Odia Web Series Need To Find Their Winning Formula

Bhubaneswar: When it comes to entertainment, Hindi cinema, TV serials and web series may be a choice of the masses but watching something in one’s native language is an incomparable experience. A joke cracked or an emotion expressed in one’s language of birth can never evoke the same reaction if translated into another language. People simply crave to watch something in their own language because they can relate to it so well.

Odia artistes and producers have been trying to fulfil this craving of the native audience, first with cinema and now with series.

“There is a large Odia diaspora in Kolkata, Surat, Bengaluru, Hyderabad and all over the world. They look forward to entertainment on Odia OTT platforms. We wish to reach out to them and satisfy their craving,” says Bibhu Prasad Rath, co-founder and Managing Director of the app, Kanccha Lanka, available on Android, iOS, Web and other internet-enabled platforms.

Since its inception in October, this Odia entertainment app, has had 250,000 downloads all over India, and Rath promises that this is just the beginning. “It’s a phased process. We are looking forward to our international launch very soon.”
About the selection process for featured stories, he is quick to state the need for experimentation of genres and trying to reach different demographics.

“We have seven web series on our app ready to be streamed, with some amazing content. For example, ‘Maa Samaleswari’ belongs to the mythological genre, ‘BreakUP Rules’, ‘PG’ and ‘Practical Life’ are more contemporary shows while ‘Gangs of Puri’, ‘Okha Express’ and ‘Expose’ are issue-based crime thrillers and these will be released in the next three-four months. We are constantly working on presenting a variety of options, and letting the audience decide what they want to watch,” he says.

Odisha has produced both world-class cinema, passable content and dismissable one. Why has it been such a roller coaster ride? Is it too uphill a task when it comes to the creation of good entertainment content in Odisha?

Actor Partha Sarathi Ray certainly thinks so. “Odia movies can be completely senseless, without a proper story, an ounce of characterisation, no sound design. People probably just sit through 80% of it because they have paid for a ticket. Web series don’t have the same affordability, especially in Odisha. We don’t even sit through a sub-par Netflix show these days, without looking for other options,” he says.

After winning the Best Feature Film award in the national category at the Shimla International Film Festival for his movie ‘Daalcheeni,’ Ray has just wrapped up a web series with AAO NXT titled ‘Anthony,’ currently in the post-production stage. A crime thriller, with a hint of the supernatural, it also has the biggest budget for an Odia web series to date, showcasing the fact that he is not completely ready to give up on OTT platforms.

“There needs to be a major reinvention of the working wheel. The concepts and the execution of our projects need to done with the budget in mind, without compromising the audio-visual aspects. We don’t have the money to chase ideas of fake grandeur right now. Our focus should be on strong character-driven stories,” he says, citing the 2018 Odia web series ‘Rabana Podi,’ and the content created by Bengali App ‘Hoichoi’ and Telegu language app ‘AHA’, as prime examples of meaningful art created under similar parameters.

Director couple Sisir Kumar Sahu and Peenakee Singh, echo the sentiments of their lead actor in movies like ‘Charitra’ and ‘Daalcheeni’. “First of all, there is no such thing as regional OTT. The media on these platforms is meant to be consumed by the whole nation, and even international audiences with the use of subtitles. There are a lot of complaints by the creators, that the rest of the nation is not tuned in to Odia media channels, but where is the quality to get them interested?” asks Sisir Kumar.

“It’s the director’s job to build an ambience with the first few frames that will get the audience hooked. There should be certain stylistic choices at display, a focus on a certain genre. The stories being covered should provide an opportunity for Odia actors and actresses to portray different unique characters so that their public image doesn’t get stale. The web series industry is acting like a machine right now, trying out various trends with below-average remuneration,” he says.

Peenakee Singh thinks of the Odia media industry as a family, and believes bright and innovative ideas in the web series department will be profitable for all. “A light boy in Odisha has a salary of Rs.330 per day, while the same job in Assam gets Rs.1500. Can Rs 330 be considered a comfortable living wage? We can make 5-10 movies per year and countless web series in Odisha, at these current production prices, but that’s not a sustainable option. We have to redefine film-making as an art form, instead of a business transaction, before it’s too late,” she concludes.