MxMIndia

Category: COLUMNS

  • When content innovation is tough to find, it’s clashes like these than can generate interest in what is a huge but creatively stagnant genre, writes Shailesh Kapoor

    Shailesh Kapoor: Clash It Up: Bajirao Mastani v/s The Kapil Sharma Show

    By Shailesh Kapoor

     

    The prevailing humdrum in the Hindi GEC category has been the pet peeve of this column, especially since mid-2014. But this weekend, specifically this Saturday, that complaint will be forgotten. In a rather interesting clash, The Kapil Sharma Show (TKSS) will be launched on Saturday, April 23 at 9pm on Sony, at exactly the same time as the television premiere of blockbuster film Bajirao Mastani on Colors.

     

    There isn’t much strategic value to this clash. The two channels are not locked in a close battle for a category rank. The fortunes of either channel won’t be dictated by who wins this little contest. Neither will the fortunes of TKSS depend on its first episode alone. Yet, the clash has excitement written all over it.

     

    The primary reason for this excitement is that the clash is evidently orchestrated. TKSS announced its arrival details well in advance, and Bajirao Mastani was slotted against it a couple of weeks later. We know that all didn’t go well between Sharma and Colors, and his parting wasn’t exactly smooth. Colors’ decision to slot Bajirao Mastani against TKSS can be seen as inspired mischief. And why not! Who minds a little harmless fun, after all?

     

    It’s a clash of an apple and an orange though. A single-event like Bajirao Mastani will always aggregate audiences better than an episode of a show. Bajirao Mastani is one of the most decorated films in recent years, and in more ways than one too, and its premiere has recorded excellent buzz and has been tracking at par with the biggest movie premieres over the last decade. PK, Bajrangi Bhaijaan, Bahubali and Prem Ratan Dhan Payo have set high rating benchmarks, and Bajirao Mastani would like to enter that bracket, though its last hour (post 11pm) may be its undoing. An 8pm slotting would have helped end the film early, but 8pm vs. 9pm is not half as much fun as 9pm v/s 9pm.

     

    In its first hour, Bajirao Mastani will be against the most popular comedian Indian television has ever seen, in a launch event of sorts. For many viewers, the first 15 minutes of this show could decide which way they swing for the rest of the hour. TKSS has its task cut out. Bajirao Mastani has a solid first hour, after all.

     

    All the usual tactics of audience aggregation will come into play. I will be surprised if either of the two properties takes an adbreak while the other is on. That could mean at least one hour of breakless viewing for audiences. Let’s see if that actually happens tomorrow night.

     

    They both will have IPL to contend with as well, though the Punjab vs. Hyderabad game is not the threat a Mumbai or Delhi game would have been. Even though Sharma hails from Punjab, King’s XI has not been a viewership-generating team over the last decade.

     

    A 3+ rating for TKSS and a 5+ rating for Bajirao Mastani will be a win-win scenario. To know if that happens, we will have to wait for 12 long days, till May 5. Where are daily ratings when you need them?

     

    When content innovation is tough to find, it’s clashes like these than can generate interest in what is a huge but creatively stagnant genre. Let’s hope we have more such inspired mischief on our way in the coming weeks.

     

  • "The Mumbai Press Club provides an excellent and refreshing alternative to the Delhi hegemony. Its scrutiny systems and its eye on new happenings in the media have been commendable. It has opened eyes in the media to issues beyond politics. It has not been bound by the politics of the day in either its selection of winners or the issues discussed," writes Ranjona Banerji.

    Ranjona Banerji: The Mumbai Press Club has done the media proud with tonight’s RedInk Awards

    By Ranjona Banerji

     

    Tonight, the Mumbai Press Club holds its sixth annual RedInk Awards. In its short life, this has become one of India’s more prestigious media awards. It is an award given by your peers, which makes it extra special. And it is an award away from and out of the stranglehold of Delhi. Not only that, it happens in Mumbai which is remarkable in itself.

     

    Until the advent of television news, newspapers clustered around cities. The Times of India was a Bombay newspaper, the Hindu was Madras, the Hindustan Times was Delhi, the Statesman was Calcutta and so on. These are just a few examples of a vibrant newspaper scene in a number of languages were available across India. Think local act global was the credo long before some maven or the other invented it.

     

    But the media in Delhi had long decided that it was supreme because it lived in the heart of Indian politics that is Delhi. Of course, every journalist knows that is hogwash because politics exists everywhere and the Delhi media’s claim to supremacy is only that it works in the city that it hosts the Central government. The logic may be specious but the link is real. And that is why for years Delhi newspapers were third grade at local, civic and crime news because newsrooms could not see beyond North Block or South Block or whatever those places are called.

     

    There has always been a distinct difference however in the way Mumbai sees politics and the rest of India does. I realised this firsthand only when I moved to Ahmedabad for a few years. The chief minister of the state apparently routinely visited newspaper offices for a courtesy call to the editor. This includes the current prime minister who I met for the first time in my resident editor’s office soon after he became chief minister of Gujarat in 2001. Since then I have learnt this is routine in smaller cities.

     

    But not in Mumbai. Most people in Mumbai cannot even tell you who the chief secretary of the state is or probably for some even who the chief minister is, because they are not at the top of everyone’s society guest list. I could trot out the commercial capital, cricket capital and Hindi film capital excuses and I would be correct. Mumbai has other things on its mind and our politicians and bureaucrats must know their place.

     

    In light of which, the Mumbai Press Club provides an excellent and refreshing alternative to the Delhi hegemony. Its scrutiny systems and its eye on new happenings in the media have been commendable. It has opened eyes in the media to issues beyond politics. It has not been bound by the politics of the day in either its selection of winners or the issues discussed. It has made the Mumbai media proud.

     

    This evening, the RedInk awards will present a posthumous Veer Patrakar Puraskar (Bravery) Award to Jagendra Singh, the journalist who was murdered in Shahjahanpur UP, for exposing the links between the local MLA and the mining mafia. The award will be given to his daughter Diksha Singh, 18.

     

    There will be 25 other awards given out in various categories at the evening event, including the lifetime achievement award to TN Ninan and startup of the year to thewire.in.

     

    A panel discussion, chaired by Shobhaa De, will debate on the topic “Who Shot the Messenger?”, with journalists Sucheta Dalal, Siddharth Varadajaran and Ravish Kumar participating.

     

    I wish the Mumbai Press Club and all my friends there many congratulations for this fine event and the effort that goes into it. They do all us journalists proud.

     

    I would like to end this with a sad, personal story.

     

    Many years ago, in the late 1980s, I was sent by Bombay magazine to do a “city directory” in the Fort and VT areas of Bombay. This was a tedious process – good for the reader – where you trudged from establishment to establishment and took down every detail about it. The Bombay Press Club fell to me. I walked in one hot afternoon and saw a bunch of grey-haired old men (my excuse for this bigotry is that I was young at the time) chatting on black chairs. Then one of them got up and the chair turned white as all the flies flew off. I will never join this place I said to myself. And I didn’t until much later.

     

    The flies have gone. My hair is grey enough for me to qualify as one of the oldies. And I’m proud to be a member! Sigh. Youth!

     

  • When I compare Amazon communication with work done by Flipkart, I find the latter better, writes Sanjeev Kotnala

    Sanjeev Kotnala: When Flipkart & Amazon fight to own basic promise

    By Sanjeev Kotnala

     

    Original products, Timely delivery and return policy are three basic hygiene pillars of e-commerce success in India. Now we have the two leading e-commerce platforms Flipkart and Amazon trying to break the clutter and have strong brand association with these levers. Unfortunately, their collective din is not helping the case. In such a situation, other than the actual experience, it is communication that helps differentiate or amplify a brand.

     

    So, Amazon tells you that they give original stuff just because Indians have such a quirk about ‘Aasal’ (original). You are shown a vignette of situations. A driver checks the currency note. His smile, it is not a fake. A woman shakes a coconut checking for water content- it is not a dud. A customer jumps on sofa. All of them are busy checking so that they don’t get a fake piece.

     

     

    Soon another TVC from Amazon shows a groom urging a pandit (priest) to rush through the wedding rituals. A person dropping his handkerchief on a bus seat through the window. He is in a hurry. Amazon tells you, see we understand you, you Indian customers want everything ‘Jaldi’ (fast) we give you fast delivery.

     

    In another TVC with multiple situations, it tells you ‘We indians like helping each other. Here is the helpful customer service’ !!!

     

    This is the time when you want to shout and say ‘we Indians hate such stereotyped ads- and hence will you please stop them’

     

     

    On the strategic front, this campaign from Amazon is based on the everyday behaviour of Indian consumers. We agree we are like that only but do we need to be shown the mirror. The question remains, how effectively the insight or observation is leveraged, and if it is presented the right way; engaging, involving and non-stereotyped.

     

    In fact, the situations are too Indian to make one smile. Some disruption is required for the audience to get engaged with the communication.

     

    The TVC that works, is about the ritual of hiding the shoes of the groom. Bride’s sisters (saali) returns it only after getting paid. In the TVC, she is disappointed. She gets nothing because at the right moment, the groom gets a fresh pair of footwear delivered to him. ‘on-time delivery’ makes you smile and register the promise.

     

    A kid in the extended family genuinely asked me ‘what about the countries where people are not so quirky- does Amazon sells fakes and delay deliveries. I did not acknowledge the question. It was a silly question anyway.

     

    When I compare Amazon communication with work done by Flipkart, I find the latter better. In case of Flipkart, a single central character personally endorses its original products and return policy. He is willing to be penalised if proven wrong. And a second set of commercial re-establishes the layered message ‘even when it is cheap at Flipkart, it is original’.

     

     

    In another situation, he suggests to his doctor that he could buy original shoes from Flipkart. Jokingly the grown-up adult says ‘if proven wrong he is willing to take an injection’. This and the chemistry between the characters make you smile.

     

     

    The two brands Amazon and Flipkart are working with same promises. Both have gone ahead with a simple situation-based solutions. Flipkart uses a single character binding all situations. A character who also stands guarantor for the brand. Amazon uses multiple cast and situations and ends up making a manufacturer’s statement of promises.

     

    Not that Flipkart is the best possible execution, but they seem to have you smiling more. The brand connects with the promise is also stronger and the casting for the TVC perfect. Flipkart seems to understand not only the Indian consumer but also the audience.

     

     

    I respect Leo Burnett’s creative power and strategic execution, but this time around Orchard Advertising (part of Leo Burnett) has slipped. Standalone, the TVC seems fine but placed in comparative market situations Flipkart outscores- at least in communication.

     

    Will consumers someday accept Amazon as their own because it speaks their language and understands them? Will Amazon become Apni Dukan? Only time has the answer!

     

     

    Sanjeev Kotnala with 28 years of corporate experience is the founder of Intradia World. A Brand, Marketing & Management Advisory. His focus area is Ideation and Innovation, a subject in which he conducts specialized workshops like IDEAHarvest, Liberate and InNoWait. For soft skill training, he follows SHIFT (Specific High-Intensity Frequent training), which is all about contineous frequent training with shorter sessions. Email sanjeev@intradia.in tweet @s_kotnala web: www.intradia.in www.sanjeevkotnala.com.

     

  • There is enough evidence that women receive more abuse, more vicious abuse and more threatening abuse than men, writes Ranjona Banerji

    Ranjona Banerji: Women at the receiving end on social media

    By Ranjona Banerji

     

    The abuse that journalists receive on social media is constantly documented. And there is enough evidence that women receive more abuse, more vicious abuse and more threatening abuse than men.

     

    One part of you says “suck it up and move on”. But two Chicago-based sports journalists hit upon a better idea. Sarah Spain and Julia diCaro together with Just Not Sports put together a video of men reading out the tweets they had received just for doing their jobs. The men were not those who had sent out the tweets. They were just friends of the producers.

    This Powerful Video Shows Just How Violent Online Harassment Is for Women in Sports

     

    You can see that the men start by thinking this was a funny sort of endeavour but as the tweets start threatening rape, murder and so on, the men get very affected. They are reluctant to read these out, they find it hard to make eye contact with the woman sitting in front of them at whom the tweets are directed, they apologise for something they have not said, they look appalled at what is directed at these women. The women, after all, have seen these tweets and many more that they get in the course of a day. To the men, it’s a reality check on the horror in store for any woman on Twitter, not just journalists. Not surprisingly, it has gone viral on the internet, with the hashtag #MoreThanMean.

     

    The video ends by saying do not type what you would not say.

     

    But is it as easy as that? Powerful as this video is and difficult as it is to watch, we have created this wonderful online world where people are constantly emboldened by their anonymity. Sometimes you can call them on it, sometimes you can shame them but most times you just block them. It is not just about sports journalism though that is a male bastion that many men cannot countenance women entering and hence the extra viciousness.

     

    In India, perhaps, the abuse is more to do with your political moorings.

     

    When journalist Priya Ramani wrote this piece for Mint on why everyone loves to hate TV journalist Barkha Dutt, she received more than her usual share of abuse. So by the way did every female who shared it or retweeted it or commented on it. Because obviously if you are a woman with an opinion, you are fair game. Also, you are personally to blame for every transgression that Dutt may have made in her life. This apparently justifies all the attacks.

    http://www.livemint.com/Leisure/C3zY1Y1ycBJYDNRmNPCmHK/Why-everybody-loves-to-hate-Barkha-Dutt.html

     

    Sometimes the abuse is deliberate, an attempt to degraded and diminish women. Sometimes it shows a real lack of any logical ability to distinguish between an opinion and the human who voices it. And most of all, it proves once more – like the #MoreThanMean video, that the anonymity of the internet has given birth to a new kind of violence.

     

    Sadly, in India at least, other journalists and some politicians encourage this sort of abuse. When journalists call others “presstitutes”, mimicking prime ministers and Union ministers, it is only natural that others will follow suit. There are certain websites and internet celebrities who also specialise in these insults, claiming victimhood if called out about it. To make this gender neutral I must emphasise that some of these abusers are women but it is clear from their ideology that they subscribe to patriarchy in some form or the other.

     

    More than mean, would you say such behaviour is despicable and unacceptable? I would.

     

  • The launch of Permanent Roommates and then Pitchers by TVF gave this category a boost last year, and with some of the major film studios announcing their digital plans, the category is certain to gain momentum in 2016-17, writes Shailesh Kapoor

    Shailesh Kapoor: Web-series: Television outside the Television Set?

    By Shailesh Kapoor

     

    2000 and 2008 were watershed years for Indian television. 2000 gave us KBC and the ‘K-serials’, changing the scale at which the industry would thereafter operate. It also brought in dailies for good. 2008 brought in new stories and ideas to break away from the K-serial overdose by then, and the launch of Colors was the primary driver of this change. Going further back in the past, 1992 was the year when it all started, with the start of Zee TV and thus mass Hindi satellite television in India.

     

    1992, 2000, 2008… If this was one of those guess-the-next-number-in-the-sequence questions, it would be a sitter. 2016 is the answer, and wait, we are in it already. Is there a next big change round the corner? There are no major signs of it as of now, but we have eight months to go, and one hopes there’s something cooking somewhere to keep the sequence going.

     

    Even as the Indian television industry waits for its next content revolution, there is a parallel opportunity that many players are flirting with, and some very seriously too. And that’s the world of web-series. The launch of Permanent Roommates and then Pitchers by TVF gave this category a boost last year, and with some of the major film studios announcing their digital plans, the category is certain to gain momentum in 2016-17.

     

    But things can often look more exciting than they actually are. Like most new categories, web-series in India is a category that’s still trying to find its feet. There is active investor interest in the category, given the ‘progressive’ nature of the content, and the general cynicism of the corporate world with mass television. But active interest does not make a business model.

     

    In a country where television comes dirt cheap, expecting a large mass of audience to pay for content over the Internet would be a challenge. And if web-series have to rely only on ad revenue, they will struggle to find any real scale whatsoever.

     

    Some argue audiences who spend on movie tickets would gladly pay for breakthrough content on the Internet too. That argument, though, is flawed on two counts.

     

    For one, in the phrase ‘movie-going’ experience, the word ‘movie’ holds only as much value as the word ‘going’. That may not make much sense to a movie buff, but visiting a theatre for most audiences is as much about having a good time, as it is about watching a good film. The two may be correlated, but they are fundamentally different. Part of the value of the ticket price (and a sizeable part too) can be attributed to this ‘going’ element, something that the web-series medium can fundamentally not deliver.

     

    The second flaw is around the notion of ‘breakthrough content’. Just by being a web-series, a content piece does not become breakthrough or cutting-edge. There is no such entitlement on offer, though many web-series producers tend to exercise it nevertheless. If you look at the collective quality of more than a dozen web-series already out, you will hesitate to use the word ‘breakthrough’ for the category as a whole. A series or two maybe, but not the category.

     

    As more investment flows in and high-speed Internet penetrates India, we are bound to see more web-series in action. But to challenge conventional television, this category will need to set some rules of its own. Currently, it’s defined by what’s not on TV. Either because it’s too niche or too bold. We even have a web-series titled ‘I Don’t Watch TV’ that launched earlier this month!

     

    Hence, in many ways, web-series is television outside the television set. As technology permeates further, the distinction between these two media will blur. And at some stage, the advertiser may look at buying them as a unit, at least in an ideal scenario when equitable measurement is available. That will be the proverbial proof-of-the-pudding time for the web-series category.

     

    The web-series category has its task cut out, though the path may not be evident yet. Can it be the next content watershed that TV is searching hard, and unsuccessfully, for. Only time will tell.

     

  • It is a downright lie that "the media" – which is a bizarre classification in the sense that it is not one entity – has ignored the Uttarakhand fires, writes Ranjona Banerji

    Ranjona Banerji: Wrong to say media has ignored Uttarakhand fires (+Why damn Shobhaa De?)

    By Ranjona Banerji

     

    There is a very moving Facebook post doing the rounds about the fires in Uttarakhand. There are dramatic pictures of forests burning. The text is an impassioned and angry plea about how the media is ignoring these fires. It has been sent to me innumerable times by well-meaning people because I live in Uttarakhand. I suppose they assume that I can neither look out of the window and see what’s happening for myself, nor can I read newspapers or watch television.

     

    As is so often true in such matters, the media gets the blame for nothing. I do not know the situation in Nainital, where the Facebook post originates from, but I can quite firmly declare that here in Dehradun, the media has been on the ball from day 1. I read the Garhwal Post, The Tribune, The Indian Express, The Times of India and The Hindu and the Asian Age in newspaper form every day. The Post is a local paper while The Tribune and TOI have strong Uttarakhand bureaus. All these papers have reported on the fires, starting with the devastating fire at Corbett and then moving closer to my home at least.

     

    Although I spend much of my time in this column slamming the media or aspects of the media, I must also stand up for what I know. That it is a downright lie that “the media” – which is a bizarre classification in the sense that it is not one entity – has ignored these fires. I suppose by “the media” many people think only of television – alas! But even television news has covered the Uttarakhand fires very comprehensively.

     

    It is true that no newspaper or news channels or news website has a reporter in every village in India so that it can immediately get every bit of information as it happens. I do not know if there is any institution in the world that has such a network. Perhaps people who post on Facebook and moan on Twitter work with or for such marvellous omnipresent and omniscient organisations. They should share their secrets with the world so that we can all benefit.

     

    This is not to suggest that the newsrooms are never slow to pick up a story or that they do not sometimes ignore something that is at odds with a particular thought process or something that puts the owners’ friends in a bad light. This happens and not all editors can fight it. But does it not seem idiotic, even to someone who sees “the media” as the devil incarnate, that journalists would wilfully ignore forest fires? For what reason? How does it benefit them or anyone? I can understand if the same allegations were made about the Agusta Westland case or the Malegaon blasts case – both in the news right now – but I’m afraid I cannot understand the logic behind such an accusation. I use the word logic loosely.

     

    But I know the source of such thought. It is the scourge of all good sense – the well-meaning person in the frenzy of self-righteous rage.

     

    **

     

    The other story doing the rounds on social media is a piece by an Indian-American journalist taking potshots at a column by Shobhaa De. Now it has long been fashionable to attack Shobhaa De, for all kinds of things. And let us establish that De is a columnist and columnists expect all kinds of reactions to their opinions. That is usually why you put them out there.

     

    But rather than merely disagree with De’s opinion – something about how Kate Middleton now Duchess of Something or the Other would not look good in a sari – this impassioned piece by the Indian-American journalist launches into a diatribe about how Indian journalists have it easy.

     

    The writer’s contention is that every article she writes is checked for facts and suppositions by at least three editors in America whereas in India reporters can get away with whatever they write – like De has. Are you laughing yet? Because I am. While it is true that we can do with more fact-checking in India, this writer has missed a very basic point. De is not a reporter. She is a columnist. How is anyone to fact-check her opinions?

     

    I see sour grapes and ignorance at work: which is all the more tragic, because it comes from a journalist who evidently does not know the difference between a reporter and a columnist. I really had more hopes from America.

     

  • While armchair activists are fulminating on social media about the lack of media coverage on the Uttarakhand fires, newspaper reports in Uttarakhand say that the tourism industry is furious with the media for over-reporting and exaggerating the fires, writes Ranjona Banerji

    Ranjona Banerji: Much fire about Uttarakhand

    By Ranjona Banerji

     

    The Uttarakhand forest fires have largely died out and we have had some much welcome rain. And the media coverage of the forest fires have not stopped or reduced. We have had reports, special features, opinions, data, human interest stories about how the fires start, who’s responsible, what can be done, which political party to blame, the environmental impact, the future – just about every angle covered. I think I saw some TV person on TV flying over fires in a helicopter. Or did the smoke get in my eyes?

     

    So while armchair activists and well-meaning people are fulminating on social media about the lack of media coverage on the Uttarakhand fires, newspaper reports in Uttarakhand say that the tourism industry is furious with the media for over-reporting and exaggerating the fires. People have cancelled their hotel bookings because they are frightened of the fires. One hotelier is quoted as saying that this reaction is like refusing to go to Delhi because there was a fire in Mandi House.

     

    Do I have to spell out the irony for you or have you managed to figure it out for yourself? Please do share this with your armchair activist hysterical social media posting friends. And of course, we can collectively lament the fact the media cannot win one way or another!

     

    **

     

    There is a discussion going on in this country about the priorities of the media. Of course, usually when they say this, they are talking about television. And specifically Times Now and I imagine NewsX which for days do not seem to have moved beyond the Agusta Westland VVIP helicopter deal and charges of bribery. The problem is that there is not enough evidence as far as India is concerned, yet, so most discussions go round and round, rising to that usual crescendo of cross-party yelling matches. What purpose has been served no one knows, as no one ever has.

     

    Although to be fair, the other English news channels like NDTV, the new CNN-News18, some shows on India Today TV have realised the horrors of drought, forest fires (oh my did I really mention something which “the media” has not covered?), the problems of farmers, the hinterland of India and other compelling problems. Which is small mercies, I suppose.

     

    Newspapers however have covered almost everything as usual. As have news websites. I mean real news websites run by journalists; not those run by people pretending to be journalists and funded by political parties.

     

    Those interested in such matters beyond hysterics about helicopters, would do well to read Harsh Mander in the Indian Express on drought: (http://indianexpress.com/article/opinion/columns/mgnrega-india-drought-budget-narendra-modi-arun-jaitley-2784711/)

     

    This might provide a fair understanding of what India is going through. Ten states have been declared drought-ridden. The situation on the dry parched ground remains critical. But have governments been called out on this? And why have their justifications and excuses, going back to colonial times, been accepted. People, animals, crops in India are dying. But some possible bribes paid in a helicopter deal are more important? The Nation, does indeed, demand an answer. And deserves one.

     

    The other opinion piece which explains the conditions of drought and government policy and inaction is this one by Yogendra Yadav in The Hindu:

    http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/lead/the-season-of-scorching-ironies/article8557168.ece utm_source=MostPopular&utm_medium=Opinion&utm_campaign=WidgetPromo

     

  • If tennis-lovers opt to track the latest matches on the internet, television has no one to blame but itself, writes Ranjona Banerji

    Ranjona Banerji: Sports channels blank out tennis yet again

    By Ranjona Banerji

     

    Once again, as an anniversary of the Narendra Modi government at the Centre looms, India Today TV has interviewed former Union minister, former journalist and former BJP leader, Arun Shourie. Or, one should clarify that, Karan Thapar interviewed Shourie. After last year’s interview, it is clear that Shourie is going to attack the Modi government. This is especially intriguing because this is India Today TV, where between some of India Today TV’s best-known news anchors, India Today’s journalists and Mail Today’s editors, you have some of the most nationalistic, pro-government journalists available in India.

     

    Perhaps, though, India Today is also a “federal structure” like Bennett Coleman, where there is no one party line and different outlets within the organisation speak in different tongues. In Bennett Coleman, however, the differences are extreme – that is, no one in any of the newspapers quite speaks in the same tone or news sense of Arnab Goswami and Times Now. At India Today TV, shifts are may be more subtle. It is important to note that Karan Thapar is not an employee per se and he just picked up his very successful show from what was CNN-IBN and moved to what was Headlines Today. Some time after Thapar, once part-owner CNN-IBN and another of India’s best known TV anchors, Rajdeep Sardesai also made the shift to Headlines Today.

     

    India Today TV is therefore an intriguing mix of Thapar, Sardesai, Rahul Kanwal and Gaurav Sawant, among others, all of whom have very different styles and sensibilities. I name these because they are the most prominent, although Preeti Choudhury, Shiv Aroor and TS Sudhir are also names that stand out.

     

    **

     

    For sheer entertainment, though, nothing is quite like the new English news channel News 9. Karnataka-based, it gives you all the inside dope on what’s happening in Karnataka. It has a very “masala” style to all news is presented in an upbeat and tabloid-ish manner. There are long entertainment segments where you learn interesting things like there’s an Independence Day part 2 coming up in a world where disaster films are a “dime a doze”.

     

    **

     

    As an avid tennis viewer, I am now ready to retire hurt. How much can one complain about India’s half-baked sports channels? Sony’s recent marriage to ESPN has meant that none of ESPN’s sports properties see the light of day. Because only IPL matches see the light of day. Sometimes IPL travels across all Sony’s channels. Earlier, when ESPN was married to Star, there was some possible tennis on show. In fact, between Ten and Star, tennis followers got spoilt. We had so much to watch.

     

    But now with this plethora of sports channels in India (Star, Ten, Sony, Neo), we in fact feel deprived. This year, 2016, is one of the first that I can recall in years, where so many important tennis tournaments have been blanked out. Women’s tennis is hardly to be seen and on the ATP tours, almost none of the Masters 1000 have been on air. Ten struggles along with some WTA tournaments and some small ATP tournaments. Star has the most channels but two of them show reruns of old cricket matches, old kabaddi matches and random old programming. The other two show football. One Sony channel has started showing the ongoing Rome Masters for two hours in the afternoon. Most important matches will happen after that time frame but who cares, right?

     

    Sigh. To the internet we go. Television has no one to blame but itself for this.

     

  • The Kumbhortunity welcomes you at Ujjain where the tropic of cancer passes, also called the 'Greenwich Mean time of India', writes Sanjeev Kotnala

    Sanjeev Kotnala: Are you missing the Kumbhortunity?

    By Sanjeev Kotnala

     

    Waking up early morning at 4am, I watched the spectacle unfold in my TV screen. DD was telecasting the first Shahi Snaan (Royal Bath) from Simhasth Khumb, Mahapura at Ujjain, the city of Mahakal, also known as Avantiuri (named after King Kartveeryarjun’s son Avanti) and Ujjaini. Other ancient names include Padmavati, Swarnashringa, Amravati , Vikrampuri ( capital of King Vikramditya) Pratikalpa, Kumudvati and Churmani.

     

    The celestial lineup of planets occurring every 12 years is in place. The planet Sun is in Mesh (Aries) and Brahaspati ( Jupiter) in Simha (Leo) zodiac sign. The Kumbhortunity welcomes you at Ujjain where the tropic of cancer passes, also called the ‘Greenwich Mean time of India’.

     

    If I know you well enough, I am sure that your connect with this Kumbhortunity will be at an arm’s length. You will watch it unfold through the eyes of the news channel cameraman and discover it on newspaper pages. You will miss one of the largest spiritual gatherings on earth. You will miss being at one of the holiest places in the world at the right time. It is said in Puranas that Kurukshetra is 10 times more sacred than Prayag, Kashi is ten times holier than Prayag, Gaya is ten times holier than Kashi and Ujjain is 10 times holier than Gaya.

     

    You will miss the holy dip that is equated to thousands of Ashwamedh Yahya (Horse Sacrifice), Hundreds of Vajpaya Yagya (Fire sacrifice) and lakhs of journey around the world. You will miss taking a dip on the banks of holy river Kshipra. The river that originates from the womb of earth and not any mountain. Kshipra is the only uttargami river traveling straight from south to north. The river in which spilled few drops of Amrit (Nector – found during Samudra manthan) during the conflict between God and Demons.

     

    You will miss the sight of thirteen Akharas (Sadhus) coming here. And you will miss the spiritual, religious and cultural grandeur that Kumbhortunity is.

     

    It will be like any other Kumbh you have missed, experiencing the great gathering. Watch culture and religion at peak. Watch events are being managed. Learn from processes, discipline and unavoidable chaos. You will miss meeting people, sharing stories, learning from incidences and episodes that are bound to be lifetime memories. You will miss seeing how brands try exploiting this, how services get affected and again reinstated. How things happen where we believe systems do not exist. You will be pressed for time. You may hate the traffic. You will learn to avoid, adapt and move. Even a simple journey fr the holy dip without any detailed observation will teach you movement planning and stress management.

     

    You will have time later to relive the experience and emotions in your mind and create your own learning. You will see how the spectrum of divided religion joins together cutting across geographical and language boundaries. You will be at a place to watch the basic human behaviour and reactions.

     

    You will watch how the media is interacting and being consumed. You will experience. How digital is digital India. You will confront the real realities that the common man faces. You may find opportunities to hear stories and share his pie of happiness or sorrow. Can you think any place else can give you this high intensity of experience?

     

    So why miss the opportunity, the clients and the agencies; all of them, the creative, media, OOH, BTL- send your teams for this experience. Capture a slice of the nation for which you have been peddling your talent.

     

    Catch it right there. Create an experience schedule and do it now.

     

    On the other hand- on a personal note, you still have time for the dip and visit the Mahakaleshwar Jyotirlinga. The dates that you can still visit are: 15th May (Vrishabh Sankranti) , 17th May (Mohini Ekadashi), 19th May (Pradosh), 20th May (Nursingh Jayanti ) and 21st May (the third Shahi Snan). As for travel- it is simple. Indore (55km) is the nearest aiport (Bhopal  is 172km ) and is well-connected with Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Nagpur and Bhopal. Ujjain is a major junction and uniquely placed with connections to all parts of India.

     

    And if you are going to be there, see if you watch Bhasma Aarti at Mahakal, Visit the Kal Bhairava temple, See the new Iskon temple, Bharitihari caves and Chintan Ganesh.

     

  • India is not the easiest country to make biopics or films based on true events… you never know who will get offended by what, and when, writes Shailesh Kapoor

    Shailesh Kapoor: True Stories: Will TV Take A Cue From Bollywood?

    By Shailesh Kapoor

     

    Bollywood has discovered a new genre. An experiment that started with one-offs like The Dirty Picture, Paan Singh Tomar and Bhaag Milkha Bhaag has now gathered some real steam. Films based on true stories (biopics and true events) are now thriving, finding audiences in plenty. After the Milkha Singh movie, we had Mary Kom in 2014. Last year saw smaller films like Talvar and Maanjhi, inspired from true events. But the real boost came early this year, with the resounding success of Airlift and Neerja.

     

    Azhar, based on events in the life of the former Indian captain, releases today. Sarabjiti’ss lined up for release next week, and a Ramgopal Varma film on Veerappan the week after. The biopic on MS Dhoni releases later this year.

     

    Several other scripts based on true stories are in various stages of pre-production and production. With the theatrical business stagnating over the last two years, this genre diversion could be that injection of growth Bollywood needs. This year will tell us its true potential.

     

    India is not the easiest country to make biopics or films based on true events. Politics is a touch-me-not category anyway. Even outside the realm of politics, making such films is like treading on thin ice. You never know who will get offended by what, and when.

     

    Bollywood has found a practical solution. If the person is alive, involve him or her in the film-making process, down to the last promotions. If the person is no more, involve the family. It may be the sanitised way of making films that depict reality, but at least it has put the genre out there for us to watch.

     

    A true story will always find more traction than its fictional counterpart. Imagine watching Airlift as a fictional story. The idea of the story gets instantly diluted. It becomes more fantasy than inspirational. And that’s where the magic of real stories lies. They can create a sense of amazement and inspiration that fiction can struggle to match, unless it’s big budget fiction like superheroes and adventure fantasy, which Hollywood is using to great effect.

     

    In mainstream Indian television, all the attempts to make true stories have been largely limited to the historical genre. Some of these shows (eg Jodha Akbar) have used a historical context to tell a largely fictionalised story, while others like Prithviraj Chauhan or Ashoka are somewhat closer to documented events.

     

    But that’s been about it. There have been virtually no stories explored from the more recent past. A commonly stated concern is that real stories may suit a film, but they don’t have enough meat to keep a daily fiction show running for two years. Even historical shows tend to fizzle out after a year or so.

     

    While that may be true, it is much less of a limitation today, with finite series and weekend fiction being considered more seriously than ever before. If that doesn’t initiate experimentation with the true story genre, it will be an opportunity lost.

     

    The staple television diet for a mass Indian viewer is escapist in nature, providing relief from the drudgery of day-to-day life, or adding value to it by highlighting what it could have but doesn’t. Yet, the appetite for true stories is a universal phenomenon. And now, Bollywood has proven this appetite exists in India too.

     

    The big plus of the true story genre is that it comes pre-sold in many ways. The marketing task becomes a lot more sharp and focused. In a scenario when new shows have stopped opening well, this could be that marketing distraction that the mainline GECs, especially Hindi, can look up to. But will they?

     

  • "But the question here is: where is the homework and hard work of the news channels? Just from the face of it, they had to wait for a political storm to brew in India before they started some kneejerk work? If the Hindu had the story last month, then what excuse is possible? Judging from what one read of Michel in the Hindu and what he said on TV, he is quite willing to talk and seems to enjoy the attention," writes Ranjona Banerji

    Ranjona Banerji: TV stories on Christian Michel and Dawood Ibrahim show lack of news sense and urgency

    By Ranjona Banerji

    The name Christian Michel is not a new one in relation to the Agusta Westland helicopter deal. It was there when details of possible kickbacks began. It was there in a Times of India story about some sort of shady deal with Pawan Hans by Josy Joseph in 2013. It was there in between all the details about the cousins of former Air Force chief SP “Bundle” Tyagi emerged.

     

    Most recently, there was a story on Christian Michel’s alllegations by Josy Joseph, now with the Hindu, dated April 27, 2016 followed by an interview with Michel by Joseph and Suhasini Haider, in the Hindu of April 28, 2016. This interview was after an Italian court made observations in an ongoing case of financial irregularities in the helicopter deal.

     

    Yet, our industrious and intrepid news channels only managed to find Michel almost a week after the Italian court’s verdict on May 4. First he was there as an “exclusive” on India Today TV. Then Barkha Dutt flew off to Dubai to meet him. And soon, undoubtedly, everyone else will follow.

     

    And yet, Michel is not saying anything substantially different from what he said to Haider and Joseph in April, which largely trying to save his own skin. He also appears to absolving Sonia Gandhi, Manmohan Singh and AK Anthony of any wrongdoing in the deal.

     

    But the question here is: where is the homework and hard work of the news channels? Just from the face of it, they had to wait for a political storm to brew in India before they started some kneejerk work? If the Hindu had the story last month, then what excuse is possible? Judging from what one read of Michel in the Hindu and what he said on TV, he is quite willing to talk and seems to enjoy the attention.

     

    Not only that the questions put to Michel do not seem to go further than today’s political context. The main allegation that he made in the Hindu was that the prime minister of India recently tried to make a deal with the Italian prime minister over the case – if Italy gave India information about Sonia Gandhi’s involvement in the Agusta Westland deal then India would let the Italian marines, on trial for killing Indian fishermen, go free. There is no evidence for this allegation but it is explosive nonetheless. Yet it does not appear to be the focus of TV interviews with Michel.
    This is Michel’s interview to The Hindu:
    http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/interview/interview-with-james-christian-michel-alleged-middleman-in-vvip-chopper-deal/article8524561.ece

     

    For some historical context, this is commentator and strategic affairs expert Mohan Guruswamy in The Asian Age. This column refers to material too far back for our TV journalists to apparently comprehend?
    http://www.asianage.com/columnists/agusta-hawala-unsigned-notes-206

     

    **

     

    The biggest non-story on television news remains the bogey of Dawood Ibrahim. Since he left India in 1984, an enormous romantic mythology has built up around someone who is nothing more than a criminal. Almost no working journalist today has any first-hand knowledge of Ibrahim and most of what today’s crime reporters know comes third-hand from people who knew people who know or knew of Dawood and from movies and books.

     

    The world of TV news is even more far removed from Dawood Ibrahim. But every time the political climate gets too hot to handle, we are faced with the same old stories about how Ibrahim lives in Pakistan and Pakistan won’t admit that he does. Nothing has changed here and as a result the viewer gets a re-hashed story with a mishmash of information.

     

    Though I have to admit that it is not just TV news that is at fault here; newspapers also fall prey to this “let’s go with Dawood Ibrahim since we don’t have a story” mindset.

     

    Everyone by now should know that Ibrahim lives in Pakistan and Pakistan lets him live there. He has also lived in Dubai and was often seen at cricket matches in Sharjah. He has links within Mumbai’s film industry. He and his gang of criminals are known to have a hand in the 1993 serial bomb blasts in Bombay. His daughter married Pakistani cricketer Javed Miandad’s son.

     

    I for one would be interested in the Dawood story if any journalist had anything new to tell me. Otherwise, it’s the same old same old showing only lack of both news sense and imagination.

     

  • The honeymoon lasted longer than normal as the left-right-centre divide has gotten more pronounced, writes Ranjona Banerji

    Media & 2 Years of Modi Rajya

     

    By Ranjona Banerji

     

    Two years ago, the Bharatiya Janata Party won the Lok Sabha in historic fashion. After decades of coalition rule, one single party won with a huge majority. The victory was attributed to a campaign that ran on the promise of one person: current Prime Minister Narendra Modi. “The Modi Wave” the media called it and indeed it was a tsunami in some areas.

     

    Most of the media immediately went into adulatory mode – that is, those who had not already become Modi cheerleaders during the campaign itself. One of the finest examples of the media’s Modi Media Fan Club at work was seen during the prime minister’s first US trip. The event at New York’s Madison Square Garden for non-resident Indians saw the Indian media calling him a “rock star” (was it Barkha Dutt who started it?) and getting brainwashed by such immense popularity.

     

    Most cynics know that such a honeymoon cannot last. It might be fair to say that in Modi’s case, the honeymoon lasted a little longer than most. Years ago, India Today (the magazine) had a cover on how cartoon depictions and caricatures of Rajiv Gandhi had changed in a year as he went from Mr Clean (after the Congress won with a massive majority following Indira Gandhi’s assassination) who promised youth and change to the same old same old. Made worse of course by Bofors.

     

    With Modi, the shift from “rah rah” to “ha ha” has been more subtle and incremental. Television and social media have changed the discourse and the news cycle. And the left-right-centre divide of Indian society has become more pronounced. Therefore, we still have news channels that are overtly pro-government, we have prominent journalists who are pro-government and we have websites pretending to be news websites that are almost government spokespersons.

     

    Let’s take a look at columnist Tavleen Singh who has a popular column in the Indian Express on Sunday. She promised her readers that Modi’s victory would bring a massive and wonderful change to India, as the nation needed to be rescued from the evil Congress and the even more diabolical Sonia Gandhi. But as time has changed, her column has made certain shifts. As the Modi government did not deliver on the promises she made, she started by blaming everyone around him.

     

    First, the Congress was to blame for its legacy. Then bureaucrats were to blame. Then other ministers were to blame. Then extreme Hindutva organisations were to blame. But now, two years in, now and then Singh finds that Modi himself is to blame. For a fan like Singh, is that a reality check or her fine journalistic prowess from the past re-asserting itself?

     

    The Times of India has declared itself a “federal” state. This means the newspapers say one thing, often critical of the government, and Arnab Goswami, ruler of Bennett Coleman’s news channels (Times Now, ET Now) says something quite else – hyper nationalism and a tendency to hold the Congress to account for this government’s failures.

     

    The Indian Express sticks to the old journalistic principle of holding a government in power to account. So does The Hindu. The Telegraph has perfected the fine art of holding a government in power to extreme ridicule, whether at the Centre or the state.

     

    Our other news channels walk their confused path. NDTV is accused of being anti-Modi and pro-Congress but often that just means that the channel tries to be balanced. The new avatar of CNN-News18 is far more balanced than it has been for three years – all the fears of Mukesh Ambani being only pro-Modi have not come quite true. With R Jagannathan leaving firstpost.com for Swarajya, the flagship website is also less tilted to the right. In fact, one might say Raghav Behl’s Network 18 was far more pro-Modi than the Ambani one. CNN-News18’s choice of “resident commentators” might give one a clue: Swapan Dasgupta (pro-BJP), Vir Sanghvi (not pro-BJP), Ajoy Bose (not pro-BJP) and Ayaz Memon (balanced).

     

    India Today TV remains the most everywhere. The cartoon series So Sorrry lampoons everyone equally. Rahul Kanwal and Gaurav Sawant are the best pro-Modi pro-BJP pro-nationalist and Super Patriotic TV journalists – my due apologies to Goswami for saying this – with Sawant having a slight edge over Kanwal. These two are balanced by the acerbic and sharp Karan Thapar and the even tone of Rajdeep Sardesai. So depending on time of day, you get a different India Today TV.

     

    News18 remains in a constant race to become Times Now with Rahul Shivshankar emulating his former boss Arnab Goswami as best he can. Which is not good enough by a long shot.

     

    May 19 and elections results of five states will be announced. Let’s see how many jump various ships then.