OTT experiments with politically correct content

As the digital space takes a grip over content, makers are now not shy about approaching the topic as going political on screen is getting a welcome with open arms.

Politics and Bollywood are a phenomenon in India. Its growing influence on the minds of the people is manifold. The portrayal of political inspired dramas in web series has been the recent flavour on the OTT platforms. As the digital space takes a grip over content, makers are now not shy about approaching the topic as going political on screen is getting a welcome with open arms. India is a land of politics and Indians lap up political news every time -- seeing that as an added advantage, content makers over the last few months have come out with successful and talked-about stories such as 'Tandav', 'City Of Dreams' and 'Madam Chief Minister', 'Maharani' to name a few.

Actress Richa Chadha, who played the title role in the film 'Madam Chief Minister' agrees the genre is intriguing and said that it is because everyone is affected by politics. Richa told IANS: "Why people generally find political dramas intriguing somewhere or another is because we are all affected by politics, we are affected by which party has won the state elections, who improves the condition of living among the people." The actress shared that when her film released that's when people realised the movie was not based on former Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh Mayawati.

She said: "News comes to us in various forms and the news is not just limited like a murder or gossip of a celebrity. It's news, national news that really affects everything and that is what makes political dramas so popular. When Madam Chief Minister was released only once when people saw the film that they realised its not really based on Mayawati." "There was a lot of speculation because they can identify and recognise famous political figures from newer times over the past 10-20 years so, I guess that's why political dramas are so popular," added the 34-year-old actress, who considers former Minister of Law and Justice of India B.R. Ambedkar as her icon.

Social scientist Ankit Sharma explained the emergence of political fictional dramas. He said: "We notice a social engagement in fantasy art form of combat, power and justice when a society in reality is suppressed from expressing these instincts fully. A similar thing happened with eroticism in Hindi cinema during the 2000s, which has become a norm now." Popular actor Sachin Pilgaonkar, who plays Chief Minister Jagdish Gourav in 'City of Dreams', cited "struggle" as the reason behind the genre's popularity.

Sachin told IANS: "It's the struggle saga that makes a political drama so popular. Anything that will have a struggle will have drama in it and therefore it will be intriguing and hence people will watch it. Otherwise after watching 2 episodes only people give their verdict that they will continue watching it or not." The 63-year-old actor stressed that it is important to make such content that leaves an impact. "Politics is one such subject which is very impactful. On the other hand there is so much crime based content on the web that there was a requirement of doing something different. Maybe that's why people are enthusiastic to see political dramas," he said. Actor Pankaj Tripathi, who is the uncrowned king of the OTT space, in an interview to IANS in 2019 had talked about how he wanted to pursue politics, he still has time before he pursues it.

The 44-year-old actor reasons why politics makes an interesting watchable genre. "I think political dramas show politics and that it plays an important role in modern days and democracy. Our life in some or the other way in democratic country is linked with politics. This can be the reason," Pankaj told IANS. Actor Eijaz Khan, who will be seen sharing screen space with Sachin in the second season of "City Of Dreams", feels everyone is "political" and that strikes a chord. Eijaz told IANS: "How much ever we may say we speak from a space from a privilege that we can be apolitical...I think all of us are political. We have an opinion. We see political dramas unfolding in front of us day in and day out which makes this even more interesting."

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