Chiranjeevi, Prabhas, Allu Arjun, Jr NTR, Mahesh Babu, Ram Charan, Vaishnav Tej, Sai Dharam Tej, Panja Vaishnav Tej, Naga Chaitanya, Dulquer Salmaan, and Venkatesh. These are the actors with whom Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos interacted in the past five days during his Hyderabad sojourn. He also got to meet with four of the biggest Telugu filmmakers: SS Rajamouli, Trivikram Srinivas, Nag Ashwin, and Koratala Siva.
The series of meetings happened at a time when Netflix India is reportedly looking to produce one or two Telugu Original(s) in the short to medium term. (No, 'Rana Naidu' was made in Hindi although it featured Telugu stars - Venkatesh and Rana).
Will the engagement by the Netflix team with Tollywood talents yield the desired outcome? To be frank, Telugu filmmakers and writers have failed to come up with a variety of content suitable for OTT. Making shows for Aha Video and Zee5 doesn't count. You have to produce A-list content for Netflix and Amazon Prime Video. Bollywood talents have been very good at this. They have proved their ability to satisfy the creative demands of the two global streaming giants. On the other hand, the themes brought out by Tollywood talents haven't found takers. That's why most of their content has failed to make it to the production stage.
The recent 'Kumari Srimathi' by Prime Video drew positive reviews from the traditional media. However, content-wise, it didn't push the envelope. It was a safe subject with unambitious, feel-good plot turns. It was far from novel.
Banners like Vyjayanthi Movies and Dil Raju Productions are interested in OTT. Of late, People Media Factory, too, has joined the list. Yet, we have failed to come up with content other film industries (especially Hindi and Tamil) can be envious about.
