In the current election season if there was an endorsement required from a giant of a politician about the outreach of OTT as a medium of entertainment on ever expanding spree, one could not have got a better endorsement for it than from Smriti Irani! She has emerged as a giant killer uprooting Rahul Gandhi from Amethi and celebrated the victory by using a famous quote from GAME OF THRONES-The North Remembers.
Indeed, it is an apt metaphor to use as her victory has been a meticulous effort that has been possible owing a meticulous planning by the team ala the pack of wolves who have the capacity, capability and the power to bring down mightiest of the beasts in the jungles when they hunt in packs.
The quote from GAME OF THRONES used by Smriti Irani was a perfect retort to perhaps an exclamation from Priyanka Gandhi. When Priyanka Gandhi was asked about Smriti Irani fighting against Rahul Gandhi, she had exclaimed- Smriti-who? And NORTH DID REMEMBER.
Smriti Irani was candid enough to go on record and share the view that she could be perhaps one of the first politicians and mothers who saw GAME OF THRONES and also sat along with her children and watched the saga, as she reported to various television channels during the course of her interview after her victory.
As a matter of fact GAME OF THRONES was used as a standard template and reference point by the users in social media for the #GeneralElections2019. Most of the users used various reference points from GAME OF THRONES to link it with the way the election results panned out.
While Smriti Irani may have been the first politician to go on record to use the analogy from GAME OF THRONES, during the election campaign right up to the declaration of the results, political parties of all hues used the templates as per their convenience. Even Election Commission had used the analogy from the GoT to extoll people to go out and vote.
The copious manner in which the templates from the 8 episode saga was used, underlines the fact that OTT is gaining ground in the consciousness of the public all across the country and in the times to come it would be used more frequently.
The real success and outreach of OTT would however be, when, an Indian OTT product is used as a reference point by the common man as also the political leaders of the country. It indeed is GAME OF THRONES.
