



Cinema about cinema: Bollywood discovers its most bankable subject— itself
Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. A barometer check of India's obsession with its movie stars can be had on weekends outside an unmistakable bungalow in Juhu, central Mumbai. Bollywood star Amitabh Bachchan, when he's in town and can, steps on to a raised platform at the gates of his home, Jalsa, Sunday evenings to wave at a thronging crowd of fans.
Sunday after Sunday fans from far and near gather just for a glimpse of the man and return thrilled that the superstar of their times acknowledged them. Such a fixation with stars is now being sated on a screen by a spate of documentaries on film celebrities and families such as The Romantics on filmmaker Yash Chopra, Angry Young Men on writer duo Salim-Javed, and Dining with the Kapoors launching on streaming platforms. The Romantics ran on Netflix, Amazon Prime Video had Angry Young Men, and Dining with the Kapoors is on Netflix.
The popularity of the documentaries points to the intrinsic curiosity around stars, which OTT, short for over the top media services, that companies are cashing in on, said industry experts. At the same time, some of these that are commissioned by the families themselves, help brand equity and feed marketing in a cluttered digital content space. “The Indian audience is a hard-core endorser of fandom.
OTT platforms have found an opportunity to showcase documentaries which will satisfy this latent need," said Dr Abha Wankhede, associate professor - marketing and international business at K.J Somaiya Institute of Management, Mumbai. Documentaries on film celebrities are a growing but niche content category. According to data from media consulting firm Ormax, The Romantics and Angry Young Men clocked in viewership of 6.1 million (2023) and 6.6
. Read on livemint.com