The advent of online video streaming platforms known as OTT platforms has caught the attention of viewers across the globe and India is no exception. Nowadays everyone owns a smartphone, be it a billionaire or a local vegetable vendor in your neighbourhood. Many international OTT platforms like Netflix, Disney Plus, and Amazon Prime along with Indian OTT platforms like SonyLIV, Voot, Zee5, etc are becoming quite popular, especially among urban viewers who can identify themselves with the shows and movie streaming. But the viewers from Tier 3 and Tier 4 towns find it difficult to understand the content made for the international and urban audience and that is when OTT platforms like Ullu, Kooku, etc came into the picture whose target audiences are the people from small towns.
Most of these local OTT platforms produce semi-porn and erotic web series which attract viewers because of the bold content these OTT platforms offer. India is a sexually repressed country where talking about sex is considered taboo even today mostly in small towns. But behind the curtains, Indians form a big part of viewers who watches porn according to various data. These OTT platforms understood the demand for erotic content in India and ALT Balaji was the first video streaming platform that understood the market of erotic web series and released India’s first erotic web series Gandi Baat in 2018 which dealt with bold content people normally don’t talk about. Since 2018, there have been six seasons of Gandi Baat and made many bold actresses like Anveshi Jain, Noor Malabika, Pallavi Mukherjee, Ruby Bharaj, Pooja Kanojia, etc quite famous. According to recent data, Millions of people have downloaded such OTT platforms and the number is increasing with each passing day.
Every day hundreds of aspiring actors arrive in Mumbai to try their luck but only a minimum percentage of them get success and the rest either go back home. Since already established names won’t work in erotic web series, these OTT platforms pick actors who are struggling to get a chance to act. Many of them decline to work in such web series but some agree as they have to sustain themselves in a costly city like Mumbai and these platforms pay quite well.
Actresses like Anveshi Jain, Kavita Radheshyam, Rajsi Verma, Jayati Thakar etc are already established and popular actresses who have their own apps also which you can download and subscribe to and see bold content of these actresses. Apart from these famous erotic web series actresses, some other names like Mokshita Raghav, Edin Rose, Rekha Mona Sarkar, Priya Gamre, Revathi Acharyya, Divya Burman, Sharanyajit Kaur, Aaditi Kohli, Muskan Agarwal, Priya Sachan and Garima Maurya are becoming quite popular who worked in various web like Charmsukh, Palang Tod, Bekaabu, Fuh se Fantasy, Charitraheen, etc. They have got lakhs of followers on their social media handles which is a testimony to their popularity.
Apart from famous apps like Ullu and Kooku, other such platforms like Fliz Movies, GupChup, PrimeFlix, Hotshots, etc are also getting famous and are downloaded by millions, especially during the Corona Pandemic and the lockdown. People were getting bored being in their homes all the time and these erotic web series was a good way to pass time. In comparison to mainstream OTT platforms, the subscription fee of these platforms is quite low and people don’t mind spending a small amount for watching content that is not available otherwise. As an audience, we can’t morally judge these erotic web series because they are giving what viewers are demanding without breaking any law. Since porn is banned in our country, these web series never show full nudity because of which such web series do not come under porn. Also, these web series are providing bread and butter for the actors as it’s difficult to sustain in a costly like Mumbai. It seems that in the coming days, the popularity of these web series will increase even more.
