In a media interaction about censorship, Kamal Haasan once said, “Let’s not blame cinema for everything. I learned cuss words from my father, and not films.” Although the film industry is considered to be the harbinger of negative influences, there’s a new bad boy in town who has now jumped into the fray: OTT platforms.
Streaming giants like Netflix, Amazon Prime, Zee5 and ViU are entering the Tamil market; bringing creative freedom to the table. The nonchalant swearing, unabashed sex scenes, and ‘bold’ themes are few of the underlying similarities with most of the regional content. “The best thing is the absence of external censorship. However, at the end of the day, people are answerable to their own conscience,” says Jaytesh Sridhar, co-creator of the web-series, F*** Buddies. Concurring, Ranga, who helmed the web-series, Auto Shankar, says, “It is important to remember that none of these streaming platforms are here to create porn. As much as it is expected of the makers to respect that freedom, the audience too should respect that platform.”
This school of thought is easier said than practised. One look at the responses to the various Tamil ‘bold’ short films and web-series underlines the fact why some are perceived as ‘attacks on culture’. “India has always been a land where we put liberty and freedom above all. Look at all our ancient scriptures and sculptures. Our culture then was clearly more progressive. This kind of backlash is not just restricted to the Tamil audience. It happens across the country.,” argues Jaytesh.
Similar accusations were levied against director Vignesh Karthick when he released his short film, Yours Shamefully, on YouTube. The thumbnail of the 10-minute video, which has received 8.2 million views so far, showed a woman lying in between two men. “The negative responses started pouring in right from the release of the teaser. I was accused of spoiling the culture.
However, after the release, the video was welcomed by viewers. It had such a positive reach, which even prompted me to come up with a sequel,” says Vignesh, adding that choosing a bold theme is one thing, but having actors act in them is another. If a few actors refrained from being part of Yours Shamefully for that aforementioned thumbnail scene, the sequel faced problems as well because of a stripping scene.
Ultimately it is important for creators to use this freedom responsibly. It is this responsibility that creators like Jaytesh, Ranga, and Vignesh seem to enjoy. All three believe that writing for a web-series gives them an unparalleled high as compared to writing a movie. “While writing a film, it is impossible to write even one sentence without thinking of the censor board. It is disheartening for someone who has invested time and money to see it deleted by the censors,” says Ranga, who has worked in a variety of mediums, including advertisements, TV, feature films, and now, digital.
If the stringent and inconsistent guidelines of the censor board is one of the reasons for the migration to OTT platforms, so is the poor support from theatres and distributors for a non-star vehicle and small films. Movies such as Sigai or Kalavu, which have been lying in the cans for long, have finally been released through these platforms.
Tamil content in the OTT space is set to rise and the disruption is firmly in place. But where do we go from here? Ranga says, “When it comes to digital content, be it risqué or unconventional or avant-garde or revolutionary, the focus is only on the content and how to better it. Unlike in films, which has to factor in a lot of external elements like the censor board, moral policing, and catering to A, B, C centres, the formula in OTT’s is much simpler—Content is God.”