Regional films, especially in south Indian languages, are attracting viewership around the world. This is due to the fact that each language from southern India offers unique films which tend to highlight their traditions, culture, locations, and so on. South Indian diaspora is also present in large numbers across the world. Leading platforms are actively acquiring films from these languages given that southern films provide a sort of freshness and storylines different from Hindi that is now primarily focusing on urban-centric narratives.
In the last one year, films like Nayattu (Malayalam), Andhaghaaram (Tamil), Pitta Kathalu (Telugu), Paava Kadhaigal (Tamil), Cinema Bandi (Telugu) and Mandela (Tamil) have all featured in the Top 10 list in India on Netflix.
In an earlier interview with Mint, Manish Menghani, head of content licensing, Prime Video India had said for movies in Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam and Kannada, 50% of the audiences come from outside their respective home states. Globally, these movies are being watched in over 170 countries, with international viewers already accounting for over 20% of total audiences of these local language films.
Malayalam film Minnal Murali was one of the top ten non-English films on Netflix for the last week of December, with 5.9 million viewing hours while Jai Bhim, Sarpatta Parambarai and Soorarai Pottru are among Amazon Prime Video’s biggest hits. After its release in theatres, period drama RRR has been dubbed in Spanish, Portuguese and Korean for Netflix.
Netflix has also seen its Tamil anthology Navarasa feature in the Top 10 in 10 countries including India, Malaysia and Sri Lanka. In its first week on Netflix, more than 40% of the viewers for the film were from outside India.
