Politics and Bollywood are a phenomenon in India. Its growing influence on the minds of the people is manifold. The portrayal of political inspired dramas in web series has been the recent flavour on the OTT platforms. As the digital space takes a grip over content, makers are now not shy about approaching the topic as going political on screen is getting a welcome with open arms.
India is a land of politics and Indians lap up political news every time — seeing that as an added advantage, content makers over the last few months have come out with successful and talked about stories such as “Tandav”, “City Of Dreams” and “Madam Chief Minister”, “Maharani” to name a few.
Actress Richa Chadha, who played the title role in the film “Madam Chief Minister” agrees the genre is intriguing and said that it is because everyone is affected by politics.
“Why people generally find political dramas intriguing somewhere or another is because we are all affected by politics, we are affected by which party has won the state elections, who improves the condition of living among the people,” she was quoted as saying in media reports.
She said: “News comes to us in various forms and the news is not just limited like a murder or gossip of a celebrity. It’s news, national news that really affects everything and that is what makes political dramas so popular. When Madam Chief Minister was released only once when people saw the film that they realised it’s not really based on Mayawati.”
Popular actor Sachin Pilgaonkar, who plays Chief Minister Jagdish Gourav in “City of Dreams”, cited “struggle” as the reason behind the genre’s popularity.
“It’s the struggle saga that makes a political drama so popular. Anything that will have a struggle will have drama in it and therefore it will be intriguing and hence people will watch it. Otherwise after watching 2 episodes only people give their verdict that they will continue watching it or not,” Sachin elaborated.
Actor Pankaj Tripathi, who is the uncrowned king of the OTT space, had talked about how he wanted to pursue politics, he still has time before he pursues it.
“I think political dramas show politics and that it plays an important role in modern days and democracy. Our life in some or the other way in democratic country is linked with politics. This can be the reason,” Pankaj said.
Going political on screen is getting a welcome with open arms.
