OTT Platforms to Co-Produce 22 Regional Language Films Under NFDC Partnership

NFDC-OTT Partnership to Fund Regional Language Films

The National Film Development Corporation announced a co-production framework with four major over-the-top streaming platforms — two international and two India-origin — under which 22 feature films in 11 regional and minority languages will be funded, produced, and distributed over the next two years. The languages covered include Odia, Bhojpuri, Dogri, Tulu, Kokborok, Sindhi, Santali, Meitei, Nepali, Kodava, and Chhattisgarhi — a list that reflects the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting's explicit policy priority of supporting languages that have significant speaking communities but minimal cinema infrastructure.

Under the terms of the framework, NFDC will contribute 40 per cent of production costs and the streaming platform partner will contribute 60 per cent in exchange for streaming rights. All funded films will receive a theatrical release window before the streaming premiere, reversing the exclusive streaming-first model that has dominated OTT acquisitions in recent years. The theatrical release requirement reflects a policy preference for maintaining cinema as a primary cultural space for these communities.

Selection Process

Projects are being selected through an open screenplay development call that has already received over 1,800 applications. A jury of filmmakers, linguists, and cultural practitioners from each of the 11 language communities will evaluate submissions, with priority given to stories rooted in the specific social and geographic realities of their language communities rather than narratives adapted from other language-industry conventions. The selection process explicitly excludes remakes of films already produced in other Indian languages — a provision designed to counter the tendency of smaller film industries to recycle popular content formulas from larger industries.

The programme includes a mandatory script development residency for selected filmmakers, held at the Film and Television Institute of India's Pune campus. Each selected project will receive a four-week structured development programme with a script consultant fluent in the production language and a production design mentor with experience in low-budget regional production. Development support has historically been the weakest link in the support infrastructure for non-Hindi Indian cinema, and the residency model aims to address this gap.

Distribution Guarantee as the Key Innovation

The most structurally significant aspect of the framework is the upfront distribution guarantee. Films in smaller language industries have historically faced severe constraints in reaching national or international audiences even when they achieve critical recognition, because conventional distribution networks have minimal incentive to invest in languages with small market reach. The streaming platform guarantee ensures that a Kokborok-language film will be as accessible to a viewer in Karnataka or Chicago as a Hindi blockbuster.

Platform executives who spoke at the announcement event pointed to the global commercial success of non-English language content on their services — citing Korean, Spanish, and Japanese original productions that have attracted audiences far beyond their language communities — as evidence that Indian regional language storytelling has comparable international potential when given equivalent production investment and distribution reach.