OTT Platforms Are Bringing Well Deserving Books To Small Screen

The development of OTT has disrupted the entertainment industry. During the coronavirus pandemic, the OTT platforms were hailed as the saviours of entertainment and bringing well deserving books to small screen. In fact, they are the next golden age of films and TV. The platform has made film watching convenient, accessible and affordable across a wide range of users around the world. Anyone with a mobile and internet connection can catch-up with a film or web-series sitting anywhere in the world. Avid film enthusiasts do not have to wait till Friday anymore to watch a film, as is the tradition of releasing the film. They can watch films at home as production houses are able to release new content almost everyday on one or more OTT platforms.

OTT or over-the-top platforms are audio and video hosting and streaming services. OTT platforms began as content hosting platforms. Soon they branched out into production houses and started releasing short films, feature films, documentaries and web-series by themselves. These OTT platforms offer a range of content. It uses AI (artificial intelligence) to suggest users the content they are likely to watch. These suggestions are based on the user’s past viewership on the platform. Most OTT platforms charge a monthly subscription fee and some offer free content but charge subscription fee for premium content. The premium content is a film or web-series that is produced and marketed by the OTT platforms themselves, sometimes in association with another established production houses. Over the past few years OTT platforms are bringing well deserving books to small screen.

Movie adaptation of books in the Past

Over the years, Hollywood has had a long list of adapted books for the big screen. From classics like To Kill A Mockingbird to the popular children’s book Harry Potter, Hollywood has turned favourite books into entertaining films. There have also been television adaptations of mass market publications. Novels such as The Handmaid’s Tale, Big Little Lies, Little Fires Everywhere etc, have been adapted for the small screen.

Bollywood adaptation of books in the Past

However, when it comes to Bollywood there has been a lack of book to screen adaptations. There are few occasional beautiful adaptations, such as Satyajit Ray’s ‘Pather Panchali’ (1995) which was based on the novel by Bibhutibushan Bandyopadhyay’s of the same name or Mira Nair’s ‘The Namesake’ (2006) based on Jhumpa Lahiri’s novel of the same name. Indian audience mostly get to watch adaptations of Chetan Bhagat’s superficial novels. However, in recent years book adaptations have improved in quality and quantity.

OTT Platforms Are Bringing Well Deserving Books To Small Screen – Over The Past Few Years

There is an increase in book adaptations. OTT platforms have given the rise to creating rich and intriguing content that appeals to the audience. In India, the book adaptation of Vikram Chandra’s book ‘Sacred Games’ by Vikramaditya Motwane and Anurag Kashyap proved to be a game changer. Other production houses took cue from the success of ‘Sacred Games’ and from the West. Soon OTT platforms realized that books are a rich source of material to create compelling and diverse stories. Since then there have been many book adaptations.

A dystopian series ‘Leila’ based on the book by Prayaag Akbar, cricket drama ‘Selection Day’ based on novel by Aravind Adiga, ‘Bard Of Blood’ based on the book by Bilal Siddiqui, a dark comedy series based on a Bengali book by Kalponik Bandopadhyay and there are many more. From Hollywood there is ‘Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan’, ‘The Witcher’ based on book series by Andrzej Sapkowski, ‘You’ based on book by Caroline Kepnes, ‘Good Omens’ based on novel by Neil Geiman and many others. ‘Unorthodox’ which is Netflix’s first Yiddish series is loosely based on Deborah Feldman’s autobiography, ‘Unorthodox: The Scandalous Rejection of My Hasidic Roots’.

Upcoming adaptation of books by OTT platforms

OTT Platforms are bringing well deserving books to small screen. As there are new book adaptations hitting the OTT platforms soon. To name a few, there is ‘Cherry’ based on book by Nico Walker, ‘Shadow and Bone’ based on books by Leigh Bardugo, and ‘The Last Letter From Your Lover’ based on the book by Jojo Moyes. Nowadays, creative writing as a whole is moving towards the screen, be it film, television or OTT platform. OTT platforms have turned books into a commercial power.

More and more writers are now thinking of making their books accessible to the audience through OTT platforms. However, authors write stories that inspire them, and OTT platforms seldom, if ever, have any influence on how or what the authors write. Book adaptations do not generally depend on the commercial success of books. If the story is compelling it does not really matter how many copies the book has sold. A good and enthralling story can work in any medium.

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