Panchayat, Gullak, Jamtara, Mirzapur: Why Small Town India Is OTT’s New Darling

Panchayat is set in a small, imaginary Indian village called Fullera. Mirzapur is centered around a district town in Uttar Pradesh. Kota Factory is set in the small town of Kota that made a name for itself with its coaching institutes and Jamtara is set in the real city of Jamtara in Jharkhand. Gullak is set in a nondescript town in Madhya Pradesh. In India’s OTT universe, small towns currently rule. Mannphodganj Ki Binny is about dreamy ‘Binny’ from the suburb of Mannphodganj in erstwhile Allahabad, now Prayagraj.

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A warm embrace of nostalgia

The growing fascination for stories from the heart of India comes with the increasing internet penetration in the country and the search for simplicity and connectivity in an era when life in the metros is becoming increasingly lonely and alienated. “It reminds the viewers of simpler times. The warm embrace of nostalgia, allied with a good story, is the secret sauce why these shows resonate so well (with viewers),” says Himalee Shah, director, Aam Aadmi Family season 4.

Actor Harshita Gaur, who plays Dimpy Pandit in Mirzapur, echoes Shah’s sentiment and tells us, “The portrayal of small-town life adds authenticity and relatability and portrays cultural nuances that attract them to these shows.”

Feels like home

Gaur, 33, adds, “Viewers are drawn to it because they feel like this could be happening in their neighbourhood.” She says more people resonate with stories from small towns because “eighty percent of India lives in tier II and tier III cities”. “The stories portrayed on screen seem more real to people from these cities, so they can relate to it more,” she adds.

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Dibyendu Bhattacharya, who plays Inspector Biswa in Jamtara, says, “In a show set in small towns, the hero is a common man. The hero is from the countryside. So it is more relatable and the portrayal is authentic.” For the 48-year-old, it is a sense of simplicity and community life that attracts audiences to stories based in small towns. “All of us, metropolitan or cosmopolitan, have our roots in villages,” he adds.

Content is king

Director Pratish Mehra says that it is true that audiences today want to see something that is a breath of fresh air amidst the gore and violence on screen, and at the same time gives them some mental relief from their hectic urban lifestyles, but ultimately, content is king. “The quality of writing has to engage the audience and compel them to watch the entire series. Simply setting the story in a small town with relatable characters does not guarantee success. However, creating a strong connect with the audience through relatable characters increases the viewer’s engagement with the show, which contributes significantly to its success.”

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Ahsaas Channa, who plays Shivangi Ranawat in Kota Factory, also believes that the appeal of small-town stories has more to do with the quality of the writing than just the context. “You have no reason to connect with a JEE aspirant studying for an exam in Kota unless you are one yourself or the parent of one. I think people connect with the show because of the excellent writing. You could watch a show about a middle-aged cop in America and you could relate to it if it’s written well. You can connect with small-town stories more easily because most of them are based on the lives of people living modest lifestyles.”

Daily soaps to OTT

When asked about the appeal of slice-of-life series set in small towns, Shrivastava, who played Sunny Mondal in Jamtara, says their popularity stems from the fact that they offer a refreshing contrast to the prevalent gore and violence in many OTT platform series.

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Sharing his views on how the OTT space is changing from an obsession with sex and violence to slice-of-life shows like Panchayat and Kota Factory, the actor says, “Initially, the audiences of serials were moving to OTT. They could see things like sex and violence that were not shown freely on TV. So that was new. The daily soap audience had the freedom to watch what they wanted. But since the audience was consuming a lot of the same kind of content during the pandemic, they are now tired of it.”

Will fatigue soon set in in this genre too?

Shrivastava says even slice-of-life stories can get tiresome if creators become formulaic. “Once one thing starts working, everyone wants to make the same thing. That’s when the fun stops. But as long as people keep making stories that are meaningful and come from the heart, good content will keep coming,” he says.

Mehta also feels that if similar content is made with the same approach, it can get boring. However, he says, “We have seen innumerable love stories made in India. And people have enjoyed watching them for decades.” “The difference lies in the approach and how you connect with the audience through characters. All these factors together determine whether a show works or not. Jab take story mein dum nahin hai, show nahi chal sakta,” he concludes.