​Movie directors who moved to OTT platforms ​

Cinema has been one of the oldest and the longest running entertainment formats across the globe, its existence has been threatened multiple times. When televisions came in, people said Cinema would be irrelevant, when cable tv began , people said the same thing. Now we are in the age of OTT and talks have already begun about how things will change. And as a matter of fact things are changing , you are seeing some of the biggest directors who have made a mark for themselves have joined the OTT bandwagon.

Sanjay Leela Bhansali cut his teeth into the industry when he directed songs for Vidhu Vinod Chopra’s 1942 A Love Story. He then painted on the silver screen with his films like Khamoshi: The Musical, Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam, Devdas Black, Bajirao Mastani, Padmaavat etc. In 2022 he also announced that he will be making his debut on the web with his passion project Heeramandi which he has been working on for many many years, as the medium gives him a much bigger platform and space to tell his story. With Heeramandi Sanjay would be teaming up with his first actress Manisha Koirala after 25 years.

Reema made her debut with Honeymoon Travels Pvt Ltd which had a huge star cast but the film was a nonstarter. She then went on to make Talaash with Aamir Khan, Kareena Kapoor and Rani Mukerji, the film made the numbers but wasn’t as successful as one would have expected. For her third film she teamed up with Akshay Kumar and made Gold which also didn’t do as well as it was expected. Reema is all set to launch her career as a director on OTT with her show Dahaad which stars Sonakshi Sinha, Vijay Verma and Gulshan Devaiah.

Tigmanshu Dhulia has made some hard hitting films like Haasil, Charas and Paan Singh Tomar. But he also couldn’t stay away from the lure of web shows , at first he was brought in to direct only the first few episodes of web shows like Criminal Justice and Out of Love. But with passing time she directed two entire series one being The Great Indian Murder and Garmi and both have been well received by the audience.

Zoya started her career with Luck by Chance which didn’t set the box office on fire. But there on, she’s delivered one hit after another in Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara, Dil Dhadakne Do and Gully Boy. But come 2019, she went the OTT way and made her first web show Made in Heaven which was so well received that after 4 years people are still eagerly awaiting its second season. In fact Zoya’s next release is The Archies for a streaming platform which stars Shah Rukh Khan’s daughter Suhana along with Sridevi’s daughter Khushi Kapoor among many others.

Raj and DK made a very quiet entry into the movies with their film 99 and with passing time they cemented their space with films like Shor In The City, Go Goa Gone and A Gentleman.But by 2019 they had moved to the OTT space with The Family Man starring Manoj Bajpayee. With their first show they tasted blood and since then they have created a second season of Family Man, a new show Farzi with Shahid Kapoor and Vijay Sethupati , another show Guns and Gulabs and India version of Citadel with Varun Dhawan and Samantha Ruth Prabhu.