During the celebration of India’s 75th Independence Day, India’s daughter, Hollywood film producer, and a tech-entertainment entrepreneur based in Silicon Valley, Sweta Rai launches a first-of-its-kind OTT channel, Diverse Cinema.
Swati Bhat
This OTT was launched in the USA on American Independence Day, the fourth of July this year. Sweta became the first Indian woman to establish a diversity streaming channel for independent films in America and the World on USA Independence Day.
Founder & CEO of Diverse Cinema, Sweta Rai, is an immigrant from India who moved to the US a decade ago from Singapore. She has pursued her master's education in the USA and is the recipient of several other master's degrees and international awards. She recalls, "Back in the 90s, when I was growing up in a small town in India, the only exposure we had to foreign films was through Hindi dubbed Jurassic Park or Jumanji. I would have never dreamt of being a part of Hollywood one day. It took me almost two decades to do this; imagine, with technology, I can give this platform to any dreamer from the remotest cities of India to connect with a Worldwide audience. In the next few months, we will be available on most of the TV sets and devices of the world where content is streamed." Sweta's streaming service, Diverse Cinema www.diversecinema.com, aims at bridging the gap between independent filmmakers and access to the streaming channel where they can monetize their content.
Based in San Francisco, Diverse Cinema is becoming a hub for independent filmmakers. According to the Diverse Cinema Founder, "As a former independent filmmaker myself, I have been on the other side of the business when I was chasing streaming platform biggies to distribute my films. I would wait for months to hear a ‘no’ sometimes; as an independent filmmaker who has spent every dime on making a film, waiting even for a few days adds up to the expenses. On our channel, films could go live between 2-3 days if all the assets are submitted correctly." Diverse Cinema is adding NFT technology to allow filmmakers to sell original content through NFTs. With a stellar team of technology veterans, including Stanford/ Harvard alums, Ms. Rai is taking the message of diversity and inclusion to a different level.
Following soft launches, the Channel aims for its official launch in various countries in the next few months. Ms. Rai has produced multiple feature films with the likes of Late James Caan (Godfather), Jon Voight (Midnight Cowboy), Bo Derek (Tarzan), and some of her mentors during the Hollywood journey are Neil Canton (Back to the Future), Robert Cort (Jumanji). She is also the Founder & CEO of Indo Holly Films, a production studio through which she has produced ‘A Pandemic: Away From the Motherland,’ which was in the race for the OSCARS and bagged her ‘Most Innovative Film Production CEO (LA)’ award by Acquisition International magazine.
Diverse Cinema welcomes all content creators to submit their finished family-oriented feature films, web series, animated shows, documentaries, music videos, and short films directly to their platform’s content creators’ page. The content is reviewed daily to give the creators the opportunity for a worldwide release and put pricing to it to monetize. Now playing worldwide on Diverse Cinema exclusive films like the first found footage film (Indian regional) 'Vazhiye,' films based on Immigrant journey, a Spanish drama 'An American Posada,' Telegu cinema's investigative thriller, 'Life of 3,' Italian mob Godfather-like web series, and an Italian comedy feature 'Kidnappings, blackmail and a doghouse,' an Indian farmer's inspirational story 'Ek Kisan Rajput,' Cannes Lions' award-winning documentaries, social message films like 'In God We Trust,' zombie apocalypse thrillers like 'III-Day,' more and more diverse films are added every day on the platform. Diverse Cinema also presents a vast bouquet of Southeast Asian Cinema which aims to bring Indo-Hollywood content to a larger screen.
"There is diversity everywhere in India and the world, from North to South and East to West; we bring this channel for audiences to cherish diversity by watching Independent films from all regions, genders, communities, and countries," adds Sweta.