What if Netflix was a crazy concert!

Every minute a handler walks up to me whispering into the ear ldquoYou wantrdquo I politely decline These arenrsquot drug dealers although Irsquom in Sao Paulo Brazilmdashfor all you know there are many of those here havenrsquot come across any yetThe handlers are selling to me celebrities While I stand behind the redvelvet rope holding a micmdashas stars of bigticket Netflix showsfilms walk the redcarpet for Tudum the streamerrsquos first such live global event showcasing their talents before a stadiumsized crowdldquoSo you want Chase Stokes Outer Banks Maisa Silva Back to 15 Valentina Zenere Elite Kiawentiio Avatar The Last Airbenderhelliprdquo I go ldquoNo no nohelliprdquoHaving trained my eyes specifically on who the Indians might care for the mostmdashGal Gadot Alia Bhatt Chris Hemsworth Maitreyi Ramakrishnanhellip Obviously Arnold Schwarzenegger but hersquos not gonna show up ldquoOh what about Anya Chalotra shersquos Indianrdquo asks rep of the series The Witcher NopeFeisty Denny Directo lsquoredcarpet specialistrsquo for the iconic celebritynugget show Entertainment Tonight thatrsquos been around since 1981mdashHollywoodrsquos Lehren if you maymdashhas a full deck of cards with questions for everyone on the list handed to us The list has photographs with names to match talents that pop up on the carpetItrsquos only once you enter the venue the magnificent Ibirapuera Park Sao Paulorsquos equivalent of NYCrsquos Central Park right in the lungs of the city with 125 million people that you realise frickinrsquo eh Those blokes I was buzzing off on are bloody bona fide bosses in BrazilThe wild screeching by mostly a youngling crowd so multiethnic looking themselvesmdashfor each of them Alisters regardless of country of origin or genre of contentmdashcould tear your eardrums at Tudum We watch the same Netflix I think they watch everythingThat global OTT platforms have brought showbizstorytelling therefore the world closer and closer stillmdashsomething that the theatrical distribution model and national television networks couldnrsquot as muchmdashneednrsquot be stated furtherConsider for instance what Hollywoodrsquos wonder woman Gadot tells me at the redcarpet about her Heart of Stone costar Alia BhattShe was already familiar with the Bollywood starrsquos work How Shersquod first seen her in RRR on Netflix Which is how Americans first streamed S S Rajamoulirsquos blockbuster and licked it all the way throughEventually leading to an unprecedented Oscarrun and the maiden Academy Award for Best Songmdashthe one filmmaking department Indians have but always scored over the rest of the worldIf any desi entertainment will become lsquojuntarsquo in Brazil itrsquoll likely happen over a streamer Zoya Akhtarrsquos The Archiesrsquo cast performed at Tudum The movie is half a year away from dropping Irsquom told a Brazilian fansite for The Archies albeit with a small number came up right after that nightrsquos quick danceSao Paulo speaks Portuguese The only way to get bymdasheven order simple coffee at the cafeacutemdashis via Google Translate Screaming to blow the larynx off holding placards posters of favourite celebs as a lovelanguage knows no barriersMost stars on the Tudum stage spoke in English Not that it matters what they said They just had to raise both their arms instructing the audience to get loudermdashthe job was doneSure there was an electronic board subtitling the spoken words Netflix being television after all appeared to have overcompensated for the size of the screen on stagemdashhuge enough that yoursquod have to crane your neck for itWhatrsquos Tudum anyway That thud on the desk that Frank Underwood Kevin Spacey once hit in the series House of Cards Itrsquos been Netflixrsquos signature intro 2015 onwardslsquoTudumrsquo is supposed to generate a Pavlovian response to what yoursquore embarking on again and againmdashie Netflix amp chill Which of course has developed another meaning of its own But the sound means different things to different people To me it equals mercifully more cerebral contentNetflixrsquos greatest contribution to India for instance is they made documentariesseries upperclass mainstream Itrsquos probably reality shows for someone else You get the driftWhatrsquoll still unite audiences eventually are starsfandom around the most loved showsfilms This is how mainstream film industries Hollywood Indian cinema included have sustained over decadeslsquoTudumrsquo the show in Sao Paulo though was effectively a slatelaunch where sneakpeeks trailers along with the chosen cast play out like the entertainment version of a salespitch on PowerPoint Every streamer does it But as a pressonly event Fans however connect differently As you could tell from how Netflix redefined itOr maybe this sort of frenzy is unique to Brazil Its distance from the common world has probably made it more curious about stories that are cultures apart It took even Denny from Entertainment Tonight 14hoursplus to travel from LA North America to Sao Paulo South AmericaAs Nicola Coughlan Penelope Featherington from Bridgerton put it to the Brazilian crowd ldquoEveryone should come heremdashyou make everybody feel like BeyonceacuterdquoIf I do return to Sao Paulo manifesting it right heremdashitrsquod have to be for an actual concert Canrsquot imagine what that madness be like Relief that the Paulistanos everywhere are so heavily into American retro poprock Which of course is where the music of my vintage has naturally graduated toMayank Shekhar attempts to make sense of mass culture He tweets mayankw14Send your feedback to mailbagmiddaycomThe views expressed in this column are the individualrsquos and donrsquot represent those of the paper