Swwapnil Joshi’s 1 OTT joins hands with Subhash Ghai’s Whistling Woods International

Swwapnil Joshi and Narendra Firodia’s upcoming digital platform 1 OTT: Bharat Ka Apna Mobile OTT has joined hands with veteran filmmaker Subhash Ghai’s institute Whistling Woods International. Through this tie-up, the films made by the students of Ghai’s institute will be shown on 1 OTT.

The announcement was made recently by Joshi, Ghai and Firodia at a press conference. 

Speaking about the tie-up, Joshi said at the event, “We are thankful to Whistling Woods and Subhash Ghaiji for this association which is just the beginning of a long-term partnership. Through this partnership [the] audience will get an opportunity to watch the very first projects of now well-known directors in Bollywood. These films are from all genres and are made by the students of Whistling Woods. It’s a great platter of entertaining cinema for the audience. They are in four to five Indian languages, and of course in English.” 

Showing gratitude towards Ghai, the actor added, “I thank Ghai sir for having shown faith in an upcoming platform like us. It swells our hearts with pride and gives us a lot of positivity and encouragement to do bigger and better projects in the future. When you think about the legendary director Ghaisaab, the first and foremost words that come to your mind are craftsmanship, grandeur, storytelling and world-class stuff among others.” 

Ghai added, “There are more than 10,000 scripts from our ancient era, from Valmiki to Tulsidas, but only 2,000 of them have been converted into films. The acting school founded by us is to cater to this untapped stuff. I will keep producing films in the second half of my life. I have to produce the producers of the films through this acting school."

He added, “I keep telling my students at Whistling Woods to work on the untapped stories and understand their nuances, the point of view behind them. I can proudly say that my students have been working on it for last 15 years. I am proud to be associated with ‘1OTT’ because it will give recognition to my students and budding talent by showcasing their works through mobile App.” 

Speaking about the multi-lingual films of today’s times, the filmmaker said, “I used to make films in Hindi, but today the films are produced in various Indian languages and they are doing a good amount of business. Now, you cannot make films [in] any one particular language; they have to be in the maximum Indian languages and it is the future of the film industry. The changes we have witnessed in the last two decades have stormed the film industry. I am happy to learn about the OTT app my friend Swwapnil has come up with to cater to various Indian languages. Though India has various languages, we have more than 5,000 dialects and we should always keep [that] it in mind while producing content.” 

Reasoning on the need for an OTT app in regional languages, Firodia said, “India is a huge market for the content on OTT and it has been proven in the last two years. Since regional languages were not getting due participation on these platforms, we decided to launch 1 OTT for the content in Indian languages. The platform will benefit the contents from all the Indian languages. We are aiming at giving quality content in Indian languages to our viewers and [in] that way it will be India’s OTT. The joint venture with Whistling Woods International is nothing but showcasing one of the best talents from the industry on this platform.” 

The logo of 1 OTT was launched in December last year by Maharashtra governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari.