After the boom of OTT during the COVID era, Amazon Prime Video became the frontrunner in bagging Telugu films for their streaming platform. Netflix was nowhere to be seen, as far as Telugu films were concerned.
Prime Video was on a spree to acquire the digital rights of Telugu direct-to-OTT films and also theatrical releases. Producers made a lot of money by selling even their mediocre films to Prime Video as they offered them hefty amounts. V, Tuck Jagadish, and Naarappa are some examples.
But post-Covid, it looks like Amazon has given up on Tollywood, and Netflix is the one that is betting high on Tollywood films.
Ranga Ranga Vaibhvanga, Krishna Vrinda Vihari, Virata Parvam, Ante Sundaraniki, GodFather, Pakka commercial, F3, Major, Urvasivo Rakshasivo, and Atithi Devo Bhava are recent films that have been bought by Netflix. This week’s release, Dhamaka, has also locked its OTT platform as Netflix.
Except for Yashoda and Ginna, not many Telugu films in recent times have been bagged by Prime. It seems Amazon has suffered huge losses by spending money carelessly in acquiring digital rights to films that didn’t deserve such high prices. They have now moved on to invest in creating original dramas and series in Telugu for their platform.
