Meghalaya Chief Minister Conrad K. Sangma and Tourism Minister Paul Lyngdoh (to his left) with award-winning content creators for the State-owned OTT platform.
| Photo Credit: Special Arrangement
A Meghalaya government-owned OTT platform has helped boost the creative economy in the northeastern State, the government said.
Hello Meghalaya, the second State-owned OTT platform after Kerala’s, was launched on July 11. In five months, the app recorded more than 3.14 lakh downloads, about two lakh registrations, thousands of views, content downloads, and content sharing.
Officials said Hello Meghalaya has been commanding a strong social media presence with about 9,000 YouTube, 5,000 Instagram, and more than 4,000 Facebook subscribers during this period.
On December 18, Meghalaya’s Tourism Department organised a conclave in the State’s capital Shillong to mark the increasing popularity of the OTT platform.
Chief Minister Conrad K. Sangma launched the Guidelines of Film Grant booklet at the event to “encourage film production and promote the use of local language” through a corpus fund to provide financial assistance to filmmakers.
The corpus fund caters to four categories of content creators. Under category A, nominated filmmakers will receive up to ₹35 lakh to produce a feature film within a calendar year.
Category B offers up to ₹25 lakh for feature films while Category C provides up to ₹20 lakh for web series, disbursed per episode, with a minimum of 10 episodes, each 30-40 minutes long. Category D supports emerging filmmakers from Meghalaya with up to ₹five lakh to create short films.
“We have been able to push the OTT platform to the next level in the last six months or so. We are happy with the kind of response we are getting,” he said, urging the State’s creative youth to take advantage of the programmes run by the State government.
The conclave featured an award ceremony honouring storytellers across categories such as films, web series, and documentaries, highlighting the importance of diverse narratives. Winners in each category received a cash prize of ₹25,000.
Additionally, five beneficiaries from the State were recognised with ₹10,000 each as a token of appreciation for their contributions to the success of the Hello Meghalaya app.
Tourism Minister Paul Lyngdoh said the government decided to hand-hold filmmakers with a purpose. “We look forward to the day when they are in a position to stand on their own,” he said.
Published – December 19, 2024 08:52 pm IST