In the Indian OTT market, the maximum action is witnessed in South India, especially in the languages of Malayalam, Telugu and Tamil. Little wonder that streaming platforms are taking care to increase the slate of content from the South. Recently, Amazon Prime Video unveiled a series of originals and films that are sourced from the South. Now another popular OTT platform Zee5 has announced 11 Telugu originals.
It announced them at an event in Hyderabad yesterday that saw the presence of Telugu actors like Harish Shankar, Praveen Sattaru, Kona Venkat, Niharika and Sushmita Konidela. The 11 Telugu originals will range from thrillers to comedy, drama, romance, and many more.
Zee5 has been ramping up its regional library with big movies acquired as well as original content to further consolidate its foothold in regional markets. It recently streamed Telugu original series like Oka Chinna Family Story, Net, the Loser franchise and Gaalivaana.
Talking about the focus on the Telugu market, Manish Kalra, Chief Business Officer, Zee5 India said, "South is an important market for us at Zee5 and we have been consistent in expanding our presence in this market across languages from the very outset. The response from the Andhra Pradesh and Telangana region has been encouraging and we did foresee a growing appetite for Telugu content worldwide."
"We have significantly boosted our investments in this market and stand open to collaborate with the creators in delivering extraordinary entertainment to Zee5 audiences," he added.
Zee5's upcoming Telugu originals
Zee5 also showcased previews of select shows, and one could also catch a glimpse of upcoming titles such as Recce, which is a multi-starrer thriller featuring Shiva Balaji, Sri Ram, Dhanya Balakrishna, Rajeshwari Nair, Aadukalam Nareyn, Sharanya Pradeep, Sammeta Gandhi, Ester Noronha and Maa Neella Tank - a romantic comedy based in a small village that marks popular actor (Ala Vaikunthapurramuloo fame) Sushanth’s OTT debut.
The event also saw noted filmmaker Harish Shankar revealing the first look of ATM- a heist comedy featuring Subbaraju, Prudhvi and VJ Sunny. Further to this, popular actor Raj Tarun unveiled the lyrical video of a song from the upcoming Aha Nee Pellanta- a fun romantic show of a man’s failed attempt at finding a spouse.
Another of the upcoming shows is Hello World! – based on the life and trials of a group of youngsters on the cusp of their careers in the IT sector of Hyderabad and Mission Tashaffi - a spy drama. Other shows include: Paruvu, Bahishkarana, The Black Coat, Prema Vimanam and Hunting of the Stars.
In the south, Zee5 recently premiered Tamil star Ajith’s Valimai on the platform, fetching the fastest 500-million streaming minutes on worldwide. The platform in its latest offering released the magnum opus RRR for their multilingual audiences which received 1000 million streaming minutes within 10 days and has been trending at #1 in all 4 languages, including Telugu on Zee5. The platform has also acquired Telugu movies like Karthikeya-2 and Hanu-Man.
Punit Misra, President – Content & International Markets, Zee Entertainment Enterprises said, “In recent years, we have seen a significant transition in the viewing patterns of Indian audiences, who are now sampling and consuming a diverse range of content on OTT platforms. This uptick has been significant in South India, especially Telangana and Andhra Pradesh which are important markets for us."
Zee5 subscription is available for Rs. 599/year. Zee5 says it has over 5 lakh hours of on-demand content and over 160 live TV channels.
