Anushka Sharma and Karnesh Ssharma’s Clean Slate Filmz has signed a $54-million deal with OTT streaming services to produce original movies for them. The company has signed a deal with Amazon for its Prime Video platform and streaming giant Netflix to release eight films and series on the platforms over the next 18 months, reported Bloomberg.

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While COVID-19 has shuttered film productions and theatres across the country, the pandemic has also exposed how hundreds of millions of Indians have now taken to OTT services for their entertainment consumption. The rapidly-growing market is action-packed, with mega players Amazon Prime, Disney+ and Netflix trying to compete with each other and other domestic offerings in the country.

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The boom in OTT movie and TV business has also meant that Bollywood has been able to survive with straight-to-platform originals being produced despite theatres being largely shut over the past three years.

Clean Slate has been one of these production houses which has been able to adapt and thrive. The company was founded in 2013 by the two siblings, and released its first film NH10 in 2015. The movie starred Sharma and had opened to commercial and critical acclaim.

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What has happened over a period of time is ambition is also going up within the studio systems. And that's great for people like us," Ssharma told Bloomberg.

But the production house has now dived into edgier and modern productions like Netflix’s Bulbbul and the Prime Video series Paatal Lok. Current productions in the works include Mai, a new Netflix series starring Sakshi Tanwar; Qala, the acting debut for Irrfan Khan’s son Babil Khan; and sports biopic Chakda ‘Xpress, which will see Sharma in a leading role once again.

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(Edited by : Shoma Bhattacharjee)

First Published:Jan 25, 2022 8:41 PM IST