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Just finished watching #madeinheaven – the web series on Amazon Prime Video. A few things I found particularly interesting. Here goes /1
It is all in English. At least 90% of the content is. Reflects largely how India1 Alpha, my moniker for India’s top 10m, largely Indo-Anglian households, talk. It is also a reflection of the English video market opportunity in India now. /2
I checked with @pedestrianpoet who said there hasn’t been anything as English-centric as this. Per her “TVF’s Tripling is 60%, Permanent Roomates is 70-80%, Romil & Jugal is a good 70%. MiH is the first time I’ve seen Indian characters who are PLUs talk like, you know, us.” /3
Historically, we had English newspapers garner a large share of ad market in Print but Hindi / Regional content dominating on TV. There was no real market for English TV content. Star One (Koffee w Karan) and a few attempts were made.... /4
....but given India is largely single TV households, the lowest common denominator effect manifested itself and hence Hindi / Regional content dominated. English TV content struggled to find a place or even a market. /5
Now with OTT, and each mobile becoming a TV screen, there is suddenly an opportunity to reach the largely English-speaking Indian with content relevant to her milieu. Thanks to subs revenue emerging, you can now create and monetize niche content! /6
Just as multiplexes with smaller seats led to emergence of content for People Like Us e.g., Khosla ka Ghosla, Dil Chahta Hai (Excel Entertainment again who did #madeinheaven ) in the aughts and past decade, OTT + mobile as screens is doing this with English content for PLUs. /7
I see a trend towards more & more English-centric Indian originals, catering to the ~30m large English fluents & the broader ~100m large India1. This 30m english-fluents are an affluent market, in fact the 3rd largest English 'country' after USA, England. /8
To summarize (1) OTT thus is to Broadcast TV, as English newspapers are to Hindi / Regional newspapers. (2) There is a 30-40m English native market in India bigger than Canada, NZ, Australia (clearly less affluent though) for whom it makes sense to focus and create content for /9
On other topics! LGBT: #MadeinHeaven breaks new ground for an Indian series, portraying gay characters as perfectly normal people, which of course they are. No clichéd portrayal of gay men as effeminate e.g.,. Men kissing, making love all new territory for Indian video. /10
Mental Health: This is best expressed by this tweet below /11
Showing therapy as something 'normal'; no portrayal of the character seeking therapy as a loonie or slightly off centre character as is often done. /12
Delhi – now this is my only quibble with the series. Over the Top (OTT!) clichéd portrayal of Delhi. Come on guys, this is a city of 20m people. There is every type of person here, and not all Delhi-ites are loud, spendthrift Punjabis. /13
But given that clients are self-selecting for a wedding planning agency, understandable to some extent. And the show did have as the 3rd episode, people whose design philosophy (elegance, understatment) resonates with us. But not enough to have 1 out of 9 episodes cue this! /14
That said, hope there are more stories being created, set in Delhi/NCR. This is India’s most interesting city today. Lots of stories waiting to be told from Delhi, more storytellers waiting to emerge from here! Hoping for more nuanced portrayals of the changing Delhi! 15/15
