ENTERTAINMENT JOURNEY FROM '90s TILL NOW

 

I was born in the late ’80s in a small town of Firozabad district where there were few possibilities for entertainment. I've experienced dramatic changes in the entertainment sector as I've grown older, from radio to the OTT platform.

My father (Papa) used to have a radio at home where he would listen to the news, cricket commentary, music, and so on. Papa would listen to it every morning before leaving to work. We were told not to play with it since we might break it. I vividly recall the day when I was four years old and my father brought home a black-and-white television. Everyone was delighted since we were the first in the colony to have television sets in our homes. Maa used to tilak anything new that was brought into the house with kumkum, and then it was up to us to start it. Papa shared the sweets with all of his neighbors. Neighbors and their children used to visit our house on weekends to watch Mythological serials such as Mahabharat, Sri Krishna, Ramayan, and so on. After 4years, Papa purchased a Samsung Color TV set with a remote. We also received a video game set as a gift.

I saw my first movie in a movie theatre with my parents and cousins during the summer vacation,. The film was "Ankhein," and it starred Govinda, Chunky Pandey, and the legendary Kadar Khan. It was a fantastic experience for me to watch a thriller movie on a 70mm screen, as I usually watch movies on a little screen on my television. The atmosphere and sound effects of the theatre mesmerized and astonished me, so much so that when there is an action scene, it appears more real. For Indian families, going to the movies is a family trip where we can spend quality time with our loved ones.

I believe we all recall the audio cassette players, sometimes known as Tape in local parlance, which played a small audio cassette inside. Each cassette has around ten tracks, five on each side. We all borrowed the cassettes from our neighbors because they were expensive, and we used them carefully because we had to return them. They were mostly used in our schools for dance performances during annual functions, such as Independence Day and Republic Day.

We mostly used video cassette players, also known as VCP/VCR (R-Recorder), to watch someone's marriage cassette because they are very expensive and we had to rent them for 1-2 days to watch it with family. Because we have to pay the rent for two days, we also bring some movies along with VCR. Dhadkan, Mann, Daag the Fire, and other films that I watched on the VCR system. We tried to watch as many movies as we could before the shopkeeper's due date for returning the VCR or we'd have to pay extra money. In 1999, we finally bought our VCR at home; it's like a dream come true because we can watch movies whenever we want in our living room or bedroom, no need to go to the cinema hall. The impact of VCRs can be seen on movie theatres, as very few people are going to watch movies in them, affecting the theatre owners' revenues. In my town, two theatres have closed within the last ten years. 

In 2003, the era of compact discs (CD) began which are less expensive than cassettes and require less storage space than traditional cassettes. CDs quickly became popular because they can store more than 50 songs on a single disc, as compared to cassettes, which can only store 10 songs. A movie may easily be kept on two CDs because a CD's storage capacity is 700MB, whereas a DVD's storage capacity is 4.7GB, allowing us to store four or five movies on a single DVD. The popularity of compact discs has grown rapidly because CD and DVD players are very affordable; you can buy a local one for Rs 2000 and a branded one for Rs 3000 or more. Because CDs are inexpensive, movie and song piracy is on the rise. You may easily locate pirated CD sellers of movies, songs, games, etc. on footpaths and in shops in each & every corner of the country at very low prices compared to their original value, which is sometimes more than 500 percent of the pirated.

Various means of Entertainment

The internet arrived in my town in the early 2000s, but it was only used to check school board results. Internet access is generally offered by cybercafes. In my town, the first cyber café opened in 2002. For internet surfing, it charges Rs 60 per hour. In 2003, I received my Xth grade board results via the internet. In 2005, during my college days, I used the internet for the first time for free, in a college computer lab. I created my first Yahoo mail ID and used the Yahoo chat room to communicate with my friends. Orkut was the first social media account I joined. At that time, it is a very hot topic among the youth. We used to spend hours in cybercafes, paying Rs 20 an hour. We mostly used the internet to download movies, songs, and other media.

When YouTube was first introduced in 2005, it uploaded its first video (Me at the Zoo), and it quickly became popular. In 2006, I only used YouTube in cafés because I didn't have a smartphone at that time. During my graduation, I went through the process of actually using the internet. Professors assigned us tasks such as preparing for seminars, writing vocational training reports, and working on a dissertation project. For each of these tasks, we rely heavily on the internet. I usually use college computer labs or cyber cafes to connect to the internet. After I graduated, Papa purchased a computer for me, and we now have a broadband connection at home. This saves my time and money because we are no longer required to visit cafes. Following graduation, I began to make more use of email because I needed to apply for jobs, submit resumes, and so on. Finally, with my first salary in 2011, I was able to purchase a smartphone that allowed me to completely utilize the internet. Everything that we used to do on a computer, such as Facebook, YouTube, email, and playing online games, can now is done on a smartphone. We can notice the changes in the digital entertainment sector gradually. We started using WhatsApp and other social media apps around 2013.

Life has changed tremendously over the last century, and the advancement of entertainment media technology is a major factor in this. Comparing a current day of my life to one from the early 90s. When I first wake up, I check my phone for any office-related communications, text messages, reminders, and so on. Following my daily routine, I turned on my Android TV and ate my breakfast while checking the news.

While doing some housework, I prefer to listen to music on my smartphone through a music app. Then I get back to my office work. During lunch, I took a break and entertained myself by viewing YouTube videos on my phone. That evening, I finished my office duties, emailed the paperwork to the manager, and settled down for the virtual video birthday party for a co-worker. After the celebration, I had some tea and snacks while watching Kundali Bhagya on Zee5, a video-on-demand service. Because I have an Android TV at home, I will only watch shows, movies, and news through these streaming apps. I logged into Facebook while watching the show and interacted with my friends, asking about their weekend plans.

As we can see here, how means of entertainment vary as per the generations. In the early ’90s, people relied on newspapers and magazines to keep up with what was going around the Globe. Previously, people were eager to see new movies on the large screen. They are still interested, but the entertainment industry has suffered as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Due to the pandemic, movie theatres have been shut down since last year, resulting in a loss of thousands of crores of rupees in revenue.

Top OTT Platforms

OTT Platforms, on the other hand, has seen rapid growth in the number of viewers. The Top Best OTT Platforms for watching new movies and web series online are Amazon Prime Video, Disney Hotstar, Netflix, Voot, Zee5, TVFPlay, and more. OTT stands for "over-the-top," and it provides a service that streams media/audio/video directly to viewers via the internet. YouTube is the biggest OTT platform in India. OTT platforms in India are growing, and so is the channel list of OTT platforms. People have been compelled to stay inside their houses due to the pandemic, which has increased their reliance on OTT Platforms. Millions of new customers have joined streaming apps around the world, which will benefit them even after the pandemic is over. The reason why youngsters are so much involved with the OTT platform because of their intriguing, engaging, and relatable stuff. The industry has taken on a new look thanks to OTT platforms. They provide consumers a wide range of content as well as the option to watch anything at any time and from any location, even downloaded it so they may watch later.

In a nutshell, I can conclude that OTT is the future of entertainment although the people are also going to watch the movies in the theatres but only for big-budget movies with a brand name like Shahrukh Khan, Salman Khan, Amir Khan, etc. Nowadays people are watching movies in Malls where along with movies they can shop, eat, and do other activities available in the Malls which are more like an outing experience than just watching a movie.

"We aren't in an information age, we are in an entertainment age"

                                                                                -Tony Ribbons