The Streaming Show

Suchin Mehrotra
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The Streaming Show

Why are most Hindi streaming shows about crime and violence? What exactly are a showrunner and a writers' room? Are Mirzapur, The Family Man, Sacred Games and Scam 1992 the new blockbusters? How do streaming shows even make money? Through a series of conversations with actors, artists, filmmakers, producers and platform heads, Suchin Mehrotra, one of the few film journalists and critics solely dedicated to covering the world of streaming, sets out to answer these questions to help navigate and provide a narrative to the beast of streaming.

  1. Why Actors Are Feeling The Film Industry Slump In 2024 Ft Jim Sarbh

    07/17/2024

    Why Actors Are Feeling The Film Industry Slump In 2024 Ft Jim Sarbh

    What’s it like being an established actor in 2024? What’s it like navigating and bouncing between shows and films, platforms and mediums, theatrical and streaming?  To shed light on just that, for the season finale of The Streaming Show podcast, I spoke to Jim Sarbh. It feels like the talented actor has been everywhere over the last few years. On streaming, we’ve seen him on popular shows like Four More Shots Please, the beloved Made In Heaven, and one of my favourites Rocket Boys for which he even bagged an international Emmy nomination.  He also recently started his own YouTube series Crew Cut, which I strongly recommend, in which popular actors interview the storytellers and artists behind the scene about the craft of filmmaking.  Jim spoke to me about the ongoing …often soul crushing conflict between an actor and artist wanting to do good work as against the constant calculations of playing the positioning and perception game. Along with the current slump and uncertainty within the film industry, flitting between Shakespeare and playing the villain in his first Telugu film, his thoughts on the talent management ecosystem and a whole lot more.

    43 min
  2. How Streaming Changed The Editing Game with Editors Antara Lahiri and Nitin Baid

    07/09/2024

    How Streaming Changed The Editing Game with Editors Antara Lahiri and Nitin Baid

    Is 2024 an exciting time to be a film editor? Going by the sheer volume of theatrical streaming releases, you'd think so. To break it down, I spoke to two of the busiest editors in town. In 2023 alone, prolific editor Nitin Baid had Sam Bahadur, Rocky Rani Ki Prem Kahaani, The Archies and Kho Gaye Hum Kahaan. Not to mention shows like Dahaad and Made In Heaven Season 2. Antara Lahiri is known for projects like Tooth Pari, Delhi Crime Season 2, Shakuntala Devi, Four More Shots Please and one of my favourites. Modern Love Mumbai. Aside from being an accomplished editor, Antara also runs an excellent YouTube channel called The Finest Cut With Antara Lahiri where she hosts insightful conversations with some of the finest editors in the business. It's highly recommended viewing. Together, the two spoke to me whether editors get their due, the most insane feedback they've got from platforms, the issues with how editors are paid and how much of their time goes into salvaging shoddy storytelling

    58 min
  3. How Streaming Forever Changed Showbusiness With Producer Siddharth Roy Kapur

    07/01/2024

    How Streaming Forever Changed Showbusiness With Producer Siddharth Roy Kapur

    You cant really tell the Indian streaming story without talking to Sid Roy Kapur. One of the most respected producers in the business, he’s backed more than 80 films according to his IMDB, including gems like Dangal, Barfi, Udaan, Paan Singh Tomar, and Haider. Previously the Managing Director of The Walt Disney Company India and CEO of UTV Motion Pictures, Sid also served as president of the Producers’ Guild of India for multiple terms. He now runs Roy Kapur Films which has made numerous shows and movies for streaming including Aranyak for Netflix and the excellent Rocket Boys for SonyLIV. Sid spoke to me about the state of the streaming and theatrical landscapes, the continued struggles of smaller films and whether the golden age of streaming is well and truly over.

    42 min
  4. Crafting Blockbuster Streaming Shows With Raj and DK

    06/24/2024

    Crafting Blockbuster Streaming Shows With Raj and DK

    If you’re a writer or filmmaker who’s always thought in terms of feature films and wants to embark on your first series - where do you start? How do you start thinking in terms of episodes, cold opens, cliff-hangers and seasons? To break down the art of approaching the beast of a series I spoke to who else but the maximum guys of streaming - Raj and DK. The dynamic duo have churned out one blockbuster show after another. Two seasons of one of our finest shows, The Family Man, Farzi (which is reportedly one of Prime Video’s most watched shows ever). Not to mention Guns and Gulaabs for Netflix. And that’s not all. Due for release this year is Amazon’s Citadel Honey Bunny starring and also soon to be released is Another series they produced called Gulkanda Tales. I keep joking that Amazon should essentially build a shrine to them at this point. Raj and DK spoke to me about the art of structuring a series, the challenges of tackling a second season, what goes into nailing a great climax and the biggest turn offs they see in other Indian Shows.

    1h 2m
  5. Is The Golden Age Of Indian Streaming Over? With Showrunner Sudip Sharma

    06/17/2024

    Is The Golden Age Of Indian Streaming Over? With Showrunner Sudip Sharma

    It’s a pretty bleak time for the Indian streaming landscape, to put it lightly. I’ve spoken to writers who’ve said they’ve never seen the industry in such bad shape. You hear constant horror stories these days. Everything from platforms no longer commissioning shows, to shows in development or even about to start production which are either shelved or facing drastically reduced budgets. And these are big, well-known filmmakers and writers. So how bad is it and is there any hope in sight? To break it down, I spoke to one of the most significant storytelling voices we have. Sudip Sharma is the creator of Paatal Lok and Kohrra. He’s one of the few true blue showrunners we have - a writer who’s stepped up and become captain of the ship of his shows. Sudip spoke to me about the crippling uncertainty of the current streaming landscape for writers, the calibre of stories on streaming, his experiences of working with Netflix vs Amazon Prime Video, his advice for young writers trying to weather the current storm, and what the future of long-form storytelling looks like in India.

    54 min
  6. The Good, Bad and Ugly of Writers' Rooms ft. Varun Grover and Sumukhi Suresh

    06/09/2024

    The Good, Bad and Ugly of Writers' Rooms ft. Varun Grover and Sumukhi Suresh

    What exactly does an effective writers' room look like, and have we adopted the concept well within the Indian streaming ecosystem? Or is it still a free-for-all with everyone just doing their own thing? To break it down I spoke to two of the most exciting screenwriters in town, both of whom bring new meaning to the term multihyphenate talent.  Varun Grover was head writer in one of the first writers rooms for a major streamer with Sacred Games. Aside from creating and starring in Prime Video’s Pushpavalli, one of the finest shows we’ve made, Sumukhi Suresh recently founded MotorMouth - a company solely dedicated to writing and developing shows and movies. At MotorMouth, Sumukhi is currently juggling 8 separate writers rooms at once.  In a hilarious, insightful chat, the two sparking screenwriters spoke to me about the do’s and don'ts of running a writers' room, bringing together the right group of personalities, why writers fighting can actually be a good thing, what the job of a head writer is, how young writers can deal with asshole bosses and toxic power structures, the insanity of writers being banned on sets and the surprising significance of Bengali food.

    1h 1m
  7. How Richie Mehta Gets Emmy-Winning Shows Made

    02/19/2024

    How Richie Mehta Gets Emmy-Winning Shows Made

    Writer-director Richie Mehta doesn't quite follow the rules. The way Richie operates and creates stand-out streaming shows is far from conventional. Rather than pitching to a streamer and having a series commissioned, he finds independent producers to fund the entire series and only Then finds a home for it. That's how the clutter-breaking benchmark-setting Emmy-winning first season of Delhi Crime ended up on Netflix, and it's the same story with Richie's new series Poacher which is releasing on Amazon Prime Video. Poacher is also the first series produced by Hollywood-based production company QC Entertainment, which is behind films like Jordan Peele’s “Get Out” and Spike Lee’s “BlacKkKlansman.” At the recent press junket of Poacher, Richie spoke to me about his unconventional way of getting shows made, why he prefers to engage with platforms only when the shows are shot and ready, the bleak state of the streaming ecosystem at present, and his thoughts on Delhi Crime being turned into a franchise when it was only ever meant to be a one-season story.

    37 min
  8. What Can We Learn From The Hollywood TV Model? With Westworld Co-Creator Lisa Joy

    01/08/2024

    What Can We Learn From The Hollywood TV Model? With Westworld Co-Creator Lisa Joy

    Filmmaker, writer, producer and showrunner Lisa Joy knows a thing or two about making great TV. The co-creator of Westworld, Lisa started her career as a writer on Pushing Daisies and has worked on several shows since. She’s also a producer on multiple shows such as last year’s The Peripheral on Amazon along with the highly anticipated upcoming Fallout series, an adaption of one of the most popular games out there. At the recently conducted Jio MAMI Mumbai film festival, I moderated a session with Lisa on the art of longform storytelling. In front of a live audience, we spoke about the Hollywood model for creating series and what we can learn from it here, what the heck a showrunner is considering we still seem to have different definitions of it, how to navigate a writers room as a young writer and a whole lot more.

    1h 10m
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About

Why are most Hindi streaming shows about crime and violence? What exactly are a showrunner and a writers' room? Are Mirzapur, The Family Man, Sacred Games and Scam 1992 the new blockbusters? How do streaming shows even make money? Through a series of conversations with actors, artists, filmmakers, producers and platform heads, Suchin Mehrotra, one of the few film journalists and critics solely dedicated to covering the world of streaming, sets out to answer these questions to help navigate and provide a narrative to the beast of streaming.

Information

  • Creator
    Suchin Mehrotra
  • Years Active
    2023 - 2024
  • Episodes
    20
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © Suchin Mehrotra
  • Show Website
    The Streaming Show

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