Digital media and web series has been there for more than a couple of years but it was not really popular in Telugu till 2020. But Covid–19 and subsequent lockdown brought many changes in the way Telugu audiences seek entertainment. More digital content is made available by the makers and the audience also slowly getting habituated to such digital entertainment.
With this the makers of digital media got confidence and now they are spending more on production and roping noted artists and stars onto the digital platforms. This has become a boon to the senior heroines who got married or who are on the verge of fading away. Already Samantha joined aha and her SamJam is getting good viewership mainly because of inviting huge stars to the show. Chiranjeevi, Vijaya Devarakonda’s episodes have become hugely popular on aha.
Now, Tamanna is also all set to join digital media. She is also joining aha as she has a good rapport with Allu Aravind who gave her good opportunities at the beginning of her career. She did 100% love and Badrinath movies in his banner. Now aha is planning a web series as well as a separate show with Tamanna. The makers of aha are pinning high hopes on the web series ’11th hour’ starring Tamanna.
Another senior actress who is already in the digital media is Kajal. Her web series “Live telecast” in Hotstar is a god hit already. The series directed by Venkat Prabhu and now some other Tamil directors are also planning web series with Kajal as the lead. She got recently married and will continue to act in the movies as well as web series.
What about male stars:
On the other hand, OTTs are also approaching big stars to join web series. One such series is being planned with Rana and Venkatesh as the leads but it may take a while for that to completely realize. Jagapathi Babu is one actor who did web series earlier than other heroes. Another actor Satya Dev’s Locked in aha was a smashing hit and it was much better than many Tollywood movies in the Thriller genre. Navadeep’s Masti is also a reasonable hit.
However, web series is still thought of as inferior to films by some stars and they are hesitating to take up web content. If they really understand the power of web platforms, we may see a lot of improvement in the quality of Telugu digital content.
