Nilanjana Purkayasstha: India has too diverse population for OTT to eat into TV

Ahead of World Television Day, which is observed on November 21, Chikoo Ki Mummy Durr Kei producer Nilanjana Purkayasstha said that India has too diverse population, so OTT won’t be able to eat into TV.

“India has too huge a population for OTT to eat into TV. Sure, a lot of TV shows fare well on their sister OTT platforms, but the audience for cable TV is too big for OTT to make a sizable impact,” she said.

According to her, women are the primary consumers of GEC on TV. “One must understand that a vast majority of women in our country don’t have access to mobile phones, let alone OTT content. Our country is still too patriarchal to allow women the privilege of a personal screen. In a country that has mostly single-TV homes, family viewing is the norm. Women, being the primary consumer of GEC, have only the TV set in their drawing rooms which is a shared space, as their only source of entertainment. This is not likely to change in the near future,” she said.

“If anything is eating into GEC, it is other genres on TV, not OTT,” she added. Recalling the first time a television set came to her house was just before the 1982 Asian Games. “I think this was true for a lot of middle-class families at that time,” she shared.

As a child, she used to watch Indradhanush – an Indian science fiction show. “My love for science fiction started with Indradhanush. Did you know Karan Johar acted in it? I, of course, had no idea who he was then! Vishal Singh acted in it and was my favourite. Apart from this, I loved Byomkesh Bakshi, Karamchand and Bharat Ek Khoj. I looked forward to Chitrahaar every weekend,” she said.

She spends 2 to 3 hours every night on streaming platforms. “They are usually reruns of my favourite comedy shows,” she said.  She watches only English OTT content. Her favourite genres are science fiction, fantasy and comedy.