Yearender 2022 | OTT Boom: How 2022 has shown that content is QUEEN and not just king

Whether it was Jalsa, Delhi Crime Season 2, Darlings or Qala female leads ruled cinema like never before. It is the end of the stereotypical  Bollywood  heroine with OTT. There was a time when we saw roles of women being under-represented, but streaming has given us the opportunity to look at female characters particularly with a different lens.

And not just female actors, thanks to women filmmakers too like Jasmeet Reen for Darlings, Anvita Dutt for Qala who are making films keeping women in the lead and now women actors are right at the centre of the plots reigning the stories. Women actors are no longer playing the accessory role for the heroes like yester years. They are flawed, vulnerable, grey and real.

Tripti Dimri who played the role of Manjushree in Nteflix’s film Qala has an intense part to play. She plays the role of a singer who is flawed and relatable. All characters played by women are in fact grey these days and no more the pretty, coy heroine or the complete vamp.

Vidya Balan and Shefali Shah were seen together in ‘Jalsa’ playing two very powerful roles. During an interview with Firstpost, Vidya mentioned that it is a great time for women actors as female roles are better nuanced and layered. Unfortunately, the male hero roles because of the expectation of them to be strong and macho are left with no scope to explore as a craftsman.

Though with the OTT boom, it has been a great time for women actors, Vidya Balan on starting her career in Bollywood says, “I think it has been a great time to be a female actor for a long time now. Since 2008 since I first did ‘Ishquiya’, I have only been doing women-led films, barring may be one or two of them. It is definitely an even better time to be a female actor now. Female roles are better nuanced and layered. Whereas the male hero’s roles are just too predictable.”

Monika Shergill ,  Netflix  India head says, “I think it is an opportunity with streaming as a medium to explore different kinds of layered characters of women. To bring about this change we have got female writers on board, female directors and to be able to give empowering and very flawed characters to women which reflects what we see around us.”

So, if it is a Badru in  Darlings or a Vartika in Delhi Crimes , the kind of characters the streaming platforms are able to present through the films and series is really incredible. OTT platforms have been able to touch the depths of those female characters and bring out shades in them instead of just keeping them black or white.

The OTT platforms are about explore, experiment and express. And look at the characters, they are human, absurd and they don’t follow any norms of the box office requirement. Talking about roles hanging for women and they being offered meatier characters, Shefali Shah says, “It breaks all stereotypes and gives you the freedom to unapologetically experiment with it and thankfully women roles have evolved in leaps and bounds. As a student of cinema and as a viewer too you can watch so much content from around the world which is therapeutic and I would say OTT has become a masterclass for us.”

Shefali also mentioned that earlier, when she was offered a role, they would ask her to play a hero’s mother, hero’s sister. It was like a side role, a role that revolved around the hero. But now, they are full characters, by themselves.

Actor Neena Gupta too rightly points out, “If you see Panchayat you can make out that even though it is set in a village, it is a very contemporary film. All the viewers who love watching only English films, also liked it. And people identified with the characters. For Lust Stories Season 2, I am playing the grandmother. There was a time that the moment you touched thirty your career was finished. But the scene is different now**.** Now roles are being written keeping your age in mind.”

For many women actors like Rasika Dugal , OTT has changed their lives in a big way. OTT has given room for everybody. Dugal says, “Every week there is a new show which does well and gets an audience which has a vibe. I am happy that OTT is a growing democratic place where there is room for newness. It is a healthy, competitive space and also there is room for all types of genres. That’s what is exciting for me and that’s how I get to experiment with different kinds of roles. This time I have done a sports drama series and a horror show which are both new genres for me.”

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