Disney+ Hotstar on Tuesday announced its new line-up of high-quality local original content – shows and movies with the promise of Har Watch, Top Notch. The platform is roping in talent powerhouses including Ajay Devgn, Sushmita Sen, Saif Ali Khan, Kunal Kapoor, Pratik Gandhi, Kirti Kulhari, Shabana Azmi, Shefali Shah, Richa Chadha; superstars from the south Sathyaraj, Sarath Kumar, Siddharth; award-winning directors and showrunners including Nikkhil Advani, Neeraj Pandey, Ram Madhvani, Vipul Shah, Tigmanshu Dhulia, Habib Faisal, Nagesh Nagesh Kukunoor, Rajesh Mapuskar, Siddharth Kumar Tewary, Mitakshara Kumar, Vikrant Pawar; along with captivating stories across genres that strike a chord across all emotions, making it a must-watch for viewers across India.
While speaking at the launch event, Gaurav Banerjee – President & Head (Hindi and English Entertainment) Star India said they want to be the OTT streaming platform aiming at India’s heart.
Speaking about the content slate, Banerjee said, “It is often believed that some of the films and shows on Disney+ Hotstar haven’t done as well as they could have. We want to make the big transition there, and that journey is underway with these scripts and amazing novels, which we strongly believe will become great shows. We were very keen to make adaptation work, and we took a small Dutch crime-drama named Penoza, which was made ten years ago, the characterization and writing were outstanding, and in the hands of Ram Madhvani, it became Aarya. We did the same with criminal justice, a show that is first done in the UK. The Indian adaptation did an outstanding job in the second season.”
“We are planning to make novels into great shows and getting adaptations right. Therefore, the big thing awaiting the viewers is good and high-quality content made on an unprecedented scale. We want to be the streamer that aims at India’s heart. We are not happy with only having conversations that start in Bandra and Juhu and remain there,” he added.
Speaking about the factors that differentiate Disney+Hotstar from other platforms, Banerjee said, “We want to be the OTT streamer that appeals to the middle of India in a very big way, which means the content choice we will make will be substantially different. The shows’ themes will have to make sense for a large part of our country, and our choices are firstly mainstream. We hope to create a platform for storytellers to draw interesting tales of massive ambitions and great creativity. The other thing which is really important to us is our multi-lingual content approach.”
Disney+Hotstar is creating and crafting stories not just in Hindi, equally in Tamil and Telugu as well.
“Our belief and early learning are that if the story is good, dubbed versions of the same story will work across the country. It is a platform that is getting created not just for the writers and creative people in Hindi but also for every primary Indian language where entertainment is created. The significant investments behind excellent writing, aiming for the heart of India, substantially differentiate us from other streaming platforms,” added Banerjee.
