Netflix, Amazon Prime, Disney+, Hulu, Peacock are just few popular ones out of the dozens of OTT platforms available globally. Ever since the pandemic, such platforms and the content available on them have become the best friends for the cinephiles who enjoy a wide range of movies, shorts and series from all around the world. No wonder, these platforms have been gaining more popularity with each day.

While the rest of the world (or at least most of it) also have their own home grown platforms apart from these streaming giants; Nepal, however, is yet to have the go-to favorite OTT platform where one would enjoy a variety of procured content along with some good originals. As for now, YouTube still remains the no. 1 video platform for our filmmakers to release their film. No complaints at all, nothing wrong with that — it’s just that we often have to wait for at least a couple of years until the film lands there.

There, however, are some players who are looking to change the game. Cinemaghar, Video Pasal and the newly launched, Kantipur Cinemas are some of them. Kantipur Cinemas has a subscription based revenue model — starting from 299 bucks a month — that gives you access to all of their content. Along with a number of theatre-released films, this platform has the most number of original content for now including ‘Love Sutra’, ‘Brahmanda’ and ‘Miss Scarlet’ among others. ‘Jackie I am 21’ and ‘Julebi’ are the most recent films currently streaming on the platform.

Video Pasal, on the other hand, has a transactional model where people can pay for individual piece of content and rent them for a limited period of time. The most this platform charges for a film is $3.99 and you can watch Chakka Panja 4 for that price; and for $1.99, you can watch another recent film ‘Jhingedau’. There are some films that you can watch for free as well but all of them are already available on YouTube, so yeah, doesn’t make much of a difference.

Cinemaghar has also got the similar options as Video Pasal where a minimum you have to pay for a film is a dollar and for two, you can watch newer and more hyped movies. ‘Jaari’ is the most recent film steaming on the platform for now; with ‘Paani Photo’ set to release by the end of this week.

One interesting thing about Cinemaghar, however, is that you can actually watch all the films available here for free too. I think that’s one of the features that makes it a little more popular than other platforms. I am not sure if that’s a smart thing to do or not, but hey, I love that these folks are kind like that.

So there’s this feature called ‘My Rewards’ on the app where you can watch ads — five to thirty seconds long — and after the completion of each one of those ads, you get two coins. You can watch up to 50 ads and earn up to 100 coins in a single day. Then there’s this Daily Quiz where you can earn up to 50 coins per day. Each correct answer gets you one coin and as soon as you choose a wrong answer, it’s game over — you will get the coins for your correct answers and next you can play is only after a day. Then there’s this Login Bonus that gives you two coins, and you can claim it every single day. So that’s sureshot 102 coins you can make everyday, along with those that you make on Daily Quiz.

See that coin icon on top right corner? You would wanna touch there.

It brings you to this world of CineCoin. Just go crazy out there!!

The newer films, that cost you two dollars in real money, can be watched for 200 coins and for 100, you can watch the others that can be rented for a dollar. You just have to select the ‘Free (with 100/200 CineCoin)’ option when you choose to stream a film; and if you have those many coins, it will get you access to that film for a week. You can watch it on your phone or can simply cast it to your television.

So yeah, such an easy (and free) way for Nepali film lovers to watch these films. ‘Jaari’ is there, which is a really good film. There’s ‘Maha Purush’ which did pretty good in cinemas but I only liked it so so. ‘Dokh’ was one that I liked better. Namrata Shrestha’s ‘Xira’ again is mediocre. But ‘Premganj’ was actually surprisingly better than I expected. It’s too long and should have been cut down by thirty minutes, but still, it’s a good one.

Anyway, moral of the story — Cinemaghar > All other platforms.