We live in an era of entertainment on the go and it fascinates us more than anything. We have a wide variety of content. For example, Netflix, Amazon Prime, Zee Prime, etc. These are known as over-the-top (OTT) platforms. They have been facing the ire of Indian Government lately on censorship of content.

OTT platforms have greater creative freedom as compared to TV channels as there are no regulations over it currently. Content creators are particularly worried as if they will have a separate censor boards, it will severely impact the growth of the segment.

Entry of new players in OTT arena has led to the growth of these platforms at a great speed, backed by huge content investments and has an easy interface, content discovery, monetization capabilities, analytics and adaptable to business needs.
India is the fastest growing market for OTT video, making around 1250 feature films and large number of short films every year. When censorship came into existence, content creators questioned about the freedom of creativity.

OTT media services are directly offered to the viewers and audience with the assistance of internet and has overtaken platforms like satellite, DTH, cable, etc. It doesn’t have any regulatory body to control the streaming content and viewers are enjoying the freedom. Some content hurts the sensibility of sections and therefore, government has felt the need of changes. One of the main reasons for censoring the content is to take care of the medium of films which should be sensitive to the values and standards of individuals living in a society. Censorship will add a good form of entertainment, aesthetic values and displays a good standard.

In times of global pandemic when all of us are depressed, going through emotional stress, it is not a best choice for dealing with the freedom of an individual. The show business is worried that the upcoming regulations won’t concern strong language, nudity, violence and drugs. In this scenario, all platforms agree that they must display strict age criteria and mechanism to control it (may be child locks) and majority already have these in places.

OTTs have been like a breathe of fresh air amongst a sea of shows and films which are outdated now and gives us a wide range to choose what to enjoy seeing now. If censorship is allowed, the stream content will become more mediocre, sanitized and uninspiring. A decision has to be made because the parameters of the clean entertainment are a million dollar question.

Looking at the present scenario, the need for an unbiased regulatory body is necessary. The body shall define responsible content for regulation. Government and OTT platforms should work together on this and end this issue for once and for all. India must confirm that they make sure that they cope up with the requirements of the people while making a legislation. Total censorship on the platform will transform it into nothing more than a TV show or cinema and it would lead to the increasing cases of piracy.

Public is looking for content that brings out the truth of the society, deals with socio-political issues and doesn’t hurts the sentiment of single class of people.

I have always been against Glorifying Over Work and therefore, in the year 2021, I have decided to launch this campaign “Balancing Life”and talk about this wrong practice, that we have been following since last few years. I will be talking to and interviewing around 1 lakh people in the coming 2021 and publish their interview regarding their opinion on glamourising Over Work.

If you are interested in participating in the same, do let me know.

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We also have a Facebook Group Restarter Moms for Mothers or Women who would like to rejoin their careers post a career break or women who are enterpreneurs.

We are also running a series Inspirational Women from January 2021 to March 31,2021, featuring around 1000 stories about Indian Women, who changed the world. #choosetochallenge