Manisha Koirala and Vikramaditya Motwane talk about the convergence of streaming and cinema at the International Film Festival of India

Acclaimed actor Manisha Koirala (Bombay, 1942: A Love Story, Khamoshi) and filmmaker Vikramaditya Motwane (Udaan, Trapped) discussed the evolving landscape between cinema during a session at International Film – and streaming platforms Festival of India (IFFI) in Goa, where Koirala also revealed plans to adapt a comedy book by actresses of the 1990s and 2000s to write about the culture of Generation Z.

“For me as an actor, be it for the big screen or a web series, the same amount of work and sincerity is required. The preparation, the mindset, everything is the same,” said Koirala, who recently starred in Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s hit Netflix series “Heeramandi: The Diamond Bazaar”.

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Motwane, who directed Prime Video’s “Jubilee” and Netflix’s “Sacred Games,” noted that streaming offers more creative flexibility. “The wonderful thing about streaming is that with theatrical films you don’t always have to say that you have to make a film two to two and a half hours long. You have a story, you have a pivot – it can be a movie, it can be 10 hour-long episodes over five seasons, it can be 20-minute episodes.”

The filmmaker, whose debut film ‘Udaan’ was screened at Cannes, revealed that ‘Sacred Games’, an adaptation of Vikram Chandra’s best-selling novel, served as a learning experience in a serial format. “Netflix said, OK, here’s the book. We took the book and disassembled it. It took six months longer than it should have, but we figured it out. Understanding how this format works, what a cliffhanger is and why you need a cliffhanger at the end if you want people to skip to the next episode.”

Both agreed that streaming has given veteran actresses more opportunities for diverse storytelling and roles. “Thanks to the OTT (streaming) platforms and audience, the older actresses are playing powerful roles in cinema too,” Koirala noted. “The space is there for them because the minds and hearts of the audience have expanded.”

The filmmaker revealed that working in streaming allowed him to make his feature film production more efficient. “What I learned from ‘Sacred Games’ and ‘Jubilee’ actually helped me in the feature films because I can shoot a lot faster now. We created five pages a day. “Jubilee,” consisting of 10 one-hour episodes, was filmed in 90 days, including 10 lip-synced songs.”

Motwane pointed out that India is still adapting to the showrunner format common in international series. “We are still not used to the showrunner format in this country. We have to expand on it, we have to develop it a little bit further, and so there will be a lot more new directors coming in.”

According to Motwane, the rise of private viewing on mobile devices has also influenced content consumption habits in India. “India is a country that first introduced the internet through its phones rather than broadband. Most people’s first device is their phone, which allows for private viewing.”

The session was curated by festival director Shekhar Kapur.

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