Adult content is tumultuous territory to venture into, in India. Where do digital platforms stand after 2021's crackdown? | WHEN ALTBALAJI'S GANDII BAAT premiered in 2018, its tag line promised to deliver “urban stories for rural India”. By “urban” the Sachin Mohite-directed web series meant adult. With each of its six seasons so far structured as an anthology, individual episodes were connected by their setting — a “rural” milieu — and their softcore focus: the sexual escapades of various characters. That the series has lasted six seasons is a sign that it’s worked. And indeed it has, as a provocative offering aimed at audiences from smaller Indian towns, with a particular grasp of the vernacular. Gandii Baat could be considered pulpy — and a linguistic breakthrough, for the vocabulary around sex it helped expand. Its mix of western and desi ideas of sex, kink and pleasure was novel. The success of Gandii Baat provided the fillip for a host of small-time media players to conclude that the streaming space wasn’t merely a playground for the urban elite to create and sell snobbish/woke/literary stories; rather, just like cinema, it too could be a space for B and C-grade content. Thus were born the likes of Ullu, Kooku, Fliz, Hotshots and more, writes Manik Sharma. | | | Like Chris McCandless in Alaska, Justin Alexander Shetler walked into Parvati Valley and never returned. | | Why do travellers disappear with alarming frequency in Himachal's deceptively placid 'Death Valley'? | | | Amid the release of Maja Ma, the star says she's bowled over by range of roles for women in films. | | Aashram and Ray actor Chandan Roy Sanyal on flexing his acting chops with OTT productions. | | | Where do the women of Ponniyin Selvan stand, with respect to Mani Ratnam's best female protagonists? | | What are the lessons to be gleaned from juxtaposing Indian Predator with Delhi Crime Season 2? | | | The one newsletter you need to decide what to watch on any given day. Our editors pick a show, movie, or theme for you from everything that’s streaming on OTT. | | This weekly newsletter compiles a list of the latest (and most important) reviews from OTTplay so you can figure what to watch or ditch over the weekend ahead. | | In which we invite a scholar of cinema, devotee of the moving image, to write a prose poem dedicated to their poison of choice. Expect to spend an
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