OTTs and film festivals are breathing new life into documentaries

Filmmakers guardedly optimistic and cautiously happy, say getting a theatrical release remains a challenge

With three nominations in the Oscars in two years, including a historic win (“The Elephant Whisperers”), documentaries from India are beginning to find recognition on the global stage. Films such as “Against the Tide”, “Writing with Fire” and “All that Breathes” have been noticed at prestigious film festivals such as Sundance and Cannes as well.

A genre that once had limited reach has now found a larger audience, courtesy over-the-top (OTT) platforms. Indian subscribers watched over 50 per cent more Netflix original documentary content on average from Q3 2020-Q2 2021 than they did in the corresponding period in 2018. Though the platform did not share the latest numbers, there are indications that documentary viewership is growing.

Can one then say that the Indian documentary circuit has finally come into its own in terms of reach? And, have non-fiction filmmakers found an economic model that can sustain them in the long run?

“In India, non-fiction would often be treated as a poor cousin [of mainstream cinema] and in that sense, it long suffered from neglect,” says Shaunak Sen, whose movie, “All that Breathes”, was nominated in the Best Documentary Feature Film category at the Academy Awards this year. “Things have improved in the last few years, with a handful of films doing well. But one has to be guardedly optimistic or cautiously happy,” he adds.

To a question on whether the business of documentaries in India has found a road to profitability, Ashvin Kumar, India's youngest Oscar-nominated (“Little Terrorist”) and two-time national award-winning filmmaker, says, “Yes, provided you make a sale to an OTT. And no, if you do not.”

Kumar says a screening at a film festival increases the “credibility” and “visibility” of a documentary and can lead to a deal with OTTs, but it doesn’t directly result in revenue generation. 

“Today, other than OTT, there is no other outlet,” he says.

The entire landscape of documentary films is “like an open source of space where there are all kinds of people doing all kinds of films,” explains documentary filmmaker Aparna Sanyal, who is managing director of Mixed Media Productions and executive director of Doc_Commune at the Public Service Broadcasting Trust (PSBT).

“The (documentary) films that have come into prominence are all independent movies, whether it’s “All that Breathes”, “Writing with Fire” or “The Elephant Whisperers”,” says Sanyal. “These were made by filmmakers who went on their own journey, who spent years raising money, following their stories, going and pitching their proposals to platforms, such as film festivals, or looking for co-producers from other parts of the world.”

While the space has opened up, today, it is not easy for a documentary to get a theatrical release. It wasn’t so in the past.

“There was a time when you could release [a documentary film] in the theatres if the film was seen to be strong overseas. Then, from theatres, the film would find a life in broadcast, satellite, home video etc,” says Kumar.

From the 1950s to the early ’80s, documentaries were played in theatres before a feature film, adds Sanyal. “No matter which film you went for, you would have to watch a documentary before it.”

Beyond umbrella deals

Without a theatrical release and a dedicated marketplace, independent documentary filmmakers are still struggling to find buyers.

“Some documentaries do release in theatres. But now, since we have OTT, we try finding a global distributor or cobble together what you might call a patchwork,” says Sen.

Kumar elaborates the point, saying that earlier there were tertiary markets that could be explored. “Now, since theatrical, satellite, home video releases are all but gone, you have three or four OTTs that are buying documentaries, and most of them want to do an umbrella deal for all-world rights,” he says. “So, it’s a challenge to sell unless the film is very hot and has generated a lot of buzz in festivals or is of a topic that has created some sort of sensation.”

India does not have a distribution system in place for documentaries, says Sanyal. “You make a documentary and then wonder what to do with it, as opposed to in Europe, where there are so many channels looking for non-fiction content.” She gives the example of MIPDOC at Cannes, “which is a marketplace for documentaries. There are so many avenues in the West to sell content.”

“That imagination,” says Sanjal, “is lacking somewhere in our country.”

A medium to ride on

The crime documentary House of Secrets: The Burari Deaths, on the theories surrounding the deaths of 11 members of a Delhi family, featured in Netflix’s Global Top 10 for non-English TV shows. It was also in the Top 10 TV shows’ list in 12 countries including India, Bahrain, Bangladesh, United Arab Emirates, Sri Lanka and the Maldives.

“The arrival of OTT has helped immensely,” says Sen of All that Breathes fame. “It immediately gives a ready distributor and helps streamline audiences.”

What about YouTube as a platform?

“YouTube,” he says, “is a great marketing tool. But my use of YouTube is limited to trailers and marketing materials like Q&As.”

However, for amateur filmmakers, “who are creating documentary content and putting it out on YouTube and are getting thousands of views,” it’s a great platform, says Sanyal.

The makers of documentaries such as “Inshallah, Football” and “Inshallah, Kashmir” say what’s also refreshing is that over the last two years or so, studios and production houses as well as OTTs are trying to make commercial non-fiction films. “Since it’s still early days, there is a feeling that the more sensational a subject and its treatment, the more audiences it will attract,” says Kumar. “But, even within that brief, we can make strong films keeping the human condition and social, cultural issues that are confronting society front and centre.”

Documentary filmmakers insist that OTTs and the recognition of Indian documentaries has generated curiosity.

“We need some far-sighted people with money to believe in stories being told from India that can travel to the world,” says Sanyal. “There is clearly an audience for it since there is curiosity. But there has to be an ecosystem, like platforms and a distribution network, around it.”

That said, “we, as documentary filmmakers, are now getting commissioned to make projects for platforms and studios that are well-funded,” says Kumar. “The nature of those projects and how they are to be treated are negotiations and conversations that we’ll be seeing over the next few years.”