The whole world is tuning into Netflix and Prime. The pandemic has turned them into virtual goldmines. It helps that there is no censuring on OTT Platforms and hence you are virtually given a free reign to truly be creative. It is convenient, it offers a wide variety in a number of languages and most important, it is so damn cheap. With internet reaching all parts of India, it is only a matter of time, that even the remotest villages discover the magic of OTT Platforms. If you think its impossible, just remember people said the same about Smartphones a few years back. Now there are villages which have no running water and regular electricity, but villagers who have Smartphones.
India is a young country and its the youth which makes up for the chunk of viewership. With loss of income and jobs, watching a movie in a theatre will become even more avoidable than ever. Not to mention, people are so terrified of the CoVid thing, that no sensible person will venture near a theatre till it is all cleared up. I have lived through the SARS crisis in South-east Asia and I can tell you that fear of the unknown is a very potent thing.
If the Bollywood gang thinks that once CoVid clears up, all will be hunky dory, they cannot be more wrong. No one is going to watch a movie in a theatre for a long, long time. That will literally be the last priority. If they need to feel good, they will shop online or go and eat at their favorite restaurant, but not venture inside a theatre.
This year is the start of the end of Bollywood as we know it.
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