Malayalam investigative thriller ‘Anweshippin Kandethum’ is receiving a lot of love, as reflected in the number of hours watched and official views released by Netflix.
But the interesting part here is that a regional film starring Tovino Thomas and offering a simple investigative thriller has surpassed Bollywood’s quirky crime drama ‘Merry Christmas,’ starring Katrina Kaif and Vijay Sethupathi.
Furthermore, ‘Merry Christmas’ is directed by the well-known director Sriram Raghavan, which immediately grabs the attention of OTT viewers.
The Malayalam thriller ‘Anweshippin Kandethum’ has beaten ‘Merry Christmas’ in total views on both the Global non-English top 10 and the country-specific Netflix India top 10 lists. What is the reason for this?
Firstly, crime investigative thrillers, if decently made, are popular among OTT viewers. Additionally, having a lead like Tovino Thomas is an additional plus, as he carries goodwill from audiences across languages who watch films at home on OTT platforms.
Secondly, and most importantly, ‘Anweshippin Kandethum,’ although originally a Malayalam film, has been dubbed into several regional languages by Netflix, which helped the streaming platform garner more views instantly. Sriram Raghavan’s ‘Merry Christmas,’ too although originally a Hindi film, is available with multiple dubbed audios on Netflix.
This is another clear example of how movies, despite having a decent cast, can benefit from dubbing audio in multiple languages, thereby playing a crucial role in increasing views.
OTT platforms need to realize that providing dubbed audios is the only way forward if they want to attract more viewers to their content. Hotstar is one platform in India that does a great job in this aspect.
Anweshippin Kandethum 3,300,000 Hours viewed and 1,400,000 views on Netflix.
Merry Christmas 2,900,000 Hours viewed and 1,200,000 views on Netflix.
