A daughter from India settled in America has found an easy way to make money by releasing films of independent filmmakers and fixing its own price. This is the first of its kind OTT in the world on which producers, directors making movies and web series will be able to directly release their content and also make its NFT. This new OTT has been started by Indian-origin filmmaker and entrepreneur Shweta Rai and its launch in India is going to happen on 15th August on the 75th anniversary of independence. Apart from other countries, films and web series in Indian languages have started releasing on this OTT.
The name of this new OTT operating from San Francisco, California in the US is Diverse Cinema (https://diversecinema.com/). Through this, its founder Shweta Rai wants to develop a group of independent filmmakers who can bring their films and web series directly to the audience on their own terms. In a conversation with ‘Amar Ujala’, Shweta says, ‘As a filmmaker, I have had a very bitter experience of running after OTT operators to make films and then release them. It is very difficult to request them to release the films in US and India and then wait for their reply for months. And, this answer sometimes comes in the form of no even after a long gap. An independent filmmaker makes something for his passion by investing all his savings and waiting for a day for its release is overwhelming for him.
Shweta Rai says, “Diverse Cinema is also going to use NFT technology for Indian content creators. Through this, people creating audio video presentations will also be able to sell their creations through NFT. This is the world’s first initiative for independent filmmakers and with our technical know-how from Stanford and Harvard University, we are trying to make cinema inclusive and take the message of diversity to a different level. There is a lot of variety in Indian entertainment content. From North to South and from East to West, we intend to bring the stories of our channel to the audience so that people cross regionalism, gender discrimination, country borders and groups, make films made by independent filmmakers with their full diversity and splendor. Can watch sitting at home.
This OTT channel, which was launched there on July 4, the day of America’s independence, is now going to be launched here in India on the 75th celebration of independence next month. When asked about her journey so far, Shweta Rai says, “As a child, we had only one way to watch foreign films in a small town in India and that was ‘Jurassic Park’ or ‘Jumanji’. Watch Hindi dubbed versions of movies. I never dreamed that I would be a part of Hollywood one day. It has taken me almost two decades to fulfill this dream and now with the help of technology, I have been able to give any filmmaker sitting in any corner of my country a medium to show his film to the audience across the world. In the next few months, we will try to make it available on all television sets that have the facility to broadcast on streaming services.
After the soft launch of her OTT channel in America and India, Shweta is trying to launch this channel in different countries as well. Shweta Rai, who has made many films with ‘Godfather’ fame actor James Caan, ‘Midnight Cowboy’ fame Jon Voight and ‘Tarzan’ fame Bo Derek, has also worked in Hollywood with stalwarts like Neil Canton, Robert Court. She also has her own film production company which is also known as India Holly Films through which she has been trying to bring Indian and Hollywood filmmakers on one platform. His last film ‘A Pandemic: Away from Motherland’ was also included in the race for the last Oscars. He has also received the award for Most Innovative Film Production CEO in Los Angeles for this film.
