Streaming Video News: December 18, 2018

I updated my list of Bollywood movies on Netflix with the exciting addition of the neo-noir thriller Andhadhun, my favorite Hindi film of the year so far. Other newly added 2018 releases include the Tamil movie Vanjagar Ulagam, the Malayalam flick Lilli, and the Hindi TV series Anjaan: Rural Myths.

One of the year’s biggest hits in the US — Badhaai Ho — is now streaming on Hotstar.

Amazon Prime added a ton of Indian content in the last few days. Many of the sixty or so movies added are actually returning titles, movies like Action Replayy that disappeared at the end of November.

Here’s the thing about Amazon: those old links from November no longer work, even if a movie was only MIA for a few weeks. Unlike Netflix — which makes one catalog entry for each title — Amazon makes a brand new product entry for each title depending on which distributor has the licensing contract. So if you watched Swami back in early November, you watched a version licensed by a particular company to be streamed by Amazon. When that contract expired, the product essentially disappeared even though it’s catalog entry remains. Then Amazon signed a new deal with Ultra Media & Entertainment, for which Amazon made a whole new entry for Swami, even though it’s the same movie.

One of the perks of the Netflix system is that, if a movie in your List expires, it’ll show back up in your List again if Netflix signs a new contract to stream it, even if it’s with a different company. To find out if a title that expired from Amazon becomes available again, you need, well…me. No worries, though. Main hoon na, y’all.

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