SHUBHANGI SHIFA
Ranchi, Dec 11: The second day of the Tata Steel Jharkhand Literary Meet saw eminent film personalities Rajat Kapoor and Vinay Pathak of the ‘Khosla ka Ghosla’ fame discuss ‘The boom of Web Series and OTT and its effect on the big screen’ with RJ Arvind.
During the discussion, when questioned about the quality content made in OTT, Rajat Kapoor said that OTT is not supporting good cinema and instead has had “Very bad stuff”; meanwhile, Vinay Pathak commented that in the past several years, neither OTT nor the big screen has come up with great content.
Before this, Pathak began by sharing his experience of growing up in Ranchi and watching films as a young student in mini Sujata, Sandhya and other theatres, while Rajat Kapoor said that in his growing up years, cinema was a big part of his life and the impact ‘Dewaar’ had in his life.
When questioned about the initial; vibe about OTT platforms and if they thought of any project being something that cannot be created for the big screen, Kapoor said that something like this is yet to happen, however, in case of any big change, there is a lot of optimism for some time, after which the excitement fades away. Kapoor commented that this may be the case with OTT at present.
Pathak later added that this was the initial reaction in the case of television and broadcast, which later faded away. He said that OTT came with a promise which hasn’t been fulfilled. “You cannot name 10 films in the past 20 years and say they were at par with literature,” he added.
Furthermore, Kapoor also said that the rise of OTT has provided opportunities and platforms for writers and actors and that people may have better work than they ever had. Pathak commented that now at least scripts are being written, else earlier, they would just have ideas. He also stated that with the wide range of options and choices, it is the viewer’s choice to opt for what they want to see. He also said that now the choices of viewers have evolved and that people have now realised the difference between cinema and good cinema.
When talking of the younger generation and its smaller attention span, Pathak said that the youth now has different radar and are much more evolved; and that they need to be understood. Kapoor, however, stated that generational change is a big thing. He said that there isn’t an attention deficit, as they are ready to watch things if people are interested.
The second day initially began with Jonathan Gill Harris and Gianluca Rubagotti discussing early European travellers and their tryst with India with Malvika Banerjee; which was followed by the discussion between Vinay Pathak and Rajat Kapoor.
Later in the day, audiences saw Booker prize winner Geetanjali Shree discussing her novel; followed by Niranjan Kujur, Purushotam Kumar and Anurag Lugun in conversation with Anuj Lugun. The Meet later had a discussion between Amit Sinha, Sharda Ugra and Jeet Banerjee with Balaji Vittal on the legacy of Mahendra Singh Dhoni; a conversation between Alka Saraogi and Yatish Kumar about the former’s book ‘Kulbhushan Ka Naam Darj Kijiye’; Akshay Mukul and Poonam Saxena discussed the literary icon Agyey; and Vinay Pathak performed a solo act based on Shakespeare’s ‘King Lear’ under the direction of Rajat Kapoor.
