Imtiaz Ali opened up about the ‘freedom’ that filmmakers like him get from OTT platforms.
“They give you the freedom to be yourself and go the extra mile without the pressure of the box office and duration. Yes, OTT has definitely been a boom for filmmakers like me,” he told a leading media house.
Someone who pleasantly surprised everyone with ‘She’ that was aired on a popular OTT platform, he remembers that the story was his constant companion for several years. “The moment I got a chance to make it for a channel, there was no stopping me. I think the best part about these digital platforms is the fact that you can tell the story you want to, in a novel way. And this is something any writer/director dreams of,” he said.
Several young directors also criticise OTTs for following an algorithm where thrillers are encouraged and big stars are preferred. “There have been trends in movies, even now, but people break them, no? I feel the same for OTTs. There will always be those who will reverse trends and bring about fresher approaches,” said Ali at the ongoing Kasauli Literary Festival (KLF) in Himachal Pradesh.
Currently finalising a few scripts and developing a series for an OTT channel for which the production will start soon, Ali, who never went to a film school but immersed himself in theatre early on, stated: “Frankly, I don’t miss learning filmmaking formally. The theatre has been awesome for me. It has really been the building block that has given birth to my ideas about performance and how to tell stories through people, which is my job as a director. At that time, I felt it was important for me to actually absorb on-the-ground training from theatre rather than sitting in a classroom. Also, during my time, film schools had a very theoretical approach. Of course, things have changed now.”
For someone who has delivered major hits like ‘Rockstar’, ‘Jab We Met’, ‘Highway’ and ‘Tamasha’, it’s now time to make cinema that refuses to be slotted. “What I am now constantly looking for are stories that do not try to belong to a certain genre. They must be pure without a hint of any per-conceived structure,” he smiled.