By Shailesh Kapoor
On most accounts, 2017 was a lame year for the Media & Entertainment (M&E) business in India. Television struggled to rise from a state of inertia, theatrical business slumped further into a deep hole of its own making, and quality of news across traditional media hit an all-time low.
It was left to the “digital†side of the business to salvage things to some extent, providing both content variety and a revenue stream that came as a lifesaver, especially for the film industry. Bahubali 2 stood out an exception this year, emerging as this gigantic hit, setting a new benchmark that will be a tough act to follow.
Evidently, there’s enough and more to hope for, at the start of 2018. Here’s my list of five things (in no particular order) I’d wish for the M&E business in the coming year. Many of these may sound miraculous, but then, what’s a wish without an element of optimism in it!
1. A news channel without debates
From being a primetime format on one channel, debates have now become the default format across channels over an extended period of time. The other day, one of the English channels was conducting a live debate at 6pm. Surely, this has to end somewhere. We cannot possibly be okay with a whole new generation, in its teens today, growing up thinking that “news†means a screaming anchor and eight windows.
2. Bollywood’s first 500cr film
Bahubali 2 managed to achieve the Rs 500 crore mark with its Hindi-dubbed version alone. But no “Hindi†film has crossed even the 400 cr mark at the domestic box-office yet. There are several big films lined up in 2018,but nothing that is a clear candidate for this record. It will perhaps take technology, and not stars, to set new benchmarks, like Bahubali 2 did. Could it be, then, that a Hollywood film could be achieving the 500-mark in India before a Hindi film? That will be a wish gone horribly wrong.
3. Kapil Sharma’s return to the small screen
This may certainly happen in 2018. But one also wishes he closes the lid on his film ambitions for good and builds on his massive equity among the TV audiences through great on-screen content and no off-screen shenanigans.
4. The best-marketed IPL ever
In its 11th edition, and with a new broadcaster in place, IPL needs to find its next level. It’s become a hugely successful and influential sporting event, not just in India but in all cricket nations of the world. What it needs now is what the top sports league around the world can boast of – teams with diehard fan bases. Not just supporters, but fiercely loyal fans. Can BCCI and Star achieve this together, starting 2018?
5. A daily soap where characters don’t talk to themselves
Daily soaps, across languages in India, are infected with this problem that is symptomatic of mediocre, and progressively declining, quality of writing on display. Characters move the story forward by talking to themselves, thinking aloud in unsuspecting locations like the kitchen or an office or a living room. At times, the first real “conversation†in a daily soap episode could come well into its second segment. It’s so ingrained in the daily soap culture that Hina Khan talks to herself aloud even in Bigg Boss. If anything has to change about the quality of our soaps, this is a good starting point!
Shailesh Kapoor is Founder and CEO, Ormax Media. He writes weekly for MxMIndia. The views here are his own