Nawazuddin Siddiqui, a Bollywood celebrity, has said that he will no longer engage on projects aimed at India’s burgeoning streaming industry, calling online platforms a “dumping ground for outdated entertainment.” With 1.3 billion people, India has attracted streaming behemoths Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, and Disney’s Hotstar, all eager to get into a big and rapidly increasing market. Nawazuddin Siddiqui, a well-known actor, appeared in Netflix’s first Indian original series, Sacred Games, which premiered to critical acclaim in 2018.
However, in an interview published over the weekend on Bollywood Hungama, the 47-year-old said that “quantity has killed quality” on so-called over-the-top (OTT) online services. “The platform has devolved into a dumping ground for out-of-date programming. We either have program that don’t deserve to be viewed in the first place, or we have shown that don’t deserve to be watched at all. Or follow-ups to program that don’t have anything further to say, “he stated.
“Meaning major production firms and performers, it’s become “dhanda” (Hindi for racket). All of the major companies in the OTT market have negotiated lucrative arrangements with Bollywood’s major film makers. Producers are given huge sums of money to generate as much material as they want.”
He went on to say that the “excitement and challenge around the digital media” he had when working on “Sacred Games” was no longer there. “How can I bear to be in them if I can’t bear to watch them?” he added.
Nawazuddin Siddiqui has been dubbed “one of the great success stories of Hindi film.” He started from humble roots in a town in Uttar Pradesh’s northern province, and after migrating to India’s film capital Mumbai in 2000, he rose to fame in Bollywood.
The Indian entertainment sector is already one of the world’s largest, with EY valuing it at $24 billion, and smartphone use is expected to grow much more in the coming years.
