The new season of The Family Man has been a resounding success with critics and audiences alike, in India and across the world. Another big win for Amazon Prime Video after their popular sequels, such as Four More Shots Please! Mirzapur, Comicstaan and Inside Edge. We spoke to Aparna Purohit, Head of India Originals at Amazon Prime Video, about how content is king today. Excerpts:

Our key tenet is to back a good story when we see one — a story that is unique, inspiring and intensely local. When green-lighting a project, we bet on the authenticity of the story and the passion and vision of the creators. Good stories connect and have the potential to transcend all barriers of language and geography. The reason for The Family Man’s success is the fact that it is relatable, yet inspirational. Raj and DK (Raj Nidimoru, Krishna DK), the extraordinary creators of The Family Man, have reimagined the spy-thriller genre by chronicling the dual life of a middle-class family man who also happens to be an exceptional agent. Or, as Manoj Bajpayee aptly puts it, is the James Bond of Chembur! The creators’ quintessentially distinct, independent voice is what sets this story apart. In just two weeks, The Family Man’s new season has become one of the most watched on our streaming service in India.

Successful stories do not flourish in isolation — they come alive with collaboration. Our goal is to help create a community, a creative space for storytellers. My opening gambit to creators is to come to us with their passion projects, stories that might be locked in their closet, ideas that are keeping them up at night. The success of our Originals is the result of our commitment towards nurturing and championing the distinct vision of our creators.

Our strategy has always been to think from the customer-backwards. This is Amazon’s core philosophy across all businesses. We strongly believe that there’s never been a greater appetite for quality content. Audiences have become discerning and have high expectations from what they’re watching. We prioritise distinct storytelling styles and are bringing forth diverse multi-genre stories.

A show builds a community — a sense of belonging and loyalty. The audiences spend a lot of time with the characters and build a relationship with them. These characters start representing the common experiences of people, they become a part of everyday conversations — they truly become part of the pop culture.

For instance, the character of Chellam sir from The Family Man has become a cultural icon overnight and his fandom cuts across demographics. It is important to invest in development — give the creators all the support and tools to build an immersive universe the audiences can relate with.

When we decide to support a project, we ask creators about their long-term vision for the show — we try to understand the universe that they want to create, the layers and nuances of their characters, and their larger vision for the characters across seasons. We invest wholeheartedly to support high-quality writing and casting, because we understand that even a one-off ‘sur’ is enough to break the magic of the world that storytellers so painstakingly create.

We believe that our discerning customers expect every character to be crafted with depth and cast with authenticity, and we continuously support creators in their endeavour to meet this expectation.

Over the past four years, we have been able to nurture and support the birth of a robust creative ecosystem of storytellers, creators, and artistes who trust us and come back to work with us on multiple projects. Currently, we have over 70 projects in development with both established and emerging creative voices. We are working with over 60 different production houses across languages. Many of our partners have multiple projects in development and production. For instance, we are doing several shows with D2R, Abundantia, Excel Entertainment, Emmay Entertainment, Pritish Nandy Communications, OML and Still & Still. We encourage storytellers to bring to life their vision and shoulder the responsibility of helping them take their passion projects to audiences in 240+ countries and territories.

Our undeterred focus is authenticity. We encourage creators and producers to cast for characters — whether it is Mairembam Ronaldo Singh as Cheeni, Jaideep Ahlawat as Hathiram in Paatal Lok, Ritwik Bhowmik as Radhe and Shreya Chaudhary as Tamanna in Bandish Bandits and Samantha Akkineni as Raji. And wouldn’t you agree that there can be no better Srikant Tiwari than Manoj Bajpayee in The Family Man or Kaleen bhaiya than Pankaj Tripathi or Guddu bhaiya than Ali Fazal in Mirzapur? This is liberating and has led to a level playing field for emerging as well as established talent. We are thrilled that some of our bets are starting to pay off. We truly want to be enablers for a prolific creative community and a dynamic creative zeitgeist.