More films from the region are being streamed at various OTT platforms and helping it to go global amid the lockdown because of the outbreak of Covid-19.
Apart from major players like Netflix, start-ups like Moviesaints have provided a major platform for films from Assam.
Anupam Kaushik Borah’s Bornodi Bhotiai (Love, by the River) and The Boy with a Gun, a short film are the latest addition to this list.
Both the films are available with Moviesaints.
One of the most discussed Assamese films that was released in 2019, Bornodi Bhotiai is about a man from Majuli who is searching for a cure to his strangely prolonged cold.
Four other men are in search of love, falling for the same woman.
Majuli, too, is searching for a cure for its own problems of flood and erosion caused by the Brahmaputra.
For Khanjan Kishore Nath, it’s a great opportunity that Moviesaints has started to stream his short film, The Boy with a Gun, which is made in the Karbi language.
“The OTT platforms are the new opportunity for us to explore the global viewers within a short time. It has many advantages like cost cutting, rapid business growth and attracting viewers. I believe in future, the traditional way of film release will be over,” Nath told The Telegraph.
The film tells the story of a school boy in a hilly village in Assam who finds a pistol inside a bag on his way to school.
His ,Chor (Bicycle), a feature film, will available on Amazon Prime videos for the viewers of UK and USA shortly.
The other films from Assam being streamed at Moviesaints are Amis and Kothanodi by Bhaskar Hazarika, Suspended Inspector Boro and Local Kung Fu 2 by Kenny Basumatary, Raag by Rajni Basumatary and Bokul by Reema Borah.
Short films Fade in by Ankur Deka and Ghormua (A Letter to Home) by Mukul Haloi are also being streamed at Moviesaints.
In Netflix, already several films from the region are streaming, including Village Rockstars and Bulbul Can Sing by Rima Das, Maj Rati Keteki by Santwana Bordoloi and III Smoking Barrels by Sanjib Dey.
A few more films are available at Jio Cinema, ErosNow and Google Play Movies.
Some of these are Handook by Jaicheng Joi Dohutia, Othello by Hemanta Kumar Das, Antareen by Monjul Baruah and Duronir Nirola Poja by Dhruva Bordoloi, among others.
One yet to be launched OTT platform, Reeldrama, focusing on the East India market, has acquired all three of Kenny Basumatary’s films – Local Kung Fu, LKF2 and Suspended Inspector Boro.
