“Korean, Spanish, Japanese and French content are the most popular”
Ashish Golwalkar, Head, Content, SonyLIV, SET, Sony Pictures Networks India, said: “Consumers are becoming increasingly language agnostic. They have both the will and the appetite to consume content in all languages. A Netflix spokesperson adds, “Stories made in the remotest corners of the world are watched and loved across India. The emotions they evoke transcend the boundaries of geography and language. A well-told story has the ability to make us laugh, excite or anger us equally whether it is told in Hindi, English, Spanish or French.
Mansi Shrivastav, Senior Vice President – Content, Alliances, Syndication, MX Player, says, “Consumption of foreign language content has grown sevenfold on MX Player over the past two years.” Streaming services point out that English, Korean, Spanish, German, Turkish and Japanese series are among the most watched foreign content in India, while for platforms dedicated to foreign cinema, it is French and Korean films that get the most watched. best scores.
Netflix, which began releasing top 10 global content last year, recorded peak viewership for Spanish show Money Heist, which remained in its top 10 TV shows in India for nine months, while the Korean show Squid Game has remained on its top 10 list for over six months.
“Subtitles and dubbing have contributed to the global craze for content”
In 2020, Monika Shergill, VP (Content), Netflix India, said in a blog post that viewership of K-dramas in India (on Netflix) increased by more than 370% in 2020 compared to 2019. Similarly, in 2020, Viki, a US-based Korean drama streaming platform grew from 3% in October 2019 to 46% in September 2020. Korean shows have become so popular in India over the past two years that A mall in Delhi recently commissioned the Squid Game wall art. During Halloween, the mask from the Spanish series Money Heist was among the most popular costumes here.
Part of the credit for this popularity goes to subtitles, said a spokesperson for an OTT platform, adding, “Not just English, but subtitles and dubbing of foreign shows in Indian regional languages have helped audiences watch international content”.
Mansi Shrivastav of MX Player, adds, “Indian audiences also find Turkish series appealing due to their production quality, storytelling and universal themes. We have also seen massive growth in the consumption of Korean programming. Shows in Mandarin, Spanish and Italian are also very popular. These shows are not only dubbed in Hindi but also in Tamil and Telugu.
“Previously, only niche audiences had access to global content through film festivals. OTT changed that’
According to a representative of OTT platform MUBI, India has always had an audience for global cinema, but today this content is not limited to niche audiences with access to film festivals and companies. Apeksha Vakharia, Marketing Director, Asia-Pacific Content, MUBI, adds: “Over the years, Indian audiences have demonstrated a strong appetite for global cinema and since the pandemic this has only grown. There is now an even greater thirst for rich stories, which cross languages and genres. The consumption of foreign content on OTT platforms has grown so much here that last year, BookMyShow launched a transactional video-on-demand platform BookMyShow stream, where viewers can stream international movies.
