India makes more films and sells more cinema tickets than any worldwide, making it one of the biggest potential prizes for streaming platforms owned by Netflix, Disney, and Amazon. Bollywood — as India’s mainstream film industry is called — has long been resistant to shifting online, and the changes of the coronavirus era are offering digital operators an unprecedented chance to lure new subscribers. Netflix said last week it added more than 10 million subscribers worldwide in the second quarter amid the pandemic, topping Wall Street’s estimates of about 8.3 million. India’s lockdown and stay-at-home restrictions have been one of the world’s most severe, halting visits to restaurants and shopping malls and forcing citizens to turn to online entertainment. The international firms don’t offer much detail on the growth of subscriptions in India, but their challenge will be to hold onto new users once big cinema halls reopen. Bollywood films, which often include flashy song-and-dance numbers — tend be produced for the big screen.
So far, global platforms have committed to investing billions into building local content, while keeping India prices low to amass viewers. Netflix’s Chief Executive Officer Reed Hastings said during a visit to the country in December that Netflix intends to spend 30 billion rupees ($400 million) over 2019 and 2020 to produce more local content. Disney is adding blockbusters to a platform that had in the past relied on cricket as its biggest draw, a booming sport that’s postponed games because of the coronavirus. Amazon now offers a library of hit Bollywood films. While the online onslaught has widened, India’s cinema industry isn’t planning to start lowering its curtains for good. A survey by researcher Ormax Media showed 82% missed going to theatres a lot during the lockdown. Once the pandemic passes and theatres reopen fully, there will be a surge in cinema attendance bolstered by releases that chose to wait, rather than debuting on streaming platforms. Cinema operators themselves are expressing confidence that filmmakers will still prefer to debut on a big screen.
