Chennai: “Alainga vaazhanum aezhainga saaganum poaraali nasunganum/ Vekkatha maanatha roashatha kooda nee aadhaaril inaikkanum.” (People should live, the oppressed should rule, and war should end. Fearlessly and honourably, even evil must be defeated.)
Plumes of red powder explode from the ground as a furious STR belts out these lines. Kitted out in black shirts and grey veshtis, the Tamil actor and his team dance to the rapid kuthu beat as a statue of Periyar towers over them, a silent witness.
The ‘Periyar Kuthu’ song is just a teaser. Periyar Vision, an OTT platform launched in Tamil Nadu last week, streams a smörgåsbord of offerings — music albums, documentaries, interviews, speeches — all connected by a single thread, social justice as envisaged by the father of the Dravidian movement. Anand Patwardhan’s Ram ke Naam will soon be available on the platform.
Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) MP K. Kanimozhi inaugurated Periyar Vision on 21 July, while her brother, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M.K. Stalin, delivered a video message in which he called the platform the “need of the hour” — at a time when Periyar and his ideology have been at the heart of a succession of conflicts with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
Periyar himself, was no stranger to the use of the media to propagate ideas of social justice. He started magazines in both English (Revolt) and Tamil (Kudi Arasu) as well as the newspaper Viduthalai, which later became the first Tamil newspaper to roll out a website and an e-paper. His Dravidar Kazhagam (DK) — the ideological parent of the DMK and the All India Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) — launched a website, Periyar.org, in 1996, and Periyar TV, a Tamil YouTube channel, in 2007.
But Periyar Vision is a step into a new realm. “This is the first OTT ever created for the propaganda of an ideology,” says Prince Ennares Periyar, the proprietor of Chennai-based Liberty Creations, which owns the platform. He says the platform — which plans to offer more and more content in languages other than Tamil — will play a crucial role in spreading Periyar’s ideology beyond Tamil Nadu.
The platform has amassed over 5,000 subscribers in less than a week since its launch. A subscription comes to Rs 49 per month, or Rs 588 annually. It’s available on iOS, Android and Android TV.
V. Anburaj, one of the directors of Liberty Creations, says, “We may not be commercially successful. But it’s our principle. Our focus is to highlight social problems unlike other mainstream media.” He adds that the younger generation’s interest in gathering knowledge is their motivation to improve.
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Other languages, ‘3D Periyar’
The YouTube channel, Periyar TV, had seen its reach shrink ever since the ascendance of the Narendra Modi-led BJP at the Centre, and the team at Liberty Creations thought another platform was needed.
“We have content and we know that Periyar’s content is very much needed and youths are searching for it. But it failed to reach people. So there was a need for another platform,” says Mathiselan R, head of creative and executive producer.
The team began to consider the idea of an OTT platform during the COVID-19 pandemic after seeing the success of other such platforms.
“We are trying to overcome the struggles we faced on other platforms such as YouTube and Facebook,” says Prince.
With over 2,000 pieces of content in Tamil at present, the team is also planning to expand the platform’s reach by introducing subtitles in both Indian and foreign languages, as well as dubbed material.
According to the team, the outreach to north India will begin with the release of the Hindi-dubbed version of the 2007 film Periyar on 17 September, his birth anniversary. Another key initiative will be the inclusion of progressive content originally created in other languages, dubbed in Tamil.
Prince says the team has been getting many calls from the film fraternity about donating their work and collaborating with the platform. They are also discussing the scope for producing their own original works.
“Now, we are becoming mainstream media. I can say that with clarity,” Prince says.
Amudhan R.P., the director of the award-winning documentary Shit, which is streaming on Periyar Vision, says the platform will encourage more people to make films on social issues. Through the life of Mariyammal, a sanitation worker in Madurai, the documentary explores the lives of sanitation workers, their working conditions and how they are treated by the public and the government.
“Earlier, we used to ask, ‘Who will watch it (films on social justice)?’ Now, they can make films. Whether it’s commercially viable or not, at least you have a platform now. For a filmmaker like me, it’s very important,” Amudhan says, adding that the platform focusing on one theme will also help scholars and members of the public who want to see more such content.
While 16-40-year-olds are the key demographic they’re targeting, the team also emphasise that they’re creating secular content for children. This content will include rhymes in multiple languages.
“It will be about nature, science, human awareness, everything. Without portraying any religious marks,” says Prince.
They’re also planning a 3D sci-fi show in which a character will look like Periyar, as well as Periyar’s life history in 3D.
“There is a need for social justice and non-religious content for kids. Most of the content there for kids is religious. We are allowing the child to think for themselves,” Prince says.
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Periyar and BJP
A rationalist reformer who started the self-respect movement, Periyar continues to be at the centre of many controversies in Tamil Nadu even 51 years after his death. He protested against deep-rooted social and gender inequality and casteism in society, and played a crucial role in the anti-Hindi agitations in the southern state that continue to date.
In November last year, state BJP chief K. Annamalai announced that statues of those who “denounced God” — referring to Periyar — would be removed from the vicinity of temples if the BJP came to power in the state.
Months before this, sports minister Udhayanidhi Stalin’s remarks on Sanatana Dharma had stirred up another controversy across the nation. The minister said Sanatana Dharma was against social justice and compared it to diseases that needed to be eradicated. After the BJP took it up, he justified his statement and said he was ready to present extensive writings by Periyar and B.R. Ambedkar, who conducted in-depth research on Sanatana Dharma and its “negative impact” on society.
DMK MP Kanimozhi, who launched the platform on 21 July in the presence of DK President K. Veeramani and actor Sathyaraj, said technology had been used to spread hatred and misinformation.
“Thanks to the BJP for opposing his (Periyar) beliefs and ideologies. Tarnishing Periyar’s image and humiliating him helped in strengthening his beliefs among people. The public has started reading about him and what he stood for,” she said.
Prince says Periyar’s ideology has always been misinterpreted.
“He is always creating a stir in India,” Prince says, adding that the platform will be a tool to show what Periyar stood for. English subtitles for the content was one of the early requests the team received, he adds.
“They (the BJP) showed Periyar in a way that he is anti-national, anti-Hindu. He was just a humanist.”