MxMIndia

Tag: Aamir Khan

  • I guess he wants to re-create 'appointment viewing' which Ramayana and Mahabharata used to enjoy in the late eighties/early nineties

    Anil Thakraney: Aamir wants to play God

    By Anil Thakraney

     

    In 2007 when I met Aamir Khan for an interview (Mumbai Mirror), we brought up the issue of his glaring absence from television. Every single big Bollywood hero was busy raking in big bucks from the small screen. The actor appeared quite closed to the idea of television. He said various channels keep approaching him with proposals but they don’t interest him. And added that maybe he will do TV one day when something substantial comes along.

     

    Well, that day has arrived, May 6 to be precise. When Satyamev Jayate goes on air. Aamir has pulled all stops in ensuring that the show gets a roaring opening. Mind blowing marketing budget. Loads of talent in the production team. Simultaneous broadcast on Star and DD. Dubbing in four southern languages. And lots more. Not to speak of the content itself, which going by Khan’s movies, is likely to be both, entertaining and engaging. The challenge for the Star Network would be to recover the huge costs and make some profits. Not sure how that will pan out. What makes their work even tougher is that the show will have just 13 episodes.

     

    However, what caught my attention is the slot chosen for Satyamev Jayate. 11am, Sunday. This is very interesting because it demolishes the popular definition of prime time television. Clearly this is Aamir’s brain child. Guess he wants to re-create ‘appointment viewing’ which Ramayana and Mahabharata used to enjoy in the late eighties/early nineties. This is a big gamble. UrbanIndiahas totally changed in the last two decades. In those days we in the cities had nothing much to do on Sunday mornings. Now we have shopping malls, pubs, dates, multiplexes, Facebook, Twitter and many other distractions. So appointment viewing is going to be a tall task. And this explains the team’s decision to use good ol’ Doordarshan. So that if the urban audiences ditch them, the numbers garnered through DD’s terrestrial broadcast will save the day. Smart thinking.

     

    Anyways, like many other Indians I will be glued to the TV on May 6. 11am. And will also keep looking out at the streets from my window. To check if they are deserted. Like it used to happen when the gods descended into our living rooms on those lazy Sundays.

     

    Can Aamir match the gods? That’s the billion dollar question.

     

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    PS: Too, too brilliant for words. This is the sort of stuff naukri.com and other employment portals ought to be doing. It takes a rare advertisement for me to want to the join the ad world again. This one does.

     

  • Goafest is a good break from day to day drudgery. I would like to see cultural activities go hand in hand with the learning, says Mr Kamath

    6 Days to Go-Goafest: I would like to see less of scam, says Subhash Kamath

    By Subhash Kamath

     

    There is the advertising awards night and then there is Goafest, difference being that the latter is a three-day affair and is a festival of advertising. The Festival sees more than two thousand people from the fraternity congregate at one place to celebrate Indian Advertising. Its three day outing of learning, networking, meeting, fun and party.

     

    What I would like to see at Goafest? Well, less of scam for sure. Over the years, I have become disillusioned with the amount of scam one sees at awards and this is the case not just peculiar to Indian advertising but across the globe. What used to be an exception has become a rule now. It is like creating a parallel culture comprising real work v/s work created just for awards.

     

    I don’t really know what the solution is for this but the number of scams surely brings down the credibility of any awards.

     

    Another thing that I would like to at the Goafest would be speakers from outside our industry. I know that the biggest challenge at the Fest is to get an impressive line of speakers. If you get a big name, then it ensures a full house but lesser known speakers warrant an empty hall. I say, why not get Nandan Nilekani who is a great speaker and people would love listening to him, MS Dhoni could talk on how to motivate a team or Aamir Khan on creating different identity. They would surely be worth listening to. The whole idea should be to make Goafest bigger, popular and global.

     

    Goafest is a good break from day to day drudgery. I would like to see cultural activities go hand in hand with the learning. It would be great if one sees parallel activities like a music fest, or a stage for impromptu standup comedy or street theater. At ASCI, I had initiated to engage people in installation art or mobile film making, like these there are several creative options one could explore. There is a lot of talent in our industry and giving a platform to showcase these at Goafest would add a new element to Goafest.

     

    There should be an amalgamation of learning, fun and work shop at the Fest and let people choose what they would like to go for.

     

    Bottom line being that lets take Goafest beyond the place to network, meet people, listen to speakers and just enjoy being there. Let’s do all the things mentioned above but let’s also strive to add more to the Fest and truly strive to make it a Festival that’s helps in bringing the passion back to advertising.

     

    Subhash Kamath is the Managing Partner at BBH India

     

    Photograph: LinkedIn profile

    Click here to view all Goafest 2012 stories

     

  • Star's no-holds-barred show promises to be a tear-jerker, as Aamir Khan brings out facets of India’s gritty reality.

    High EQ at Aamir Khan talk show Satyameva Jayate

    By A Correspondent

     

    From Lagaan to Rang de Basanti to 3 Idiots and the hard-hitting Peepli Live which dealt unabashedly with home truths – for Aamir Khan, the next logical step seemed to be tackling real life itself, live.

     

    His no-holds-barred talk show Satyameva Jayate has already garnered praise from industrywallahs – singer Sukhwinder Singh is gaga about it, for one – and, from all accounts, promises to be an eye-opener.

     

    Shooting for the episodes has begun and is said to be proceeding as per schedule.

     

    Besides the guests on the show, the live TV audiences have also been moved by the issues tackled on the show. While the mood is not always sombre to begin with, as the issues get revealed and the guests share their touching stories, it is often Mr Khan himself who is seen to have tears in his eyes. The actor with a heart does succeed in getting the guests to talk about the most difficult times in their lives, but not without also extracting mugfuls of tears from practically everyone, according to eyewitnesses.

     

    “I will put it this way, that the ‘EQ’ or emotional quotient is very high on this show,” said a participant who attended one of the studio shoots. “Aamir Khan is really dedicated and really cares about the people and their problems that are being discussed. He’s wonderful. We came because we are Aamir fans, but then we just forgot that he is a star actor,” she added.

     

    After heavy doses of manufactured reality programmes, the Star offering seems to be a breath of genuine fresh air, as the show sets out to reveal the India that lives in far-flung villages and only sometimes breaks out in the form of a headline.

     

  • In Freaking News, Ranjona Banerji finds there's confusion everywhere… in the papers and the news channels

    Mid-Day Delhi & Bengaluru closure a shame

     Ranjona Banerji

     

    The day started with the sad news that Mid-Day was closing down its Delhi and Bangalore editions with immediate effect. Undoubtedly the owners have their reasons but it is still a shame.

     

    Having worked with Mid-Day many years ago and also having been part of a publication which shut down years before that, I can feel the pain. Commiserations to all involved.

     

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    Part of Tuesday on television and twitter was about Kapil Sibal wanting websites like Google and Facebook to screen “offensive” content on the internet. Outrage broke out on all levels. So far, except for China, no government has had much success with patrolling or reining in the internet, so good luck to Sibal and the government. Initial reactions have been largely over the top with twitterers and TV commentators rushing to protect India’s democracy, Article 19 A and so on. Without irony (actually irony is conspicuous by its absence on Indian television), Times Now rushed to Varun Gandhi to get his opinion on free speech, he of course, is known for an infamous hate speech.

     

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    Kudos to Mumbai Mirror on its story that “fans” were paid Rs 300 each to cheer for Hollywood star Tom Cruise, who was on a Mission Impossible promo visit to India. Since almost nothing in the media appears to be real, when it comes to entertainment, why not pay for a few people to cheer? The whole celebrity-entertainment culture appears to be a carefully constructed falsehood – and the media is an integral part of this.

     

    Sadly for the PR genius who came up with this scheme, the death of cinema stalwart Dev Anand pushed Cruise off the main Indian news pages and segments. Also, isn’t Rs 300 a bit cheap for a star as big as Tom Cruise?

     

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    Congratulations to film star Aamir Khan and his director wife Kiran Rao on their new baby. Good for them that they told the world it was through an In Vitro Fertilisation-surrogate process, thus giving untold free publicity to the expensive IVF process and its doctors. But is this headline in Hindustan Times’ HT Café appropriate: “Baby Boy! Produced by Aamir Khan, Directed by Kiran Rao’?

     

    Cleverness gone too far, I think.

  • One more reality show on TV featuring a superstar. And this time, it’s Star that’s joined hands with Aamir Khan.

    Aamir-Star reveal mega-show plans

    By A Correspondent

    Superstars on television don’t always work, but they are also known to succeed with a bang, and the Aamir Khan-Star combo is a good candidate to win.

    At a press conference on October 22, though officials from the broadcast major and Mr Khan too did not reveal much about the show, the buzz is that it will be a talk show, where the perfectionist will take the lead in telling stories of the common man. The format, however, is not clear.

    The official communiqué released at the event carries some information about the show:  “A show about India and its stories. A show that will change lives. A show that will touch the heart of every Indian. A show that will inspire a billion imaginations.” Time will tell if the show is really able to inspire a billion imaginations. But, the duo of Mr Khan and Star CEO Mr Uday Shankar were successful in inspiring imaginations at the press gathering.

    The show will be aired simultaneously in eight different languages, on network channels – Star Plus, Star World, Star Majha, Star Jalsa and Asianet, among others.

    Walking down memory lane, we know that Star has been the frontrunner in doing path-breaking shows, redefining television content on occasion. KBC was a huge success, as was Kabhi Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi and Kiran Bedi’s Aap Ki Kacheri. But in this case, the brain behind the show is Mr Aamir Khan, who rejected several television offers for this piece, which was playing in his head ever since he first thought of it some three or four years ago. So it is a case of him choosing Star, more than anything else. The show will be produced by Aamir Khan Productions, and will be marketed by Star Network.

    January 2012 is thus a date to watch, and, from what the industry and viewers know of Star and Mr Khan, it is likely to be a rousing success.

  • I really have a bad feeling about the so-called India’s most expensive film Ra One, and its debacle will hurt the SRK brand considerably.

    Anil Thakraney: Brand SRK needs help

    Celebrities are brands. And just like detergents, condoms, noodles and cars, they need to build and nurture their brand image. Because that’s what ultimately decides their performance in the market place. People like to be associated with desirable brands. And that’s also the reason advertisers like to associate their brands with celebs. To have the values of the celeb brand rub off on their own brands.

     

    When I examine how Shahrukh Khan has been going about building his own brand of late, it kind of confuses me. Clearly the actor isn’t really thinking out here. Let’s first study his movie brand. Instead of competing with Aamir Khan, and experimenting with new forms of cinema, he seems to have made it a mission to target Salman Khan. Perhaps in reaction to the success the latter has enjoyed with his recent mindless action films. SRK is now taking his brand into the ‘Mine is bigger than yours’ space. Completely ignoring his own core brand strengths, which is the soft, vulnerable, caring, sensitive, romantic persona… the image that endears him to his fans… and is now trying to compete with a macho star on values alien to him. I really have a bad feeling about the so-called India’s most expensive film Ra One, and its debacle will hurt the SRK brand considerably.

     

    Next, his choice of brand endorsements and his performances in them. You’ll notice glaring fault lines here too. Not only is there no attempt at being discerning, which once again Aamir Khan is, SRK agrees to endorse just about anything that comes his way, and acts the same in every commercial, convinced the buyers will buy into whatever nonsense he does on the screen. Frankly, it’s embarrassing to watch him in ads for Hyundai i10, Linc Pens, Videocon and many others. There’s another cringeful ad he’s done with wife Gauri (it’s so silly, can’t even recall the brand name). Guess baniyan and chaddi brands are next up. If this continues, and his movie career stagnates, SRK will find the going quite difficult.

     

    Celebs, like all brands, must fiercely guard their value. So that it remains powerful, relevant and enduring. The hit-and-run approach won’t work. Guess SRK badly needs a brand manager.

     

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    PS: Watch this brilliant ad from Pro Infirmis, a Swiss organization that supports handicapped people. THIS is the way to use emotion in advertising. A big hug for the creator of this advert.

     

    [youtube width=”400″ height=”300″]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zFWr-CKMWGY[/youtube]