Analyzing the Narrative Structure of a Tent-Pole Bollywood Film vs. Exclusive Indian OTT Cinema

Abstract

The chapter is an attempt to compare and contrast the narrative structure of a tent-pole popular Indian cinema film and an exclusive to OTT Indian popular cinema release. Indian popular cinema has followed some conventions of storytelling since its inception, which gives it unique storytelling character compared to global cinema. Though popular Indian cinema has been severely criticized by critics and filmmakers around the world, it has survived the criticism and the competition by international film industries for survival in the ever-growing Indian market, and also has been able to garner a faithful reception. OTT and streaming brought a plethora of entertainment options to the audience besides mainstream cinema, one very successful among these is exclusive to OTT Indian cinema. Analysis of the storytelling technique of both cinemas has been done using case of two films Jab We Met and Meenakshi Sundareshwar which helps us understand how cinematic storytelling has been and is gradually changing in India with interesting twists and turns.