'GudSho’, a new OTT platform, is dedicated to south Indian series and movies. Sriram Manoharan, GudSho's founder, and CEO, is hopeful of scripting success in a field involving streaming giants like Netflix and Amazon Prime Video.
“The OTT industry in India has over three crores paid subscribers, and the number is increasing by leaps and bounds. The industry saw a staggering 30% to 35% surge in the number of subscribed users in the past 12 months alone. So, we see this as an industry with much potential and enough space for more players,” he told Showtime.
‘GudSho’ has a library of over 100 movies in all south Indian languages — Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, and Kannada. “The latest movies added to the collection are ‘The Great Indian Kitchen’, ‘Papas’, ‘Mojin: The Treasure Valley’, ‘Embiran’, ‘Pranavam’, ‘NCR’, ‘Thallana’, ‘Vrithra’, ‘Karuthukkalai Pathivu Sei’, ‘July Kaatril’, among others,” says Sriram.
The platform is in talks with leading distributors and production houses to acquire upcoming films such as ‘Tamil Rockers’, ‘Friendship’, ‘Naragasooran’, ‘Labour’, ‘Window Seat’, ‘Methagu’, ‘Odavum Mudiyadhu Oliyavum Mudiyadhu’, ‘Anbulla Ghilli’, ‘Nalla Ponu’, ‘Kadhalum Naanum’, ‘Pei Mama’ and ‘Lets Break Up’.
The pandemic has spurred an OTT revolution, says Sriram. “People are now used to watching new movies from the comfort of their homes. They are aware that any movie that releases in theatres will soon be available on an OTT platform, in a month or two,” he adds.
Currently, ‘GudSho’ has around 4,000 users. “It is a global OTT platform that can be accessed from anywhere in the world,” says Sriram.
There is no subscription fee. As of now, the OTT has a Pay-Per-View model in which the user can purchase his preferred movie or series. Free content is also available.
“In addition to this, we are working on implementing the ‘Subscription Video On Demand’ model. Once it is complete, the user can get a membership and watch unlimited content,” he adds.
The platform promises to be a boon for small-budget movies. “There are plenty of small-budget movies that have not released yet due to the theatre’s unavailability. There are also lots of small filmmakers, distributors and producers waiting to get an OTT platform to release their movies and series. We hope they find our platform helpful,” he notes.
“Apart from movies and series, we have plans to release short films, TV shows, events, standup comedies, and create originals,” he adds.