be created on OTT while telling real-life stories, and one such star was Pratik Gandhi in Sony LIV's The Scam 1992.

'Settling' for OTT - Here are some movies that made it into our homes due to the shutting down of theatres because of a certain you-know-what

Sufiyum Sujatayum - Malayalam - Amazon Prime

Laxmii - Hindi - Disney+ Hotstar

Dil Bechara - Hindi - Disney+ Hotstar

French Biriyani - Kannada - Amazon Prime

Gulabo Sitabo - Hindi - Amazon Prime

Middle Class Melodies - Telugu - Amazon Prime

Mookuthi Amman - Tamil - Disney+ Hotstar

Soorarai Pottru - Tamil - Amazon Prime

V - Telugu - Amazon Prime Video

Ka Pae Ranasingam - Tamil - Zee5

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