Nothing can stop people from going to movie halls: PC Sreeram

There is a debate on the threat posed by OTT platforms to cinema. What do you think of this?
It is more or less similar to what happened with satellite television in the 90s. Many movie halls used to have empty evening and night shows when satellite television became popular. But that didn’t stop people from going to movie halls — that’s the magic of cinema. When I was working on Padman in a remote village in Madhya Pradesh, I came across people who did not have money for their basic needs. But I learnt that two out of the four theatres there had houseful shows. I think OTT content will become monotonous sooner or later. I read somewhere that two such platforms have already withdrawn from India. The problem is, here, when someone comes up with something, 20 other people also jump in and eventually, it loses steam. Also, from what I have seen, I don’t think so many series with grey characters and gory scenes can impress people for a long time. Regional content has got its own strength and the audience will flock to theatres if they are given engaging movies.

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Ajit Mohan to Sanjay Gupta: Facebook, Google hot on Hotstar’s big stars

From Ken.

But why would Google look to Hotstar for a replacement? It’s doing something right. At least in terms of video consumption.

Hotstar’s quick rise to 300 million monthly viewers, since its launch over five years ago, has made it a prime target for poaching by deep-pocketed global tech companies in search of talent. Mohan, for one, is said to be earning around $2 million plus stock options at Facebook, according to a report from The Times of India. That’s “significantly” more than what he previously made, the report claims. It is not clear what Gupta’s salary at Google will be.

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