Disney+ Hotstar to stream ‘Avatar- The Way of Water’ on 7 June

Disney+ Hotstar will stream epic science fiction film Avatar- The Way of Water directed and produced by James Cameron on 7 June in Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam and Kannada.

Distributed by 20th Century Studios, it is the sequel to Avatar (2009) and the second instalment in the Avatar film series. Cast members Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldaña, Stephen Lang, Joel David Moore, CCH Pounder, Giovanni Ribisi, Dileep Rao, and Matt Gerald reprise their roles from the original film, with Sigourney Weaver returning in an additional role while Kate Winslet joined the cast.

When released in December, it had made over ₹378 crore at the box office in India, the highest ever for a Hollywood film in the country.

Viewership of international content on over-the-top (OTT) video streaming platforms in India has nearly doubled in 2022 as audiences took to original and dubbed versions of English, Turkish, Spanish and Korean shows and films.

Viewers have become increasingly language-agnostic owing to the dubbing and subtitling of international shows popular for high-quality storytelling and production, said streaming services firms. Many services also used social media influencers and Bollywood stars to market these shows in India over the past year.

According to media consulting firm Ormax, the most viewed international series last year include House of the Dragon (28.2 million) and Moon Knight (23.4 million) beating the previous year’s record of 19.3 million by Hawkeye. All three shows are on Disney+Hotstar.

“Indian viewers have high interest and appetite for great global and local content. Stories are universal and streaming with its innate ability to transcend physical boundaries has allowed audiences across the globe to experience them in a language they prefer. People are inherently culturally curious, intrigued by stories from around the world,” a Netflix spokesperson had said in an earlier interview.