“God is our fortress, in whose conquering name let us resolve to scale their flinty bulwarks.” This is how William Shakespeare felt and wrote about the mighty God way back in the year 1623.

But after almost four hundred years to that, Ganesh Gaitonde gifted the world with a completely different perspective.

Today many a man can be seen outrageously bragging “Kabhi kabhi lagta hai, apun hi bhagwan hai.” All of them have been baptized in Gaitonde’s ways!

When the trailblazing 'Sacred Games' made its way into our lives our world seemed to have turned topsy turvy with this new age epic!

Gaitonde became a rage, an overnight sensation propelling the countless enchanted audience into some new space and altogether different dimensions.

Like the one mystic silhouette which appeared at the beginning of each episode of the ancient Mahabharata, filling our ears with the hypnotic chanting “Main Samay Hoon”; Ganesh Gaitonde also emerged as a new ‘Avatar’ transcending the barriers of place and time.

In almost all corners of the country ‘Sacred Games’ triggered a furor marking the beginning of a new era.

And the floodgates kind of opened after that phenomenon! Different OTT platforms burgeoned and people were swept away by a deluge of innumerable movies, web series, and documentaries!

Binge-watching became the new ‘mantra’, better to say a new craving, for which a huge number of good men and women turned into night owls happily sacrificing their sleep and mental peace being unaware of its consequences!

Sacred Games, Mirzapur, Pataal Lok, Abhay, Delhi Crime, Kota Factory, Panchayat, Criminal Justice, Family Man, Gaandhi Baat, Four More Shots, Rocket Boys, Lust Stories, Grahan, Ray, Mumbai Diaries, Rudra, Squid Game, Vikings, House of Cards, Game of Thrones, Money Heist, and so much more in Hindi, English, and other regional languages! The viewers were pelted with such exhaustive content that organizing one’s schedule and life seemed to have become a challenge. In metros, buses, taxis, cars, and trains people would hold on to their smartphones, I-phones, and tabs probably more dearly than their lives! The fear of missing out (FOMO) was looming everywhere in every people’s mind!

Indian Entertainment Industry since these last few years has undergone a phenomenal transformation. So many talented artists have enthralled viewers with their exceptional skills. The new age directors have also opened up a vast gamut of genres in which they have produced excellent works of art and creativity, shed many stereotyped and prejudiced inhibitions, and ventured boldly into a fresh, heartwarming realm of uniqueness, whose path has never quite been traversed before in such an unabashed and audacious way!

But these projects have also raised a few concerns simultaneously which cannot be ignored so casually for the sake of justifying the creative freedom of these people!

The innocuous film ratings which initially used to be like M (mature), G (General Audience), PG (Parental Guidance needed), R (Restricted) & A (Adult) have now become a thing of the past!

Today even before the first scene starts in any web series episode or movie hosted by these multiple OTTs, words giving explicit warning flashes at the top of your screen! Sex, Nudity, Vulgar, Violence, Crime, Threat, Drugs, Substance, Foul Language, Abuse, and a lot more pop up in a flash before your bewildered eyes as if highlighting the key aspects of your upcoming ride into hell for the next few hours! And once you see those it almost feels like the set of the alphabet will come out right off the screen jumping and dancing in front of your eyes and ringing in your ears its spine-chilling echoes!

Why then so many people embark on such a crazy, ominous journey fully apprehending the profanity of the blasphemous and obscene content? Is it because the ‘Evil’ attracts? Or is it because our minds are gradually becoming so demented that we long for such lewdness, promiscuity, and all other crooked, sinister, and gory chronicles?

But whatever the reason, one has to agree that these stories surprisingly strike a chord with most of us and resonate with our weird predilections.

That is why the OTT platform is such a huge success today!

But there are other reasons for its ever-increasing popularity as well.

Because of the pandemic, people were forced to stay at home most of the time, and to be in the right state of mind, people needed to be entertained in some way or the other. And the OTT platforms provided these means with consummate ease! From daily soaps to series to movies, they had everything waiting to be delivered at one’s beck and call. All people needed was a steady internet connection and that’s it! One could just access the content from anywhere and anytime as per his wish.

This reason perhaps contributed the most to the rising popularity of OTT.

Today Netflix and Amazon alone have more than a hundred million subscribers!

The Global OTT market was estimated at USD 202.5 billion in the year 2022. It is projected to reach USD 434.5 billion over the next five years registering a CAGR of 16.5%. At least that is what the internet data tells us!

In India alone, the OTT market is set to become a rupees twelve thousand crores industry by 2023!

According to a survey conducted by Ascent Group India, 68.9% of people prefer watching OTT over traditional forms of entertainment.

And no wonder why this is happening as it is not only movies, soaps, or series that the OTTs bring to us readily. Today most of the sports and games, too are brought live by these OTTs which is why the number of subscribers has skyrocketed in such a small period. The search algorithms also add that extra finesse to these platforms. For example, if you search for 'Tom' inside any Netflix or Amazon, or Disney Hotstar account, like Aladdin's Genie, appear Tom Cruise, Tom Hanks, Tom & Jerry, and even Tomb Raider in front of your startled eyes! It gives you the feeling as if you are looking inside an Encyclopedia of entertainment which has got apt and numerous answers for every single query of yours!

But despite all these wonderful aspects and the staggering promise that the different OTTs deliver, one problem lies quietly which no matter howsoever harmless and naïve may seem today will surely turn out to be more demonic and perilous very soon! That’s what the whole world is confronting today in almost all spheres. One of the hardest challenges; dealing with abundance! Today we are buried beneath the weight of the enormous volumes of content, and quantity is being confused with abundance in every aspect of our lives! And in the process, we have often compromised on quality and ignored what wise people have always said; “that the less number of devices we need to charge the less cluttered our minds become!” Instead, we have all become prisoners of our phones, gadgets, and computers. There is a funny saying that OTT addicts never die, they just go offline! And one can see that happening with today’s youth everywhere. A lot of them are simply glued to their screens, be it on a mobile or computer. They are becoming impatient, restless, and even disoriented day by day. So many times we have come across disgruntled parents complaining about their kids' excessive obsession with these gadgets. They are worried about their children. In a forum for discussion on the mental health of young adults, one parent pointed this out; what far-reaching and disastrous consequences, exposure to some of the uncensored OTT contents can bring forth in a young adult’s life. With working couples, parental control is something they cannot afford always, as a result of which their kids may get to sneak into certain baleful items that OTTs serve on our platter. But this can contaminate the conscience of a child whose innocent mind may not yet be prepared fully to differentiate between right and wrong. As an anxious parent that was his concern; is it too much to ask these platforms to be a little bit more responsible? "When it comes to the well-being of our children we don't need an abundance of things but we need to take an abundance of caution"! That was the message from the distraught father. Yes, a child is indeed his parent's responsibility but can we deny what has been said for ages, that it takes a village or community to raise a child? What part these platforms are contributing towards that then?

Some balance is needed to be figured out. And the sooner it is done will be better for everyone. Uncontrolled and cheap entertainment is a potential nuisance for all. That needs to be acknowledged, filtered, and expurgated in a discerning manner. Only then this new medium of entertainment will sustain itself without any blemishes. And when that’s done there will be no bar for anyone from ‘Going over the top’ happily!

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