Korea teaches us more than Hollywood: Aha co-founder at India Digital Summit

The regional content space in India is growing at an impressive rate. There are several examples of successful vernacular ventures in the country as well. While many have looked to the West for inspiration, regional OTT players believe there is much more to learn from Korea than from Hollywood.

Speaking at the India Digital Summit, Ajit Thakur, co-founder of Aha, a regional OTT platform serving the Tamil and Telugu-speaking diaspora, shared his thoughts on this, saying that Korea has more to offer than Hollywood.

“It has a lot to do with the kind of distribution, marketing, and the single-minded love for fantasy they have in any genre, that their content is so successfully distributed globally. Today, Korean studios are making some of the biggest Hollywood shows that are an adaptation of Korean shows,” Thakur said. While regional content has gained a strong following within India, it has yet to make a significant impact on the global stage.

When asked if Indian languages could follow the global success of Korean or Japanese content, Vinay Singhal, CEO of STAGE Technologies, said, “It has started happening within our subcontinent. One of our Haryanvi films garnered a massive audience across India, from Lucknow and Patna to the far east in Nagaland.

This success sparked a belief that one day, any content in Haryanvi, Rajasthani, or any regional language, can achieve international recognition, like at the Oscars." STAGE is an OTT platform offering content in Haryanvi and Rajasthani languages.

Another key to success for vernacular ventures, as discussed during the session, is owning the technology. Soumya Mukherjee, CEO of Hoichoi, a Bengali-based OTT platform, shared how they are now developing their own technology as part of their growth. “We’ve begun developing our own front-end applications and are on the verge of launching our own back-end systems. This will give us complete end-to-end control over our platform,” Mukherjee said.

Vinay Singhal also commented, “I believe there’s immense value in owning your own technology. This goes beyond cost savings. It provides unparalleled control over marketing, experimentation, and customer acquisition funnels, which ultimately outweighs any initial investment. In our case, owning our technology significantly improved our marketing efficiency and helped us address the challenge of high customer acquisition costs. I believe this strategy should be considered by all companies.”

Changes Needed On the topic of bringing regional OTTs into the mainstream, Thakur believes that the platforms need to become “a lot more interactive” to keep the younger generation engaged. He also stressed the importance of making the apps much lighter. Thakur suggested that a more intuitive recommendation engine could further enhance the experience for users of regional OTT platforms.