The Streaming Show

One of the most exciting things about the streaming age is the sheer amount of acting talent we're inundated with week after week.

From exciting new actors that have exploded onto the scene to renowned actors finally getting their due in shows like Jamtara, Panchayat, Scam 1992, Paatal Lok, The Family Man, Delhi Crime, and Mirzapur to name but a few.

To examine just how much streaming has done for casting and vice versa, I sat down with two leading casting directors. Kavish Sinha has worked on shows such as Rocket Boys, Mumbai Diaries, Rudra, Avrodh and Undekhi, and Panchami Ghavri is behind the casting of series like Class, Mismatched and Masaba Masaba.

Together, the two spoke to Suchin about the importance of an actor's social media following, the scourge of influencers, how easy it is to sell a show of all newcomers, and the casting demands of platforms that annoy them the most.

There is no player within the Indian streaming landscape quite as prolific and distinctive as TVF (The Viral Fever). What started as a YouTube channel back in 2010 known for its skits and sketches, the company ventured into making shows on YouTube in 2016 with titles like Pitchers and Permanent Roommates. But, despite being the first movers in the digital space, they certainly didn't get left behind.

By 2019 they'd quickly snowballed into a storytelling machine with winning shows across platforms like Gullak, Kota Factory, Hostel Daze, and Panchayat.

To decode the TVF secret sauce, Suchin spoke to the Head of TVF Originals Shreyansh Pandey. They chatted about the mammoth success of Panchayat, how you maintain the level of intimacy in your stories when you're making so many at once, the curse of season 2, and the TVF template - the joke being that TVF will make a show for every academic syllabus out there. It's a formula they hope to soon break by stepping into the sci-fi space.

There’s arguably no better way to examine just how much the streaming era has disrupted the film industry than by talking to writers. So, Suchin spoke to two of the busiest ones around.

Sumit Purohit was the lead writer on the the smash hit Scam 1992 on SonyLIV. He’s also worked on Netflix murdery mystery series Aranyak and Amazon Prime Video’s Inside Edge - the first original series from an international streamer.

Nandini Gupta is one of the writers on Disney+Hotstar’s fever dream Saas Bahu Aur Flamingo. She’s also co-written Netflix’s Mismatched and Masaba Masaba. Together, the two spoke to Suchin about how much the life of a writer has changed in the last few years, why the system of crediting writers on shows is so frustrating and inconsistent, why screenwriters are often a soft target for critics, why earning a decent living sometimes means writing three shows at once and how they even have to fight to ensure they’re name appears on screen before Netflix’s infamous Skip Intro button.

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What’s it like running an Indian streaming platform? SonyLIV’s Head Of Content Saugata Mukherjee knows a thing or two about that. The platform was relaunched back in 2020, and in the three years since, has made a name for itself as the home of some of the finest storytelling on streaming with shows like Scam 1992, Tabbar, and Gullak. Even their originals that don’t entirely land, like Dr. Arora, Good Bad Girl, and Faadu, show a sense of promise, originality, and specificity.

Saugata sat down to speak to Suchin about the SonyLIV journey, why he’s tired of the factory line of gangster dramas, why the Hindi market for shows feels saturated, the platform’s shaky user interface, and what it is they’re doing differently that’s leading to shows that outshine many of their competitors.

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It feels like actor Shriya Pilgaonkar is everywhere. A streaming star if ever there was one, she's ideally placed to discuss what it's like navigating the OTT arena today, as an actor. Shriya's made a name for herself in multiple projects across platforms including Mirzapur on Amazon Prime Video, Taaza Khabar on Disney+Hotstar, The Broken News on ZEE5, and her finest work yet - as unshakeably righteous lawyer Kashaf Qazi in one of last year's best shows - Guilty Minds on Amazon Prime Video. Shriya sat down with film critic Suchin Mehrotra to discuss her journey, How much the platform matter when considering a role, pay disparity and the changes she'd like to see in the streaming space

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How do streaming shows and the producers behind them, make money? What does the streaming business model look like? If there are writers or cinematographers working in the streaming age, are they earning more today than they were 5 or 7 years ago? Here to demystify the numbers and shed light on the business of streaming is the producer, director, showrunner, and co-founder of Emmay Entertainment Nikkhil Advani. Aside from making beloved films such as Kal Ho Naa Ho and D-Day, Nikkhil has gone on to become one of the most prolific and significant voices in the world of streaming. In the last 3 years, Emmay Entertainment has made five shows for five different platforms including Hasmukh for Netflix, The Empire for Disnet+Hotstar, Mumbai Diaries for Amazon Prime Video and most notably two seasons of one of my favorites - Rocket Boys for SonyLIV. Nikkhil sat down with Suchin Mehrotra to break down the economics of streaming and talk stars, platforms, money, and why he wishes more streamers operated like Amazon.

What exactly is a showrunner? What is a writer's room and how do you set one up? Why are there so many power struggles and clashes on the sets of streaming shows between series creators and directors? Are series really a writer's medium? Filmmaker and the OG showrunner Vikramaditya Motwane is in many ways ideally placed to answer these questions. Back in 2018, his Sacred Games really kicked off this age of streamers, series and seasons with a bang as one of the first massive originals for a global streamer. Earlier this year his new show Jubilee was released on Amazon Prime Video. He’s currently already hard at work on his next series.

In today's episode, Vikram spoke to Suchin about how streaming has changed the game for filmmakers, why it's hard to nail the second season of a show, dealing with creative interference from platforms and why Jubilee wouldn't get greenlit today

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Mentions

Sacred Games - https://g.co/kgs/msMd9v

Jubilee - https://g.co/kgs/k4VRkR

Succession - https://g.co/kgs/VZxPdi

Shakun Batra - Indian Filmmaker, best known for Gehraiyaan

Navdeep Singh - Indian Filmmaker, best known for NH10

Pushpavalli - https://g.co/kgs/wLaA8e

Tabbar - https://g.co/kgs/7KsvKK

Decoupled - https://g.co/kgs/R4inRh