Cinema is as much a part of our lives as our morning cup of filter coffee.
With Over The Top (OTT) services growing in popularity and multiplexes cropping up across the city, this love affair is set to boom. Interestingly, four women from some of South India’s biggest film production families are leading the change.
- According to reports from Kotak Institutional Equities, OTT revenue is expected to hit $3.1 billion in India in the next four years, with an expected 500-550 million daily active users spending an average of 100 minutes per day. Currently, this is at 60-70 minutes per day.
Kalanithi Maran’s daughter, Kaviya, who is vice president, Sun TV Network Limited, is behind Sun NXT — the network’s streaming platform launched in June 2017 that offers over 50,000 hours of content.
But true scale is being attempted by the scions of AVM Productions and AGS Cinemas. The ‘AVM twins’, Aruna Guhan and Aparna Guhan Shyam, are piloting the brand into the digital world, while Archana Kalpathi is ensuring that AGS Cinemas’ onground presence is strong. We find out more:
Ready for OTT
Aruna Guhan (L) and Aparna Guhan Shyam
Aruna Guhan (L) and Aparna Guhan Shyam
Aruna Guhan & Aparna Guhan Shyam, Partners, AVM Productions
In a spacious room at AVM’s headquarters in Vadapalani, I find Aruna and Aparna, 30, poring over scripts and watching clips for a new web series. The two have been working here (part-time at first) since college — in an earlier interview with The Hindu , they’d spoken about sitting in “on script discussions” with their grandfather M Saravanan and spending time in every department.
But for the last five years, their eyes have been firmly fixed on streaming media. In 2014, when “not too many people were consuming movies online”, the duo released Idhuvum Kadandhu Pogum (This Too Shall Pass) on YouTube. And though they were “a little ahead of the times”, the 55-minute film starring Sivaji’s grandson Shivaji Dev, did well. Today, they are thrilled about the huge demand for content in the OTT space.
“We are part of the millennial crowd and we understand what youngsters are consuming,” says Aruna, while Aparna, younger by 13 minutes, says access to multilingual content is one of the biggest advantages, as it has increased the market and audience.
- Aruna: It’s the same for both of us — dancing with Kajol during the shooting of Minsara Kanavu
- Currently streaming?
- Aruna: You, Jack Ryan and Money Heist. I’m almost through Tidy Up with Mario Kondo as well.
- Aparna: I’m watching Homecoming, along with The Table and Eat the World with Emeril Lagasse.
“In terms of storytelling, it’s more realistic. Stories are also more viewer-driven,” she says, adding that in an industry plagued by online piracy and falling footfalls in cinema theatres, good content will draw more people who are willing to pay and watch.
All their brainstorming, however, hardly leaves them time for personal digital consumption. “We spend most of our time watching for work or research,” laughs Aruna. When they can, the sisters catch crime shows on Netflix and Amazon Prime. They have also digitised all of AVM’s old films, from MPEG to the MP4 format.
Currently, they are scouting for fresh scripts. “We are not looking at any particular genre. But the story has to be different and match the values that AVM is known for,” says Aparna, even as Aruna states that they “are also talking to multiple OTT platforms simultaneously”. The first of their web series — with “a big director and an established actor” — will go live later this year.
So what does their grandfather think about the project? “When we discussed this idea he immediately felt it would do good,” concludes Aparna, smiling.
For the love of movies
Archana Kalpathi
Archana Kalpathi
Archana Kalpathi, CEO, AGS Cinemas
In stark contrast to Aruna and Aparna, 35-year-old Archana is staying away from OTT platforms for the moment. She has even turned down requests to produce web series because she is focussed on the core business: movie theatres and production.
She has a Masters in Computer Science from the State University of New York at Buffalo and when she joined her father, Kalpathi S Aghoram, in 2006, her first move was to set up a multiplex in Villivakkam. When the Rajnikanth-starrer Kabali (2016) was scheduled for release, she donned the distributor’s hat to add footfalls to her new space. Today, she wears yet another hat, that of creative producer — of Thalapathy 63 , the Atlee-directed under-production sports film starring actor Vijay.
We meet at her corporate office in Mylapore, where a young team is working on creatives. A huge newspaper collage of Vijay reveals she is a big fan too. “My role in Thalapathy 63 is budgeting. It’s a big scale film, involving technicians from all over India and the world,” she says, even as she scrolls through her social media, wishing other film crew success because “as a producer I know how tough it is to bring movies to the screen”.
Archana believes the movie theatre industry is consolidating and growing. “In Tamil Nadu, we consume movies in a different way,” she says.
- Archana: I love Game of Thrones. Every time I watch it, I wish I could’ve produced it. This series is very successful because it has taken production to a different level.
- If you ever make a web series?
- Archana: I’d like to produce something in the history genre. We have powerful women in our epics, like Draupadi (Mahabharata) and Sita (Ramayana).
Says Archana, “Moviegoing is more of a culture for us. And there is room for growth; lots of areas across the state are still underserved,” she says, adding that she is setting up more multiplexes. Projects in Velachery and Chengalpattu will open next year, adding another 15 screens for AGS.
“We need more screens as the demand is still high. Irrespective of online/digital, people still walk in to watch movies. There is a craze for ‘first-day first-show’ even today. We are also looking at tier-2, tier-3 cities and low-cost models.”
With her father and uncles’ guidance, she hopes to take on bigger assignments in exhibition, distribution and production soon. “In the last two years, each of these roles has given me a different perspective of running the movie business,” says Archana, who admits to being very hands-on. She monitors everything through a WhatsApp group which has her entire team on it.
So does she intend to turn director, too? “No. I’m more into numbers and math,” she signs off.
Published - March 02, 2019 06:07 pm IST
