Is the Indian OTT industry maturing? For the first time in five years, since we began tracking Indian original content from streaming services, there were fewer originals in 2022 than what we had last year. That might be in part to the fact that cinemas were open for business across most of 2022. While OTT platforms enjoyed the benefit of a restrictive film market during the COVID-19 lockdown years, that advantage evaporated this year. Movies that were sold to the likes of Netflix, Zee5, Disney+ Hotstar, and Amazon Prime Video went back to theatres in 2022.

Still, there were a few big names — legacy and new-age — who made their streaming debut in 2022, in Alia Bhatt, Deepika Padukone, Madhuri Dixit, Ranveer Singh, and Diljit Dosanjh. Dixit had two releases in fact, across Netflix and Prime Video. Many, who had previously made OTT debuts in 2020 and 2021, returned, including Dhanush, Ajay Devgn, Akshay Kumar, Anil Kapoor, Taapsee Pannu, Vidya Balan, Vicky Kaushal, Rajkummar Rao, and Kartik Aaryan. Pannu was the most prolific amongst these, delivering three releases on streaming services in 2022 across Zee5 and Netflix.

Speaking of Zee5, it’s not the volume leader anymore — as was the case for the past four years. SonyLIV takes that crown in 2022 with 38 originals, though interestingly, that’s one less than its count last year. (What’s more interesting however is that Zee and Sony India are set to merge soon. I wonder how that will impact their combined slate once that happens.) Elsewhere, Voot Select did a lot more original series than in 2021, though a lot fewer short films, keeping its total count for 2022 more or less the same.

And while Zee5, Disney+ Hotstar, and Prime Video’s original film count dropped significantly — all thanks to theatres being open — Amazon’s free ad-supported off-shoot, miniTV, produced more originals than Prime Video. (Half of Amazon miniTV’s slate is short films though. And there are no feature films.) That was one of the major new entrants in 2022, as Amazon inserted a streaming service into its shopping app. (Amazon miniTV now has a website too.) Amazon seemed to be taking a leaf out of Flipkart’s playbook, which is funny because Flipkart Video died in 2022.

ALTBalaji didn’t have a single original this year either, merely co-producing one with MX Player, and licensing a few from Voot. The Viral Fever didn’t produce a single original for its platform TVFPlay, opting to sell its entire slate to partners. And Ullu, whose parent launched Atrangii in 2022, refused to provide inputs for our story. We tried to scan their (confusing) websites, but it was impossible to figure out what launched and when. Lastly, the original output for Watcho and Lionsgate Play grew to 300 percent of what it was in 2021, though it’s worth noting they are operating in single-digits even now.

With that, here is the complete list of all streaming service originals from India in 2022.

List of original OTT web series from India in 2022

Netflix

 

Disney+ Hotstar

 

Amazon Prime Video

 

Amazon miniTV

 

SonyLIV

 

Zee5

 

Voot Select

 

MX Player

 

Discovery+

 

Lionsgate Play

 

Hoichoi

 

ShemarooMe

 

manoramaMAX

 

Hungama Play

 

Watcho

List of original OTT movies from India in 2022

 

Netflix

 

Disney+ Hotstar

 

Amazon Prime Video

 

Amazon miniTV

 

SonyLIV

 

Zee5

 

Voot Select

 

Discovery+

List of original OTT comedy specials from India in 2022

 

Netflix

 

Amazon Prime Video

 

Watcho