The latest trend in Tollywood is hard to miss. For the past year, whenever a small or mid-budget film holds paid premieres in Hyderabad, a wave of paid review tweets soon follows.
They’re easy to spot: many use the same copy-paste format, handing out three- or four-star ratings to films that audiences barely turn up to watch once they hit theatres.
This has become a pattern, with digital platforms making money by misleading small producers.
But now, a prominent Telugu OTT platform appears to have resorted to the same cheap tactics to promote its latest web series. The series itself is a cringe fest, yet social media is flooded with paid tweets hyping it to the skies.
Had this come from a lesser-known platform, it might not have been surprising.
But from a major brand that has built its reputation and credibility over decades, this feels completely out of character. Social media users aren’t easy to fool, and some are already calling out the platform for a promotional strategy that falls well below the standards people expect from it.
