Karan Johar reveals OTT platforms aren’t paying top dollar based on actor’s star power: ‘They will pick your film only if it is worthy’

Karan said, “When OTT first came, people said ‘OTT is a threat to cinema’. I don’t think that’s true. In fact, one is empowering another. I feel writers are so empowered on streaming platforms because it is a writer’s medium, and we in cinema are drawing from that pool of writers. Series format is very different from that of films. There is more characterisation, it’s over eight episodes. It’s more of a journey. But what has changed is that the viewer who watched the content at home has realised that we have to go to the cinema because they want to get that community feeling. When you see films like Pathaan, Rocky Aur Rani, Gadar 2, when people are laughing and crying together that feeling can’t be achieved at home. There’s a change not in the content of OTT platforms but there is finally a change in the audience and they want to go to cinema halls for that community experience.”

Further, Karan emphasised that Bollywood has always been a great business irrespective of what people speculated. “It was always a great business. People had too much time to write all kinds of nonsense. We are wonderful and we will be wonderful. It’s just that people who were nameless and faceless were writing all kinds of ridiculous things. Now, everybody is back to their jobs and everybody is back to cinema halls,” he said.

When asked about the economics of OTT platforms and how streamers would pay a hefty amount for a film based on the casting of a star, Karan Johar explained that this phenomenon occurred during a phase when content was scarce. He said, “That has stopped. That also happened in a phase when there was less content. So the OTT platforms were paying top dollar to get the content on their streaming services but now everybody has woken up. Now, nobody is cutting those cheques just on the face value of a film. If you bring them a big star and a sub-standard script that’s not going to happen. We show our films now to platforms. If you got to sell your film, you got to show it. It’s not like I am sitting on a high-horse and I believe that somebody is going to pick up my film. They all want to see your film. They will pick it up only if they think it is worthy of being picked up. They aren’t walking into anything with their eyes shut. This was happening for a year or two because there was no content. The previous content, before the pandemic, needed to be sold because there was nothing else. In those times, the streaming services were bullish because they needed all the content because people were sitting at home and had nothing to do. This two and a half year was an anomaly. It happened because of a global pandemic.”