After launching its premium subscription-based service – Amazon Prime in India earlier last week, Amazon is now gearing up for the launch of another offering with its digital imprint — Prime Video — in the country.
As per the report from Huffington Post, Amazon’s senior executives have talked with top directors of the country to rope them in to make original series for the digital platform.
The report further suggests that the company has managed to get Vishal Bhardwaj and Vidhu Vinod Chopra on-board for an original series. They are developing a show for the platform, which will go live in November.
Earlier, it was reported that Amazon has set aside around $300 million from Jeff Bezos’ recently announced $3 billion additional investment. The amount will be used to produce original content as well as acquire rights of the local content.
According to the report, the company has already hired Nitesh Kripalani, a former Executive VP of Multi Screen Media (MSM), to head Amazon Prime in India. It has also hired former Cinestaan executive Aparna Purohit as head for creative development.
While Amazon has launched Amazon Prime in India, many people were disappointed as the subscription service is available without Prime Video. However, the company has promised that Prime Video will be available soon. It seems that Amazon is making sure that it has stock of local content in its library to make a splash in the market with its digital content service launch.
The biggest rival for Amazon Video obviously is Netflix, which launched its services in India around seven months ago. Recently, it also announced its first Indian original series – Sacred Games. The series will be based on Indian Author Vikram Chandra’s critically acclaimed best-selling novel of the same name.
Netflix has also partnered with India’s one of the leading production house, Phantom Films to produce and shoot the Hindi-English series in multiple locations of India. Phantom Films was established by Anurag Kashyap, Vikramaditya Motwane, Madhu Mantena and Vikas Bahl.
Apart from Netflix, Prime Video will also compete against the likes of Star India’s video streaming platform HotStar, Eros Now, Viacom’s Voot, among others.
