The Telemundo wave on Indian OTT

Mar 10, 2021, 2:00 pm ISTNewsIANS

The Mexican-American comedian Gabriel 'Fluffy' Iglesias, during his India tour a few years back, had joked about the similarities between India and his native country Mexico. Iglesias' jokes were met with hearty laughter in India. If sense of humour defines culture in a big way, striking a common chord in what is deemed funny only underlined Iglesias' contention of similarities.

The sentiment is probably the reason Mexican cinema and TV shows have had a special connect with Indian audiences. With majority of the plots of their cinematic universe revolving around the concept of family, or the typical rags-to-riches story, or the emergence of mafia and druglords, Indian audiences are able to connect with all such projects.

Despite the presence of shows such as "El Chapo" and "Narcos", which are made for global audiences on OTT platforms, a slew of Mexican shows, which were created for Mexican and Latin American audiences, have found their way into these platforms and are being lapped up by the Indian audience.

Telemundo, which is a Miami-based network, creates majority of these Mexican TV shows such as "Falsa Identidad" and "Sin Senos no Hay Paraiso", agreed to transfer the rights of these popular shows to different OTT platforms to garner a global audience. India is steadily emerging as a popular country where such shows are aired.

Some popular Telemundo produced shows, which are streaming on OTT platforms in India, are:

"Jugar con Fuego"

The Spanish-language show, which first aired in Mexico and other Latin American countries in 2019, came to India via OTT space the same year. The show, a drama, is about a young man having affairs with three women simultaneously, and how his entry brings chaos and danger in the lives of these women.

"Falsa identidad"

The romantic drama, which first aired in Mexico in 2018, and later aired cross the globe on Netflix, is about two strangers forced to assume the identity of a married couple to escape the horrors from their past. The show has two seasons.

"Sin Senos no Hay Paraiso"

First aired in 2008 in the Americas, the show follows the story of an underage Mexican prostitute dreaming about receiving breast implants to attract rich cocaine smugglers. The show came on OTT in 2015. The show was so successful back in Americas that Telemundo ordered a sequel of the show, "Sin senos si hay paraiso" in 2016, and the rights of that show, too, have been acquired for OTT streaming in India among other countries.

"Preso No. 1"

The Telemundo commissioned limited series, which is about 44 episodes long, first aired on the network in July 2019, and was later streaming on OTT platforms by December the same year. The show revolves around a Mexican President, who became the head of the country despite his poor background, and how he gets wrongly accused of corruption by a biased news organisation, with his followers vowing to bring him back to power. While the show has had an open ending, season two is yet to be announced.

"No te puedes esconder"

The thriller show first aired in Latin American countries in 2019, and started streaming on OTT platforms since January 2020. It revolves around a woman who is forced to run away from her abusive and criminal ex-husband, only to be later discovered by a hit man assigned for the job by the husband. Twist in the tale comes when it becomes clear that the hit man was saved by the same woman when he was younger.