‘Theatre, OTT will coexist, no medium will be taken over by the other’
The OTT vs theatre debate refuses to die down. While web, no doubt, provides a space for creative minds to produce good content, the charm of larger-than-life theatre experience is irreplaceable. And with vaccination starting and people looking forward to getting back to cinemas, one wonders whether the binge watching behaviour would will get affected. Actor Gulshan Devaiah for one feels both theatres and web would coexist.
“In the 90s, when the TV industry saw a boom, there was scepticism that it would take over films. Even when VHS came, many thought, ‘Oh, people will stop going to cinemas and sit at home and watch straight to video’. But it didn’t happen. [Similarly], the pandemic situation gave the streaming network an opportunity to flourish, but cinema too will exist... I don’t think one medium would be taken over by the other,” he says.
A self-confessed cinema lover, Devaiah adds, “Nothing can replace the joy of experiencing a collective emotion or that largerthan-life experience.”
Talking about web, Devaiah feels long-format shows keep up the interest. “In longer formats, focus can be on many characters, parallel story lines. Cinema that way is quite restricted. In those 2.5-3, hours you can focus on maximum three protagonists. Web doesn’t have such limitations. It’s creating stars out of talent,” he says, referring to how many actor rose to fame through the web.
“Such stars and success stories are important to help the medium flourish. Something like we say about how one Friday can change someone’s fortune,” says Devaiah, whose web releases in 2020 were Ghost Stories, Unpaused and Afsos.
“If at all I can leave a legacy behind, then I want to be able to say that I’ve done these many films and all of them are diverse… We’re anyway in the game of perception. Your values ability and craft, how good or bad you are, everything is a perception,” he concludes.