DG Box Office Head Ashish Bhavsar On Independent Films, Problems With OTT & Censorship, EXCLUSIVE!
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While pandemic has shifted our primary focus of entertainment towards the OTT universe, Ashish Bhavsar’s DG Box Office is an emerging platform in the revolution. The man who has worked in the industry in various aspects over the years aims to create an ecosystem that provides monetary gains to people producing content but not getting their due. Joining Koimoi for an exclusive chat, Bhavsar spoke about his platform, the moto, and a lot of things.
Explain how DG Box Office stands for Digital Box Office, Ashish first and foremost clears that his platform is curated to help the independent content creators.
Ashish Bhavsar says, “You have made a film, and maybe you do not have the tools to reach the audience. No one in the satellite business asks you until you have had a theatrical run. So I thought of creating a transparent platform where you can put your content. You decide the price of your film, decide on a ticket rate, which the audience will buy and get access to the content. I don feel owning a producer’s content for ages is a democratic way of working.”
“Now Amazon has released so many unreleased films, what profit did it bring? Mastram on MX Player has 584 million views. Show me one show with Abhishek Bachchan or whoever these stars are with that reach. They are throwing money at people. So the labyrinth of the haves and have nots of our industry is something I aim to break,” adds Ashish Bhavsar.
Further, the DC Box Office head talks about the problems on the OTT. He feels illogical intimacy is the major one. “OTT was meant to be telling stories that are brave in its content space. You cannot serve soft p*rn and call it content. Another problem is that, now even here, Bobby Deol has entered. Leave something for others at least,” Ashish Bhavsar said.
While on that, Bhavsar also shed light on his thoughts about inducing censorship in the digital ecosystem. He said, “How do you enforce censorship? Even if you bring it on digital, how will you? Some fellow will say my company is based in Sri Lanka and he will upload his content in India, how will you block it? People are still using TikTok right, Through various other means. Technology is the only thing that remains omnipresent here.”
Ashish Bhavsar aims to create a platform for every artistic individual seeking to monetise their content. As per him, the cost of tickets on DG Box Office will not be more than Rs 100 per head. The idea is to make an affordable space from both the ends.
