100 projects on floor in India; 2nd only to US: Amazon Prime Video

With a strong emphasis on diversity and innovation, Amazon Prime Video India has its sights to expand its reach in the country, offering a vast and varied entertainment landscape to cater to India's diverse audience. Sushant Sreeram, country director, Prime Video India, tells Fortune India that the OTT platform will invest more aggressively in India in the next five years compared to the previous five.

Without giving out specific investment numbers, Sreeram says, “In India, we have the highest number of originals, shows and movies in various stages of development. We have actually more than 100 projects right now and additionally India is the second biggest slate after the US for prime video.”

Sreeram highlighted the multifaceted approach Prime Video takes in programming across languages and genres, with a keen focus on delivering content reflecting, what he calls “India's rich storytelling culture”.

Notably, this year saw a record-breaking number of 25 original launches, signifying the platform's commitment to an extensive and inclusive content slate, encompassing genres from unscripted shows to long-form scripted originals across languages like Telugu, Tamil, and more.

“Almost half the viewership of our shows and movies, especially for our shows and movies that we make in Tamil and Telugu, actually happens outside the home state,” shares Sreeram calling it the pan-India phenomenon.

He adds, “Almost 75% of Prime India customers watch international content that we program. There is just a very diverse expectation that customers have. In fact, almost 60% of customers on Prime video stream content in four or more languages; the linguistic palette of our customers is expanding.”

With the launch of ‘Mission Startup’, a show aimed to demonstrate not just the milestones but also the real journeys of grassroots entrepreneurs, Prime India continues to wager on unscripted shows which have had a very good year on Prime video.

Sreeram cites the docu-series on singer-rapper AP Dhillon and the crime docu-series, ‘Dancing on the Grave’ – both of which did well. “Our ambition and our investment thesis is to develop content and also offer a very compelling slate of licensed movies that we have on the service,” he adds.

Nearly half of the 100 projects involve new creators, reflecting Amazon's eagerness to explore diverse creative perspectives and stories in the Indian context.

Prime Video's evolution isn't limited to content alone. Initiatives like Prime Video mobile edition, offering a mobile-specific proposition, and Prime Video channels, partnering with 23 channels for expanded selection, shows their commitment to catering to varied customer preferences and accessibility levels.

“We think of ourselves as the entertainment hub for our customers. And these channel partners today cumulatively bring in almost 28,000 hours of additional entertainment onto the service that customers can access with simple add on subscriptions,” the country director shares.

The other part of Prime’s hub strategy is movie rentals which launched around two years ago, which today, offers the biggest movie rental catalogue in the country. “Almost 70% to 75% of movies in the catalogue that we have for movie rentals get rented every month,” he adds.

Analysing current trends, Sreeram highlights the expanding linguistic preferences of Indian viewers, emphasising the growing appeal of regional content across multiple languages. The emergence of "pan-India" stories reflects how narratives from one region resonate with audiences across the country and globally, underscoring India's storytelling prowess.

Furthermore, Sreeram mentions the global acceptance of Indian content, citing instances where Indian shows and movies gained significant traction across multiple countries, signifying the increasing global audience's interest in Indian storytelling.

"For example, Jailer entered the top ten trending movies lists on Prime Video in nearly 20-25 countries in the first week itself. It's a huge marker for how not only are our shows and movies traveling well within India, but really traveling well outside. That’s the case with Farzi as well as Pathaan,” he says while explaining, “Great Indian stories are finding an incredibly amazing global audience that is very receptive to the Indian style of telling stories."

One striking observation was the symbiotic relationship between theatrical releases and subsequent success on OTT platforms like Prime Video. Movies that fare well at the box office tend to achieve even greater success on the streaming platform, capitalising on the global reach and diverse audience base, Sreeram opines.

Looking ahead, Prime Video India remains resolute in its commitment to the market, intending to sustain aggressive investments, expand content offerings, and enhance accessibility.