Malayalam investigative thriller 'Anweshippin Kandethum' is getting a lot of love, as evidenced by the number of hours watched and the number of official views released by Netflix.
But the interesting part here is that the regional film starring Tovino Thomas which offers a simple investigative story has surpassed the twisty Bollywood crime drama 'Merry Christmas' starring Katrina Kaif and Vijay Sethupathi.
'Happy Birthday' is directed by well-known director Sriram Raghavan, which should grab the attention of OTT viewers immediately.
Malayalam thriller 'Anweshippin Kandethum' beat 'Merry Christmas' in total views on both the global top 10 non-English films and country-specific Netflix India top 10 films lists.
If we analyze this closely, there are multiple reasons for this. Firstly, crime investigation thrillers, if produced well, are very popular among OTT viewers. Additionally, having a hero like Tovino Thomas is an added advantage, as he carries goodwill from audiences across languages who are watching films at home on OTT platforms.
Secondly, and more importantly, 'Anweshippin Kandethum', though originally a Malayalam film, was dubbed into several regional languages by Netflix, which helped the streaming platform get more views instantly. However, Sriram Raghavan's 'Merry Christmas' is only available in Hindi and lacks dubbed versions in South Indian languages, which is a downside.
This is another clear example of how films, despite having a good cast, can benefit from audio dubbing in multiple languages and thus play a crucial role in increasing the number of views.
OTT platforms need to realize that providing dubbed audio recordings is the only way forward if they want to attract more viewers to their content. Hotstar is one of the platforms in India that does a great job in this aspect.
