From Single Screens to Streaming Screens: OTT Platforms and the Transformation of Kannada Cinema

Abstract

The rise of Over-The-Top (OTT) streaming services has irrevocably altered the industrial, economic, and cultural facets of regional cinemas in India, and continues to do so. This paper attempts to understand the metamorphosing of the Kannada Film Industry (KFI) which had primarily constituted single screen, theatre-oriented ecosystems, to one which is now digitally mediated by OTT platforms. The Kannada film industry has primarily been based in and around localized mass entertaining and star based cantered exhibition networks, and has primarily operated in confined geographical spaces. The mass digitization of networks, cheap mobile data, and the entry of global OTT services like Netflix and Amazon Prime have changed the entire game in terms of the Kannada film industry's distribution, revenue, narrative, and audience engagement strategies.
This study employs a mixed-method approach, utilizing industrial revenue reports, comparative case study analysis, and qualitative narrative analysis to study the OTT industry and its impact on landmark Kannada films like KGF: Chapter 1 and Kantara, as well as on several mid-budget films, to draw its conclusions. The study concludes that streaming services have a dual impact of both of stabilizing the film industry using digital pre-sales and hybrid revenue models, and restructuring the industry using algorithmic visibility and platform dependency. This is all to say that the Kannada film industry now has to produce films that comply with the OTT streaming services to sustain distribution and revenue. What is more, the OTT streaming services have now largely contributed to the mass closure of single screen theatres, and the expanding consolidation of multiplex theatres.
The paper posits that Kannada cinema is not facing decline, but instead, is undergoing some structural reorganization pertaining to platform capitalism. Also, the paper attempts to examine the regional film industry in the context of the media convergence and digital transformation debates to further the regional cinema studies and platform economy in the Global South.