What’s behind the rise of docuseries on OTT platforms? — The ESTD.
A GENRE THAT ONCE HAD A NICHE AUDIENCE HAS CATAPULTED ITSELF INTO A DEMOCRATISED TYPE OF FILMMAKING.
‘Fiction is obliged to stick to possibilities, truth isn’t,’ wrote Mark Twain in Following The Equator: A Journey Around The World. Maybe that’s why, of late, documentaries are witnessing a maniacal rise both in India and across the globe. From those made in the West, like the Tiger King, Making Of A Murderer, Britney vs Spears to Indian productions such as the Indian Predator series, House Of Secrets: The Burari Deaths, Romantics, All That Breathes, Writing With Fire and the Oscar-winning The Elephant Whisperers, documentaries are taking over streaming, particularly since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.
DULL, DOUR AND DOCUMENTARY
What was once largely academic and ruminative in nature, a medium that sat on the pedestal of scholarly pursuits, has now become an accessible form of entertainment packaged with intrigue for a large audience that seeks truth in their stories. A genre once perceived to be dull and dreary, has only piqued more and more curiosity, with subjects ranging from true crime and pop culture to science, technology and nature.
Ankur Pathak, a screenwriter currently writing a docuseries for Applause Entertainment on Bollywood and the underworld, says, “When you thought of documentaries, you thought of something fundamentally not an entertainment vehicle, something that makes you confront the harsh realities of life, which, by definition, is the opposite of what cinema does — it is escapist, entertaining and loud.’”
Meanwhile, Adithiyan M, a content creator and a student of physics claims, “People feel that a documentary is all about facts and footage, but the truth is that it does require a lot of creative treatment beyond the academic nature of the format, and without that creativity, it’s only natural that they feel drab.”
THE SLOW RISE
“I think it started with Making a Murderer, after which Tiger King was released during the pandemic and people just lost the plot because it was this wild American story about this twisted dude and it felt like we were watching a circus. Then came the Ma Anand Sheela documentary, Wild Wild Country,’ Pathak explains about where the obsession with documentaries perhaps began.
He further elaborates on how this slow rise of documentaries stems from the fascination of the true crime genre. “Our obsession with crime has been there since time immemorial, but when it’s presented in a very sleek, well edited, smartly packaged manner, the intrigue is higher, and it all seems so real, right? Also, what I think happened was when this interest spiked in the West, and documentaries began receiving awards and recognition, Indian studios felt that here we are a country steeped in crime, corruption and scandal, so let’s turn the lens inwards.”
However, someone from Netflix, who wishes to stay anonymous, believes otherwise when it comes to supposing that the interest in documentaries as a rather recent phenomenon. “I personally do not feel like this is recent. When you look at pre-streaming days, there has always been an interest in non-fiction in India, whether it is long-form documentaries or TV shows, because when it comes to stories from India, the truth is definitely stranger than fiction.” About the packaging of the documentary, she adds, “There is a concentrated effort to package everything, whether it’s fiction or non-fiction, in a palatable manner.”
THE QUESTION OF POP CULTURE
While true crime has always been a tempting genre for many, as viewers tend to have a morbid eagerness to solve grotesque mysteries, the rise in the number of documentaries on pop-culture icons and phenomena has also been interesting to witness. From The Romantics to Creative Indians, to a recently commissioned documentary on Yo Yo Honey Singh, the indifference towards an academic interest in desi pop culture is slowly changing. The West has already seen its fair share of pop culture documentaries, such as Pamela: A Love Story or Gaga: Five Foot Two.
The source at Netflix speculates, “We now have more disposable income and more inquisitiveness about what goes on behind the scenes in cinema. Of course, there’s the idea of how back in time, especially in India, popular culture wasn’t prestigious, or something serious, which is changing now.” With the growing academic spotlight on Bollywood, she adds, “Now it’s cool to know these things, right? Back in the day, it wasn’t.”
For Pathak, pop culture has become a yardstick to measure and analyse what is happening in the country. “Especially for young people, who, unlike the earlier generations, have only seen life largely through a screen. This pushes a deeper inquiry into wanting to know more, particularly when there is a young success story; take the Selena Gomez documentary on Apple TV, for instance.”
He further sheds light on the impact of TikTok, saying, “What TikTok has done for this type of an audience is that it begs you to want to see the arc — where it started and where it’s going, giving you the opportunity to think that you can do it too.”
The question that the surge in the number of documentaries being streamed then begs, is that will every headline be our next potential binge-watch? While truth may be stranger than fiction, is it the new normal to make it look delectable, or is it simply an opportunity to learn from lives that have been lived, and lost?
Originally in The Established —
