The second season of Dupahiya, the much-loved Prime Video series, dropped on the platform last weekend. The show, about a crime-free (formerly) village, had captured the audience’s attention when the first season was released last year. The second season yet again topped the charts. A few weeks ago, Adarsh Baal Vidyalaya not only achieved record viewership but also exploded in pop culture. And then there is the sustaining excellence of Gullak over five seasons. The signs are there. The slice-of-life comedy, set in a small town, is the new heartbeat of Indian streaming. Most big streaming platforms have shows in this milieu, and many have multiple titles. And it all seems to work.
The boom of small-town comedies
Streaming in India began before the advent of Netflix and Prime Originals, with YouTube, particularly TVF, churning out the first content. They were stories largely set in small towns, such as Kota Factory, even if they weren’t heartwarming comedies. The scale went up as shows like Sacred Games and Mirzapur gained success. But it took the success of a Panchayat to introduce a new sub-genre of comedies in this space – the small town, slice-of-life stories. What initially began as aping the success of one or two hit shows (Panchayat and Gullak were the earliest hits) soon transformed into an organic push. At FICCI Frames earlier this month, Gajraj Rao, who stars in Dupahiya, attributed this change to a shift in viewing patterns. “Earlier, OTT was watched alone on a phone. Now, families watch shows together on TV. So, platforms are creating shows for families.”