ZEE5 announces Telugu original series ‘Aha Na Pellanta’

ZEE5, the video streaming platform owned by Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd, will premiere a Telugu original called Aha Na Pellanta on 17 November. Directed by Sanjeev Reddy and produced by Tamada media, the eight-episodic series features Raj Tarun and Shivani Rajashekhar.

“Aha Na Pellanta is a modern-day love story that will connect with audience at various levels. As the multilingual storyteller of India, we take pride in focusing on entertainment by partnering with storytellers for diverse narratives and this Telugu offering is another step in that direction,’’ Manish Kalra, chief business officer, ZEE5 India said in a statement.

In 2021, over-the-top (OTT) streaming platforms saw films in the four south Indian languages, including their dubbed versions, gain big audiences and as much as 10% of overall viewing minutes.

West and north Indian states like Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh and Delhi NCR (National Capital Region) accounted for 75% of viewership for dubbed films, said platform executives. Malayalam film ‘Minnal Murali’ was one of the top ten non-English films on Netflix for the last week of December, with 5.9 million viewing hours while Jai Bhim, Sarpatta Parambarai and Soorarai Pottru are among Amazon Prime Video’s biggest hits.

After its release in theatres, the period drama RRR was dubbed in Spanish, Portuguese and Korean for Netflix. Netflix has also seen its Tamil anthology ‘Navarasa’ feature in the Top 10 in 10 countries including India, Malaysia, Sri Lanka. In its first week on Netflix, more than 40% of the viewers of the film were from outside India.

In the last one year, films like Nayattu (Malayalam), Andhaghaaram (Tamil), Pitta Kathalu (Telugu), Paava Kadhaigal (Tamil), Cinema Bandi (Telugu) and Mandela (Tamil) have all featured in the Top 10 in India.

In an earlier interview with Mint, Manish Menghani, head of content licensing at Prime Video India had said for movies in Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam and Kannada, 50% of the audiences come from outside their respective home states.