Come 2023, we are seeing releases line up in theatres and OTT alike. In the midst of both the medium’s rising popularity, are producers favouring one platform over the other? Having had a power-packed 2022 with back to back hits, Creative Viibe Productions, a young production house looks at this scenario differently.
Producer Santosh Kher, Founder, of Creative Viibe Productions sheds light on this approach “If we start giving a platform or medium importance over content, then we lose the essence of telling a story, be it a film or series”. It comes as no surprise then the same production house has given cinema a fantastic, phenomenal lineup of both web and theatrical releases including the period horror Marathi web series ‘Athang’, the Marathi feature web film shot on a smartphone ‘Pondicherry’, coming of age drama ‘Sunny’ and Marathi cinema’s biggest magnum opus ‘Chandramukhi’.
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In conversation with Santosh Kher, we delve deeper to know more about their content-first approach.
Q. OTT films and web series are seen gaining equal momentum as theatrical releases. Will one overtake the other?
As a producer, I feel the opportunities to showcase and tell your stories have grown manifold, presenting new avenues and formats to share the content one has created. The space is only going to grow instead of turning into a niche. Numerous formats will coexist, leading to the emergence of new types of content producers. OTT and theatrical content will definitely be strong competition with each other, however we do not see one overtaking the other.
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Q. Do you pick a story first and then a medium or vice versa?
We look at the power and potential of a script. That is where the strength of content lies. Medium is selected only after a script is zeroed down. There are many factors which come into play while selecting a medium. We choose the platform by taking into account the target demographic, duration, and technical requirements of the content piece. Once the platform is selected we work and customise the content to suit the requirements of the platform. We have developed multi-capabilities in producing content for any kind of format, which helps us to be platform agnostic and free to adapt content to the medium of our choice.
Q. You have worked on multiple mediums. Where did you see more success and where does your preference lie?
Fortunately, we have seen great success in every medium, be it OTT films or web series or big theatre releases. Every media has its advantages, and it is up to the creator to fully utilise them. Experimenting with mediums has given us great returns too. For example, for OTT we created ‘Athang’ a period horror series which was never created in the Marathi genre on OTT before. This allowed us the freedom to experiment with music, cast, and all aspects of production which bore good results. Same with ‘Chandramukhi’ wherein great efforts were put into the scale of the film, combined with marketing efforts and it turned out to be a great hit.
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Q. Down the line do you see yourself specialising in a medium?
For now, we are not putting any restrictions on ourselves. We are more interested in challenges as a production company. We want to work with different kinds of talents, industries and mediums to introduce something new in every field. It gives us great joy to be content creators and producers for content pan-India.
Creative Viibe Productions is founded by producer Santosh Kher and acclaimed actor and entrepreneur Tejaswini Pandit. The production house is working on several upcoming projects including Hindi, Gujarati and Marathi to name a few.
