In cinema, sensibilities govern the world. Whether we are the filmmaker, the audience, or even the distributor, we are guided by our particular likes and dislikes.
Traditionally, this has led to mainstream domestic cinema and TV being created for home-grown audiences in mind.
Filmmakers and distributors made content with an understating of what their domestic audience wanted and had direct access to them through cinema and traditional television.
However, now with the emergence of online platforms such as Netflix, Amazon Prime and the Disney-owned Hotstar, new avenues are arising for viewers who enjoy a dynamic set of awareness.
Beforehand, it was mostly the cinephiles who had an understanding of the international cinematic scene but now things have evolved to a state where the South Korean film Parasite won Best Picture at the 92nd annual Academy Awards (2020). We have to ask ourselves, would a Korean language film ever have a chance of winning in a category traditionally reserved for English language movies if it wasn’t for the rise of online streaming services? South Korean cinema has been enjoying a steady rise in international popularity since the late 1990s but this was mostly for cinema lovers. The mainstream audience simply did not have access unless they went looking.
For me, Korean cinema has the perfect blend of sensibilities and in many ways it does Hollywood better than Hollywood itself. Their filmmakers have a fantastic sense of audience control and genre but what makes it so wonderful is how they mix this understanding with their own ideas of melodrama, humour and history. This wonderful hybrid creates cinema and TV that can be enjoyed all around the world regardless of language. Streaming giants such as Netflix have understood this and have promoted their Korean TV shows to an international as well as domestic audience. A great example of this is the zombie-thriller-meets-Korean-period drama TV show Kingdom, which at times feels like Kurosawa has directed a Game of Thrones episode.
The days where Hollywood could get away with telling a non-English language story in English are well and truly behind us. We are beginning to see this also have an effect at home here in India. Indian indie cinema has fused the world emotional aesthetic with theirs for many years now. However, they traditionally never had the platforms to promote themselves. Now with the birth of online streaming services things are starting to change.
Independent filmmakers have the opportunity to express their sensibilities to a wider-reaching audience through the likes of Netflix. Series such as Sacred Games or Delhi Crime have been massive hits domestically and gained some traction with mainstream international audiences. These shows have thrown a light on stories that would not normally have been seen outside of India unless they had gone through the festival circuit.
Even international productions are looking to heavily invest in our domestic stories such as the soon-to-be-released BBC miniseries A Suitable Boy directed by Mira Nair. The world has shrunk as Indians watch series and films in Turkish, French, German, Polish, Russian, Thai and Spanish on digital streaming platforms. Streaming giants have globalised entertainment, and in the process shown that though the symbolism is specific to the country, the themes of romance, action, revenge and suspense are the same. Mainstream audiences can discover stories that exist outside of their culture that cater to individual set of likes and dislikes which at the end of the day is a good thing.
(Richard Wyndham is a filmmaker and writer based in London and Mumbai)