Of having OTT and being OTT

If given sufficient time to speak on any topic, I would end up contradicting the same point with which I might’ve started the speech. It doesn’t always come with the territory of being unprepared and being extempore, but more of not having a sense of absoluteness about anything. In this very space I had mentioned some of the highlights of OTT providers and how they bring variety content to your living room from across the world. In fact, some of the big shot directors, who were silently plagiarizing content from other languages are now hard pressed for good stories as most of their sources stand revealed. The translation activity has become an industry of its own with sub title, audio (dubbing) being most needed skill in a fast paced OTT  setup. 

All said and done, there are some obvious “evils” that have come along with OTT – profanity being the topmost along with vulgarity and obscenity. The kind of languages that are spoken on OTT platform would put a sailor to shame. And these are being streamed right into the living room or your palm, depending on the device, with zero regulation. In fact, the response has seen this behavior spawning into big screen movies as well, that are supposed to have censor regulations!! The kind of vulgar and violence content that are casually shown on OTT platforms, have fueled aggression on big screen content creators, who are hell bent on upping the ante. There used to be an argument that cinema mirrors the society and whatever you see on screen are actually a snapshot of the present day world. But the same can’t be said about OTT content that is having world wide coverage. I am not sure of censorship for OTT content abroad, but it is literally non-existent in India. With OTT fast replacing regular tv channels for non-serial watching crowds, its creating a culture where speaking profanity is common and is acceptable behavior. While political parties are making a killing out of liquor ban and governments taking over liquor manufacturing, wine has replaced the coffee/tea as the defacto beverage on screen. Taking “Shots” and getting “wasted” have become the culture of corporate workers/business people. Representation of relationships on screen have gone a sea of change as well with premarital , live-in, same gender replacing the erstwhile concepts. While there are some obvious pluses to each of these things, the negatives have begun to outweigh the positives. 

With everything about OTT being “Over the Top”, its high time we need a mechanism to tone it down and this setup should be needed as of yesterday! Hope the government wakes up soon and does something about it.