Local-language web originals are still playing catch-up with Hindi

B&B: Bujji and Bhairava (Telugu) and Inspector Rishi (Tamil)—the most-watched regional-language shows—clocked in a viewership of 4.9 million each, against the 28.2 million of the most-watched hindi show, Panchayat-Season 3, in the first six months of 2024, according to research conducted by media consulting firm Ormax Media.

Entertainment industry experts say audiences in vernacular markets are still more lured by cinema and television, and unlike Hindi, there are no established franchises with returning seasons.

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“Regional-language originals are in a stage of market development. India’s first Hindi web series was released 10 years ago on YouTube, giving Hindi a head start in the OTT space. This has helped Hindi content consumed digitally build a substantially engaged audience over the years," said Namit Sharma, chief executive of digital media company Arré Studio.

“By sheer audience size and market opportunity, Hindi is spoken by over 40% of the Indian population, compared to, say, Telugu, which is spoken by only 6.7%. Regional-language originals have the unique advantage of picking up and learning from Hindi counterparts," he added.

Partho Dasgupta, managing partner at Thoth Advisors and ex-CEO of BARC India, agreed that the audience base for Telugu and Tamil originals is smaller than that of Hindi, and Hindi shows like Panchayat have the advantage of being an established franchise.

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“That said, the multilingual model should break out, as it has with theatrical films. Whether dubbed or made (in a non-Hindi language), the strategy should start paying off," Dasgupta said.

Time to improve production standards 

Some experts point out that several regional OTT platforms have resorted to making cheap web originals, which has definitely resulted in slow content uptake.

Ujjwal Mahajan, co-founder of Chaupal, a platform specializing in Punjabi, Haryanvi and Bhojpuri content, said the service is making an attempt to up production standards and has observed that with quality content, the uptake improves.

“There is a film and TV culture in the regional markets, because initially, there was no OTT specifically catering to them. National and international platforms don’t cater to regional languages; it’s just a part of their overall offering for engagement. Now that you have platforms coming up with content made exclusively in one language, the trend and culture are changing," Mahajan said.

Manish Kalra, chief business officer at ZEE5 India, agreed, saying that the platform ensures that the production quality of regional shows matches that of its Hindi originals.

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“All our viewers expect a certain level of quality from us and our strategic investment approach spans different content formats and languages, with regional content being a key focus alongside Hindi since the beginning. We have observed increased engagement for non-Hindi titles on the platform, prompting us to enhance our content funnel across various languages," Kalra said.