‘Global OTT platforms are insensitive to India’

New Delhi: Post pandemic, cinema halls will witness a resurgence with more people flocking to the theatre and streaming platforms cannot compete with this despite their popularity in the ongoing Covid-19 crisis best evidenced by the Indian Premier League — played without an audience in the stands in Dubai, Sharjah and Abu Dhabi — that has seen its biggest ever viewership in its history, top entertainment industry executives Uday Shankar and Ajay Bijli said.

Speaking at the 18th Hindustan Times Leadership Summit on Friday Uday Shankar, chairman, Star & Disney India, said we should be mindful of making a binary argument of streaming versus theatre. “After the pandemic is over and people return to normal life, theatres will become bigger because people will want that… and streaming [platforms] cannot compete with that.”