Popular Films of OTT in 2020

As we already know about the difficulties pandemic caused us, we are all aware of how difficult it was for film-makers to decide about their up-coming movies. But, the OTT platforms saved the direction the films were headed on. Most of the directors released their films on OTT platforms like Amazon Prime Video, Netflix, Zee5, Hotstar and others. Here’s a list of movies that outshined and made their mark on the OTT and Social Media platforms.

Aakasam Nee Haddura
Sudha Kongara’s, Aakasam Nee Haddura released on Amazon Prime Video. The movie was immediately watched after it’s release, as it was the most awaited movie as well. Produced by Suriya and Guneet Monga, the movie stars Suriya, Aparna Balamurali, Paresh Rawal and Mohan Babu amongst others. The movie is a real life story of GR Gopinath, however major parts of the movie were fictionalised. The movie revolves around the dreams of Maha and his wife’s high dreams of life. To understand the depths and difficulties they went through to make it big in life is beautifully summarised in the movie and maybe that is why the audience loved it as well. The music director G.C Prakash deserves some major appreciation as the music of the movie was also very well received and left the audience hooked.

Middle Class Melodies
Middle Class Melodies was more like watching a movie from the vision of all the middle-class Telugu families. The movie was brilliantly directed by Vinod Anantoju and produced by Venigalla Anand Prasad. Living in the backdrop of a middle-class household, Raghava (Anand Devarakonda) wishes to move out of his little town and start a hotel in Guntur. The silver lining of the movie was the role of Kondala Rao (Goparaju Ramana) who played the role of a hot-tempered father. In the midst of all this, Raghava’s love life with Sandhya (Varsha Bollamma) is shown as chaotic as any village love story would be. Middle Class Melodies left its mark on the Telugu audience.

Krishna and His Leela
Produced by Rana Daggubati and directed by Ravikanth Perepu, Krishna and His Leela was directly released on Netflix. The movie brings out a different take on love than your normal happy ending stories. The movie is a take on the complexities of love and romance. Krishna (Siddhu Jonnalagadda) plays the role of a confused guy to the tee. He is confused and falls in love very easily. Both the women he falls in love with- Satya and Radha (Shraddha Srinath and Shalini Vadnikatti) have distinctive characteristics and to see who Krishna would eventually end up with is the storyline of the movie.

Color Photo
The romantic drama Color Photo was released on Aha. Directed by Sandeep Raj and Produced by Sai Rajesh Neelam and Benny Muppaneni, the movie managed to deliver a take on a serious issue like racism. Kannayya (Suhas) plays the role of a dark-skinned guy who falls head over heels in love with Deepti (Chandini Chowdary). Sunil tries his hand at playing a negative role and Viva Harsha has also proved his mettle with the film. The movie is a take on racism in villages and how casually it is always shown and the team managed to deliver just that. Also the brilliantly composed music by Kaala Bhairava was massively appreciated by the audience.

Uma Maheswara Ugra Roopasya
Released on Netflix, Uma Maheswara Ugra Roopasya is the remake of Malayalam movie, Maheshinte Prateekaram. Directed by Venkatesh Maha, the movie doesn’t at all look like a re-make as the cast own the movie and generate some great humor through the scenes. Mahesh (Satyadev) perfectly plays the role of a naive photographer who avoids confrontation. Every new character introduced in the story brings together what we understand about Mahesh. His petty revenge journey is what glues the story line. He falls in love with the sister of the man he dislikes and seeks revenge from. The feel-good moments in the movie is what makes the movie worth watching.

The movie releases we saw this year were mostly on OTT platforms. But, these OTT platforms also gave low-production movies an opportunity to shine amongst the audience and draw their mark.