Archana Anand On ‘RRR’s Success, India And Finding A Niche In The U.S.

The titular “ZEE5” is an Indian subscription video-on-demand streaming service run by Zee Entertainment Enterprises, headquartered in Mumbai. Something akin to Netflix that focuses on South East Asian films.

In an interview with Deadline, ZEE5 Global Chief Business Officer Archana Anand explains how India’s most successful and talked about film of the year, RRR, often referred to as Triple R, was instrumental and rocketing the service to new global heights in 2022, with 209% year-on-year increase in viewership. In the U.S., it has become the streamer of choice for many Indians and South Asians. The site boasts an impressive 40 million users, according to Enterprise Today.

Archana, who herself is based out of New York, also reveals South Asian content is picking up audiences where even the global and cultural juggernaut Bollywood hasn’t, with languages like Telugu dominant among ZEE5 Global subs in the U.S. (a 20% share of local subs) and Australia (13%). While the Telugu language RRR has evidently led the charge, other non-Hindi titles such as Valimai, Karthikeya 2 and Fingertip have also been juggernaut draws for the service.

ZEE5 launched in the U.S. in 2021 and quickly found an audience among local South Asian audiences, targeting them specifically, including working with south Asian student associations. Dubbing and
“subtitling has led to major upticks in the U.S. and UK among other territories” says Anand.

According to Deadline “In terms of content, ZEE5 Global has pushed closer towards Europe and The United States with The Broken News, an Indian remake of Mike Bartlett’s BBC drama Press, and is actively working on creating an original series out of the U.S., with a call to creators have gone out earlier this year. ZEE5 sources say the status of this initiative remains “under discussion” with updates likely to follow further down the line.”

Anand and her ZEE5 colleagues will be hoping the momentum will keep up in 2023. Major corporate change is on the horizon as the merger between broadcaster parent Zee Entertainment Enterprises Limited and Culver Max Entertainment (fka Sony Pictures Networks India) moves closer to completion. That would put the streamer on the same roster as rival SonyLIV, with many scenarios possible at that point.

With RRR and rising American interest in foreign films, the future looks bright for ZEE5, which could catapult an era of Bollywood films in the western filmsphere, much like the rise of the spaghetti western in the 1960s.