MxMIndia

Category: SHAILESH KAPOOR

  • It's for days like this (Monay, January 22) that you feel the term 'moment marketing' was coined, writes Shailesh Kapoor

    Moment Marketing: The Mega Mandir Monday

     

     

    By Shailesh Kapoor

     

    Shailesh KapoorThe big day is knocking on the door, on the other side of this weekend. Monday, January 22, is the day of the ‘Pran Pratishtha’ at the Ram Mandir at Ayodhya. But far from being just a religious event, it’s shaped up to be the mega marketing event of the year. We are only in January, but it is safe to say that anything else this year will struggle to match this event on its hype and buzz. Not even the election results this summer, I’d say.

     

    Traditionally, brands avoid being associated with religion. It’s a sensitive topic, and more brand playbooks are not designed to handle religion as a domain, especially in a plural and complex country like India. But that rule (“don’t touch religion even with a bargepole”) will take a backseat this Monday, when brands queue up to cash in on the moment. It’s for days like this that you feel the term ‘moment marketing’ was coined!

     

    The event itself is certain to have huge celebrity presence, from all walks of life. Of course, the Prime Minister will be the face of it, but there is wide spectrum of eminent personalities from non-political fields attending the event too. Travel, fashion, food… nothing will be off-topic on the day. It’s a news event, but there the strong pop culture significance is hard to miss.

     

    The mass inclusion of religion in India’s pop culture has been a slow and steady process over the last decade. The song ‘Mere Bharat ka bachcha-bachcha, Jai Sri Ram bolega’ seemed controversial till a few years ago. But it’s now an omnipresent celebration song, playing at cricket stadia, Navratri functions, weddings, new year parties, the works. It’s now an unofficial anthem that doesn’t need any formal recognition. It’s also a song that will play through the day this Monday.

     

    The challenge for news channels on a day of this nature is to differentiate. Live feed is largely the same across networks, and it is only natural that viewers will watch the channel their daily-habit channel on the day. What can the second line of channels do to make their presence felt? Monday may give us some answers, including some rather comical attempts to break the clutter.

     

    The event would also mark the unofficial start to an election campaign, which will then go on for 3-4 months, depending on the poll dates. Even as winters begin to ease up just a bit in North India, political temperatures will continue to rise.

     

  • One of the offshoots of the PM's media coverage is that it has made news more inclusive for female audiences and the youth, writes Shailesh Kapoor

    It’s never too much in the Modi Era

     

     

    By Shailesh Kapoor

     

    Shailesh KapoorIf you haven’t realised it by now, the first half of 2024 is the perfect time to do so. That there is no such thing as ‘Too much Modi’. We are into the second week of the new year, and the Prime Minister has been in the news every single day.

     

    It started off with his Lakshadweep snorkeling adventure, which stirred up an unexpected, somewhat silly, controversy. Maldives found itself at the receiving end, though they have their own politicians to blame for saying the wrong things, and choosing the worst possible timing to say them too!

     

    This week, the Prime Minister is on a development tour of sorts. After a well-marketed Gujarat tour, where Mukesh Ambani showered praises on the Prime Minister, Modi is in Mumbai today to inaugurate the Atal Setu, India’s longest sea bridge.

     

    Next week, the focus will shift to the mega event on January 22 in Ayodhya, where the Ram Mandir will be inaugurated. The guest list (or the absence of names from it) has been making headlines anyway, and we can expect Mon, Jan 22 to be one of the biggest news days in modern Indian history.

     

    We are already in the pre-election season, and post Ayodhya, the campaign trails and the rhetoric will gain momentum, and we can expect another 4-5 months of headlines dominated by politics, and indeed by its favorite face.

     

    That Prime Minister Modi has been the mass media’s favorite is well-known by now. But in recent weeks, even the digital media platforms, which have often been critical of the Modi government, have found it hard to resist covering him on almost a daily basis.

     

    One of the offshoots of the Prime Minister’s media coverage is that it has made news more inclusive for female audiences and the youth. For many years, older men (30+ years) were seen as the core TG of political news in India. However, PM Modi brings with him a ‘fan base’, much like a film or a series franchise would. ‘What did Modi say today?’ is often a topic of discussion in recent years between housewives in small-town India. No surprise, then, that our ratings-hungry news channels cannot stop talking about him.

     

    Many political experts believe that barring a last-minute surprise, PM Modi is all set to come back for a third term. Modern India hasn’t seen a national leader of such longevity. There has been no Prime Minister to hold the office for 15 years at a stretch since Jawaharlal Nehru (1947-1964). Not even Indira Gandhi.

     

    We are already in the ‘Modi era’, and a win later this year will extend it by at least another five years. An era that’s defined by a personality, and also by the media’s whole-hearted endorsement of it.

     

  • Shailesh Kapoor presents his five most significant landmarks of the year that has just passed us

    From SRK to Animal: Success Stories of 2023

     

     

    By Shailesh Kapoor

     

    Shailesh KapoorThe year 2023 had its fair share of success stories, across cinema and OTT at least. Here’s my pick of the five most significant landmarks of the year (in chronological order), which could, in turn, shape how Indian entertainment pans out in the next half decade at least.

     

    The return of SRK, and the old guard in general

    January saw Shah Rukh Khan mark a box-office comeback with Pathaan. It had been a decade since he had a bona fide hit (Chennai Express). But with Pathaan, he announced his return, in an innings that’s already seeming a lot of fun. Pathaan was followed in September by Jawan, which went on to become an even bigger success. SRK’s December release Dunki has received mixed response, and significantly lower collections. But with SRK, and with Sunny Deol in Gadar 2, it seems like we are back in the ’90s. Superstars from that era are showing the young guys how it’s done!

     

    Farzi: The Real Thing

    In what was not the best year for OTT (curtailed subscriber growth, very few breakout properties), one show stood out as an outright blockbuster: Raj-DK’s Farzi, on Prime Video, starring Shahid Kapoor and Vijay Sethupathi, became the most-watched Indian SVOD show of all time, with an estimated 37 Million (Ormax Media estimates) Indians having watched at least one episode. Coming after the immensely successful and appreciated The Family Man, Farzi established Raj-DK as one of the most powerful names in the Indian streaming space. Their next venture Guns & Gulaabs (Netflix) fell short of achieving the same heights. But Farzi’s success confirmed that mass entertainers, rather than urban-centric understated content, is likely to be the way ahead for web-series in India.

     

    JioCinema: A ‘free’ ride

    The arrival of JioCinema, with an IPL edition that was free to stream, brought in a sea change in the Indian OTT landscape in March 2023. The platform made some of the global giants relook at their India strategy. Disney+ Hotstar offered the Cricket World Cup free later in the year. JioCinema backed the IPL season with a plethora of launches, most notably Asur 2 and Taali. But over the last four-five months, they have gone easy on things, and relied more on non-fiction properties, especially Bigg Boss. Perhaps IPL 2024 is when we will see more activity around the platform.

     

    Barbenheimer

    Who would have thought that a Hollywood film clash will make headlines in India? The Barbie vs. Oppenheimer weekend in August 2023 brought in about Rs. 100 Cr (gross) worth of box office in India, which was also one of the few countries where Oppenheimer was ahead of Barbie at the box office. Hollywood has not had its best year in India, with the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Hollywood’s mainstay in the Indian market, being on some sort of a downtrend. But with Oppenheimer, we saw audiences flocking theatres in the service of a director urban India has come to love: Christopher Nolan.

     

    Animal instincts

    December 2023 saw the release of director Sandeep Reddy Vanga’s Animal, a film that polarised critics, but was largely embraced by the audiences, going on to become one of the most significant success stories of the year, especially because it’s headlined by a younger star (not from the ‘old guard’). After Atlee’s Jawan, Vanga’s Animal established the firm hold directors from South India are beginning to have on Hindi audience’s imagination, through their distinctive style of storytelling. Everything about Animal, right from its trailer to the choreography and background music of its action set-pieces, broke conventional rules of mass Indian cinema. And it was very heartening that another film (12th Fail) that came just a month before Animal, and broke a few rules of cinema too, also got immense audience love, especially for its scale, cast and budget. That Animal and 12th Fail can co-exist augurs well for Hindi cinema, which had its best-ever year by some margin.

     

  • In the short-term future, we can expect franchises to dominate Hindi cinema and OTT, writes Shailesh Kapoor

    All eyes on the franchise

     

     

    By Shailesh Kapoor

     

    Shailesh KapoorIn context of a report Ormax Media is publishing next week, a staggering data point was brought to my attention. Forty-five per cent of Hindi theatrical business in 2023 till the weekend of December 3 has come from franchise films, i.e., films that were already a part of a franchise or a franchise universe at the time of their release.

     

    With Animal and Dunki being non-franchise films, and Salaar: Part 1 being the first of its franchise, this proportion will drop to 35-40% by the end of the year. But the staggering-ness is not in the 45% itself. It’s in the year-on-year comparison.

     

    Proportion of Hindi box-office from franchise films was only 19% in 2019, and increased to 31% in 2022 (the interim years were pandemic-disrupted). Within two full years, the contribution of franchise films to the Hindi box-office has doubled.

     

    The equivalent number in Hollywood has been in the high 70s or 80s for a while now, depending on the year we look at. Clearly, Hindi cinema is moving in that direction. It could be a matter of another couple of years that we hit 60%, if not even higher.

     

    Even on OTT, franchises are beginning to dominate, now that the category is somewhat settled in India. Amazon Prime Video has done a particularly good job of building strong franchises, none less than The Family Man and Panchayat. The latter is produced by TVF, which is a franchise factory of sorts, with a long list of illustrious web original franchises, such as Kota Factory, Gullak, Aspirants, Permanent Roommates, Pitchers, Hostel Daze, etc.

     

    Linear television’s attempts with franchise creation have been less emphatic, but that’s only because the approach to having seasons does not exist, and it’s impossible to do a Season 2 if Season 1 is the ever-running season anyway. Yet, Zee TV has managed to create some sort of a quasi-franchise, which some young audiences even have a name for: The Bhagya Universe. It has three largely-unconnected shows in it: Kumkum Bhagya (2014), Kundali Bhagya (2017) and Bhagya Lakshmi (2021), all three produced by Balaji Telefilms.

     

    The rise of franchise content is an interesting phenomenon. At one end, audiences crave for new stories and characters, because fresh and imaginative ideas is generally a strong driver of content consumption. But at the other end is the comfort in watching something familiar. This continuum of original to familiar is a compelling one, because both ends of it are strong on intrinsic benefits related to why content is watched to begin with.

     

    There are franchise films and shows that manage to re-imagine their world, and provide freshness within the familiar. Some of the early Marvel films, leading up to Avengers: Endgame, managed to do this very well. But those are far and few in between, and in general, franchise content willingly lets go of new imagination, and focuses on the familiarity factor.

     

    So, if franchise content is becoming stronger than before, does it mean that audiences prefer comfort of the familiar to the excitement of something original and imaginative? That’s not an evident piece of truth. The real difference lies in the differing risk levels. Franchise properties are significantly safer than non-franchise ones. The latter must get the idea, however original it maybe, right. In the former, that’s already been tested.

     

    But we need a healthy mix, because if franchises begin to dominate to the extent of 70-80%, which is a real possibility soon, the originality will get sucked out of the content ecosystem, leading to a decline in business at some stage in the cycle.

     

    Be that as it may, in the short-term future, we can expect franchises to dominate Hindi cinema and OTT categories, in a way India may have never seen before.

     

  • Even as the theatrical category flourished, streaming platforms found themselves re-aligning to changing market scenarios, writes Shailesh Kapoor

    2023: Resurgence of Cinema, Rationalisation of OTT

     

     

     

    By Shailesh Kapoor

     

    Shailesh KapoorIt’s that time of the year, called the year-end. Between this week and the next two, I will look at some defining features of 2023 from the Indian M&E perspective, and what we can expect (or at least hope) from 2024.

     

    2023 saw fundamental re-alignment of power centres in the Indian M&E industry, with two important mergers, both of which are still only in the pipeline. But if they indeed go through, we could have a duopolistic industry for the next few years to come, at least on the television front. Zee-Sony and Disney-Reliance will form the epicenter of the industry, even though Amazon and Netflix will continue to wield their influence. But all that’s still in the future. And a tad speculative one.

     

    Among the three major entertainment-led categories, 2023 saw the least action on the television front (even TRAI was unusually quiet through most of the year). Apart from the potential Zee-Sony merger, and the usual big-ticket events like the Cricket World Cup, it was an unremarkable year for Indian television. 2024 will, however, be a blockbuster year for television news, being the year of the General Elections. The Ram Mandir inauguration, scheduled for Jan 22, 2024, is set to kick off a 4-5 month long viewership bonanza for our news channels.

     

    The theatrical business saw a significant resurgence this year, and is already the best-ever year at the Indian box-office, with a weekend to go. At about Rs 11,750 cr, the year is a good 800 cr higher than 2019, which held the record earlier. Significantly, Hindi cinema saw a resurgence this year, with its share of national box-office increasing from 33% last year to a healthy 44% this year. It was also the year of Shah Rukh Khan’s comeback to the top, with top bonafide blockbusters in Pathaan and Jawan. If only his latest release Dunki would have performed at similar levels, SRK would have set a record that would have taken many years to break.

     

    Even as the theatrical category flourished, streaming platforms found themselves re-aligning to changing market scenarios. Post-pandemic, subscriber growth has been slow worldwide. Internationally, streaming platforms faced headwinds in the form of an economic slowdown and the prolonged WGA strike, leading them to rationalize costs, and focus on profitability. The impact was felt in India too, especially because early in the year, JioCinema disrupted the streaming ecosystem by offering the biggest property of them all, the IPL, free to its users. This set the cat among the pigeons in the SVOD-AVOD debate. With paid subscriber growth plateauing in the big cities, and audiences in the smaller markets being reluctant to pay for streaming, AVOD found a definitive this year. “TV+” was the buzzword through much of the second half of the year, and may well be the big streaming idea in India, going in 2024.

     

    Watch this space next week for more on 2023, and 2024!

     

  • If the three big films live up to their expectations, 2023 has more than a real chance of becoming the best ever year at the box-office, with a gross business of Rs 12kcr, writes Shailesh Kapoor

    One-worded Box-office Beasts

     

     

    By Shailesh Kapoor

     

    Shailesh KapoorIt’s a huge Friday at the box office today. Ranbir Kapoor starrer Animal, directed by Sandeep Reddy Vanga, releases today, and is set to witness one of the highest openings in Hindi cinema, with even a shot at the 50 Cr first-day box-office, a mark that only four Hindi films have ever achieved.

     

    2023 has been an interesting year at the Indian box-office. A series of non-performing films have been punctuated by mammoth blockbusters. In the Hindi language, it started with Pathaan in Jaunary, post which we saw a long period of flops, with an occasional hit like Rocky Aur Rani Kii Prem Kahaani. August saw positive momentum shift, with Gadar 2 emerging as a huge blockbuster. And then, Jawan followed it up early September, recording the highest-ever lifetime box-office for a Hindi film at the domestic box-office.

     

    In the Tamil market too, Jailer (Rajinikanth) and Leo (Vijay) have done great numbers, and are a part of the list of top 5 grossers of the year, after Jawan, Pathaan and Gadar 2. Animal would be challenging to enter this list, as will Dunki, the third Shah Rukh Khan release this year.

     

    What’s with film with one-word names, most of which are names or descriptors of their lead characters, doing well? Perhaps there’s more than a coincidence at play here. It could be a sign that audiences are gravitating towards superstardom and larger-than-life hero characters again. While this factor always existed, the pre-pandemic period in Hindi cinema saw a slew of thematic and genre-led films do very well. With OTT around, theatre-going is about scale today, more than ever before. But it need not be the conventional definition of “scale”, which comes with elements like large sets (Bhansali) or VFX (Marvel). It’s about bold-stroke, larger-than-life storytelling too, led by protagonists with an unmistakable swagger.

     

    If the three big films of December (Animal, Salaar and Dunki) live up to their expectations, 2023 has more than a real chance of becoming the best-ever year at the India box-office, with a gross business of 12,000 Cr in India.

     

    Animal, however, won’t be the only media highlight of this weekend. We have important elections results coming up this Sunday, when votes for legislative elections in five states will be counted. These results can have a significant influence on how the national politics will look like in 2024, in the lead up to the General Elections.

     

    Irrespective of how the film fares or what the election results are, one thing is certain: There won’t be a dull moment for media & entertainment observers this weekend.

     

  • ICC may be reluctant to end the format altogether, but it's happening organically anyway, writes Shailesh Kapoor

    End of a World Cup… and a Format

    Australia men’s cricket captain Pat Cummins walking back to the dressing room with the Men’s Cricket World Cup 2023 trophy. Photograph courtesy screengrab from video on ICC-cricket.com

     

     

    By Shailesh Kapoor

     

    Shailesh KapoorFinally, it’s done. The six-week long Cricket World Cup culminated last Sunday, with an imperfect finale from an Indian perspective. Forty-eight games of potentially 100 overs played out over this period. In the age of instant gratification, where “short” is the way to go for most things, cricket administrators seem to have their own unique ideas, some of which seem rooted in another era.

     

    Last night, India played a T20 game against Australia. It’s the first of the five T20s in a low-key bilateral series. Both sides are resting their star players. Yet, the game had a packed crowd at Vizag. It went to the last ball, something that none of the 48 ODI World Cup games can boast of.

     

    Cricket has even made it to the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics, on the strength of the T20 format. These are just some of the signs on how the future of the sport lies in this format, and the leagues built around it. Test cricket is there to indulge the connoisseurs. But it’s T20 that will expand the sport, taking it to newer audiences and geographies.

     

    ICC may be reluctant to end the format altogether, but it’s happening organically anyway. Over the next 12 months, the major cricketing nations are playing less than 20 ODIs put together. The number of T20s are at least twice that number, and that’s not counting the T20 World Cup scheduled for early 2024.

     

    The World Cup itself had its share of controversies, mostly administrative in nature, ranging from scheduling to the choice of pitches for the knockout games. The crowds in India, especially outside the major centers, can be very ‘un-sporting’, and this became painfully evident in the final, and the prize distribution ceremony that followed. As long as India is winning, all is good. But when we don’t, the picture looks embarrassing from a sporting perspective. It’s perhaps the nature of the hyper-nationalistic times we live in.

     

    Right out of the World Cup, we jump into the elections season. Next Sunday (Dec 3) is the big counting day for legislative assembly elections in five states, which are a lead-up to the big General Elections next year. Just from a thrills perspective, one hopes there are closer finishes in at least a couple of those, compared to the largely one-sided World Cup we witnessed.

     

    On the theatrical front, there are three big movies lined up in December: Animal, Dunki and Salaar. The year is well-positioned to be the highest-grossing year at the Indian box office ever. But that’s another story for another day.

     

    Shailesh Kapoor is Founder and CEO of Ormax Media. He writes on MxMIndia on Fridays. His views here are personal.

     

  • Given the sameness to shows over the last five years, the new 'Daily unscripted content' format merits attention, writes Shailesh Kapoor

    Reality Check

     

     

    By Shailesh Kapoor

     

    Shailesh KapoorThe linear television business in India has been struggling to find its next big idea. The streaming originals marketplace in India is operating more cautiously too, with economic and industry considerations, both global and local, slowing it down. Amid this relatively low-action period, a new format is making its presence felt: Daily unscripted content.

     

    While Bigg Boss and Kaun Banega Crorepati have been around for years as dailies, non-fiction has largely been seen as a weekend content type. GECs rightly expect daily soaps to build loyal weekday audiences. In any case, most non-fiction shows in India are in the broad genre of talent competitions, and they tend to be upto five to 10 times more expensive that fiction shows, making them unviable as a staple proposition.

     

    But the advent of streaming may have changed things a bit. Sony LIV recently launched MasterChef India only for OTT. The show has been around on GECs for years, across two networks, but has never quite found the success it would have hoped to. No surprise, then, that Sony has given up on its ambitions for the show related to mass television.

     

    Shark Tank India is a more recent, and a more obvious, example of a streaming-friendly show failing to deliver on linear TV, despite the network backing it with up aggressive marketing. The third season will follow the MasterChef India template, with daily episode drops on Sony LIV.

     

    JioCinema (earlier Voot) has done two seasons of Bigg Boss OTT. MX Player did its own homegrown variant, produced by Balaji Telefilms, titled Lock Upp, in 2022. Tonight, the first-ever season of Temptation Island India, starts on JioCinema. All these shows are in the daily format.

     

    The weekday-weekend distinction related to fiction and non-fiction seems to have blurred in recent times. It could be a result of many factors: Less compelling fiction content on TV, change in audience habits in the OTT era (such as low appointment viewership), episodic content being more preferred to continuity-driven stories, etc.

     

    While the reasons are a subject of further analysis, daily non-fiction is finding its takers, both at the platform side and the audience side. The new season of Bigg Boss has opened very well from TV standards. The show has original content in the form of interstitials and spin-offs on OTT, which are carefully designed for better monetisation. In what’s increasingly an AVOD-SVOD hybrid environment for original content (compared to 2020-22), monetisation via advertisers has made non-fiction a more relevant option on streaming.

     

    The Indian non-fiction market needed this boost in its thinking. There has been a sense of sameness to the shows over the last five years, with the same formats being rehashed. But formats that were safe bets till before the pandemic have struggled to deliver numbers in recent times, and viewer fatigue is evidently one of the primary reasons.

     

    Daily non-fiction may help GECs and OTT platforms, especially those with a strong AVOD service, find a new business model. It may be just the right time too, given that the web-series (fiction) content on SVOD is beginning to look just a tad jaded. The audience will surely not be complaining if they get a legitimately-different option on the menu.

     

  • And all eyes are currently on the big India-Pakistan clash tomorrow, writes Shailesh Kapoor

    The Games Take Over

     

     

    By Shailesh Kapoor

     

    Shailesh KapoorThe Cricket World Cup has taken off to a good start. As good as the World Cup for an eight-hour format can be, in today’s age of instant gratification. Why does the 50-over format still exist is a larger question, whose answer is purely commercial in nature. Many experts have raised doubts over the purpose this format is serving, but who needs to disrupt a cash-generating machine, in India at least?

     

    So, the current World Cup will put that question aside for a few weeks, even months. The 2027 World Cup, by the way, is already planned to be held in South Africa, Zimbabwe, and Namibia, though four years is a long time away, and a rethink is not entirely ruled out in the coming year or two. On the format itself, not on the venue.

     

    But let’s come back to the World Cup that is currently underway. By and large, on-field action has taken large share of the attention in the last one week, and India’s two wins have given an initial sense of comfort to the fans. All eyes are currently on the big India-Pakistan clash tomorrow. India’s record against Pakistan in the 50-over World Cup remains unblemished, with a 7-0 lead. We could see both television and online records for live sports being rewritten tomorrow.

     

    The only major off-field controversy over the last week is not a frivolous one. It’s to do with mismanagement of tickets. The opening game between 2019 finalists England and New Zealand had thousands of empty seats visible on camera, even as the tickets showed largely sold out on online platforms (Imagine that happening with ad inventory during a World Cup game!). BCCI’s handling of scheduling and ticketing of this event has been unprofessional, even incompetent. The advantage of a long tournament is that you can learn on the job, and one hopes corrective action is already being taken.

     

    The broadcast of the World Cup is strictly on expected lines, and I say that in a good way. BCCI and Disney-Star have kept it simple, focusing on first principles, than offering too many distractions via meaningless innovations. Commentary in nine languages is impressive, though the absence of Bhojpuri (JioCinema’s cute contribution to sports broadcast) takes a bit of the fun factor away.

     

    The World Cup ends in the week after Diwali, and shortly after, we will be entering the elections season. Our news channels have enough fodder to keep themselves busy till mid-2024 at least. Which is not such a bad thing at all, because at least they will not have too much time to conjure up bizarre stories to keep the ratings going.

     

  • It's been more than halfway through the Men's World Cup Cricket and we haven't had a single nailbiter so far, writes Shailesh Kapoor

    Knocking on November’s Door

     

     

    By Shailesh Kapoor

     

    Shailesh KapoorWe are at the start of what may be a long election season. Legislative assembly elections in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Telangana, Chhattisgarh, and Mizoram are scheduled for the month of November. These campaigns will segue into the bigger one, the General Elections in 2024. There’s going to be enough in the news to keep everyone busy for at least six months, perhaps a bit longer.

     

    Of course, when one says “news”, one doesn’t mean print or television anymore. It’s a collective, amorphous mass of sources that intersect and feed into, and from, each other. Earlier this week, Rahul Gandhi interviewed former J&K Governor Satyapal Malik for his YouTube channel. The video has, since then, been widely circulated and discussed on YouTube and social media. But not surprisingly, TV channels and most newspapers have ignored it. Malik is known for being a critic of the Prime Minister, and has gone on record in recent times, including a rather candid interview to Karan Thapar for The Wire, about the systemic lapses in the Central Government that led to the Pulwama attack in 2019, at the time of his Governorship.

     

    Why did Rahul Gandhi have to interview Satyapal Malik is as interesting as the interview itself. The interview itself has a conversation on this topic. With mainstream media not giving any coverage of any consequence to the Opposition voices, social media and digital news platforms seem to be their recourse to get themselves heard.

     

    This could be how the media side of the story of the 2024 General Elections plays out. YouTube, and not TV news, could be primary platform where the story unfolds, at least for those hoping to upset BJP, which continues to be a frontrunner to win those elections.

     

    YouTube’s daily and weekly reach in India is not very different from that of the television news genre’s reach. TV carries more credibility than digital media, but purely for legacy reasons. We have seen digital media overtake traditional media as the lead marketing medium in various mainstream domains, including cricket and theatrical films. Politics is next on the list.

     

    Talking of cricket, a rather uneventful Cricket World Cup is underway currently. It’s been more than halfway through the round robin stage of the tournament, and we haven’t had a single nailbiter so far. There have been some exciting games, including the recent India-New Zealand one, and some upsets by Afghanistan and Netherlands. But no game has gone into the last five overs without reasonable clarity on who the winner will be.

     

    Of course, this is an inherent issue with the 50-over format itself. India’s winning streak, now at five matches, has kept the otherwise-drab World Cup alive for fans and sponsors. A semi-final spot is all but assured, and India has a strong chance of being the first team since Australia in 2007 to win a Cricket World Cup without losing a game.

     

    November, then, is expected to be an action-packed month for more than one reason.

     

     

  • Debates on news television have degenerated into a cacophonic mess over the years, writes Shailesh Kapoor

    The Health of our News

     

     

    By Shailesh Kapoor

     

    Shailesh KapoorPolitics is in the air (though that may be true for any given day of the year). We are in election season again, and the build-up to the 2024 General Elections has well and truly started, even though there remains speculation on the dates, even the possibility of an early election, before the stipulated May timeline.

     

    It’s only natural then that the media scene heats up too. Last month, the I.N.D.I.A alliance announced a ‘boycott’ of 14 news anchors across channels. The news has met with various reactions, depending on which side of the political spectrum one is aligned to. Some have called it a violation of press freedom, while others have endorsed the move as a message against hate speech and biased media coverage.

     

    The decision to not engage with certain sections of the media is an age-old tactic followed by politicians and celebrities frequently, and to call it a violation of freedom of press is quite a stretch. It’s not so much the move that has caused the debate, but the public announcement of it. If I.N.D.I.A would have silently decided to not send their spokespersons to the shows hosted by the said anchors, no one would have cared much. But by making their decision very public, they have stirred up a hornet’s nest.

     

    The decision itself carries limited practical value. Many of the anchors listed don’t even have programs that have spokespersons on them. In any case, debate shows on Indian news channels do not need official spokespersons. There is a long list of unofficial supporters and sympathizers who are willing to come on debate shows on short notice. Many even get paid for it, from what one gathers.

     

    The only pertinent question that is more important than the short-term controversy is: How did we reach here? The Indian media and polity were in a symbiotic relationship for decades, and incidents of friction, some dating back to the times of Indira Gandhi, if not earlier, were more aberrations than norm. But over the last few years, there has been a gradual decline in the health of this relationship. It is no secret that the current Government at the Centre does not give press the kind of access earlier Governments did. Cabinet reshuffles, for example, are rarely known to the media till they are formally announced. This seems a part of a well-considered media strategy, where engaging with the voters directly, via social media for example, is a preferred option.

     

    But there has also been a gradual decline in the quality of political representation on news channels. Till about a decade ago, it would not be unusual to see faces like Arun Jaitley, Sushma Swaraj, Jairam Ramesh, Ravi Shankar Prasad, et al on various TV news debates, often every night. That is almost unthinkable today. People of stature and experience do not want to be associated with the cacophonic mess TV debates have degenerated into, over the years. They would rather give one-on-ones when they something specific to say.

     

    But these occasional one-on-ones cannot fuel four hours of prime-time programming every night. So, news channels must manufacture topics, and ‘spokespersons’, to keep their ship running. The viewer may see it as news or entertainment, but that’s not something anyone is losing sleep over. Not anymore.

     

    The ‘fourth estate’ role of the media seems like an age-old idea in today’s Indian context. Boycott or no boycott, the Hindu-Muslim debates and the thin-on-facts coverage will continue. Because if there are eyeballs, no one is really complaining.

     

  • Someone with pan-India and global stature would be a minimum expectation for World Cup of a sport India is crazy about, writes Shailesh Kapoor

    Understanding Bollywood’s image problem

     

     

    By Shailesh Kapoor

     

    Shailesh KapoorThe ICC Cricket World Cup is less than two weeks away. The mad rush for tickets has been the dominant headline associated with the tournament so far. But as we get closer to the date (October 5), on-field action will, hopefully, be where all the attention is.

     

    Earlier this week, ICC released an abomination of a video in the name of the event’s theme song, titled Dil Jashn Bole. There’s so much wrong with the song that one wouldn’t know where to start. Why is the song of a world tournament in Hindi, when it’s not even the language all of India understands? Bizarrely enough, the official YouTube version does not even have English subtitles. Fans have been brutal about their feedback, remembering the much-superior De Ghuma Ke, which was the theme song the last time the event was held in India, in 2011. Despite being in Hindi as well, that song was distinctly Indian (and sporty) in its spirit, and never seemed to struggle on inclusion.

     

    Which brings me to the main point of this piece: The random obsession with Bollywood. With due respect to Ranveer Singh, who’s a fine actor, ICC (or BCCI, whoever greenlit this train-wreck of a project, pun intended) should have known better. Cricketers don’t need film stars to represent the sport to the fans. And even if one were to go in that direction, someone with a pan-India and global stature would be a minimum expectation for World Cup of a sport India is crazy about. Like an ensemble of SRK, Allu Arjun and Vijay, for example, in the video.

     

    Obsession of other domains with Bollywood was also evident in the Parliament this week, when Kangana Ranaut and Esha Gupta were present on the day when the Women’s Reservation Bill was presented (and passed) in Lok Sabha. The former’s choice is clearly political in nature, and I don’t quite know what to make of the latter’s presence on the day.

     

    Over the last few years, and since the pandemic in particular, the idea of stardom has evolved in India, and is clearly a lot more ‘pan India’ in its spirit. As per Ormax Stars India Loves, out of the Top 10 most popular male and female film stars each in August 2023, only three men (SRK, Akshay and Salman) and four women (Alia, Deepika, Kiara, Katrina) hail from the Hindi film industry. The Bollywood lens should have been an obsolete idea by now, for events of national and international significance. Yet, it continues to find more than a few takers.

     

    Ironically, this obsession doesn’t do Bollywood much good. The industry has been fighting for reputation, and even as box-office has been better this year (though driven by the stars from the 90s, which makes the success precarious), the overall image of a low-on-innovation, spoilt, and inward-looking industry continues to persist as a media narrative. And projects such as the Dil Jashn Bole video only add to that narrative.

     

    Image management at an industry level is always tricky terrain, because the ownership is de-centralised. But one hopes that somehow, the industry finds a way to come together to address what’s a growing concern, definitely for brands, if not for the box office.

     

    Meanwhile, away from all this, let the games begin!