MxMIndia

Tag: Shailesh Kapoor

  • These will possibly be the first general elections where the agenda is driven more by social than traditional media, writes Shailesh Kapoor

    Election Battleplace: Social or Traditional Media?

     

    By Shailesh Kapoor

     

    The buzz is unmistakable. We are in an election year, and we can feel it. While specific dates will be out soon, the April-May period has been confirmed by senior leaders of the ruling party as the broad window in which 2019 General Elections will be held. The speeches have started, and alliances have started taking shape. After all, we are only two-three three months away from the first polling day.

     

    2019’s will arguably be the most bitterly-fought elections ever in independent India’s history. With social media being a prominent marketing tool to woo voters, it seems there is no room for subtlety or grace in election campaigns anymore. Personal attacks, accusations and rough language will be par for the course. We saw a glimpse of this in 2014 too. But there was a certain wave around Narendra Modi that became the dominant theme of those elections. This time, the opposition looks stronger and the fight can be tougher. The politicking may go on well after the election results are out, because a hung verdict seems the most likely outcome as of today, if one goes by recent opinion polls by leading media houses. But then, three months is a long time in politics.

     

    These will possibly be the first General Elections where the agenda is driven more by social media than traditional media. While social media was used to great effect by NDA in 2014, TV was still the lead medium. Things have changed significantly on the digital front over the last five years, and social media is no longer the bastion of the urban affluent and semi-affluent class. Social media will set the agenda and drive it, and effective use of social media can effectively swing the verdict in a close contest.

     

    Where does TV even stand in all of this, then? Over the last few years, the rise of digital news has meant that TV has taken the form of an opinion-centric medium, than one that breaks news. Channels and anchors put their stand upfront on issues, and don’t hesitate to take clear ideological positions. While this is a far cry from the classical definition of journalism, there seems to be a growing feel in the traditional journalist community that having a viewpoint is the only way for TV and print to counter digital news.

     

    We see that in the primetime everyday, across news channels across languages. And the polarisation of media, including some digital sites and apps, will get only more apparent in the coming weeks.

     

    It is easy to get frustrated with all the lowbrow politics and crass marketing that is sure to be on display. I’ve decided to focus on the “entertainment of politics” in these elections. I’ll be watching out for those silly one-liners, those foot-in-the-mouth quotes, those jibes that can be remixed into a YouTube video, and so on. Watch this space for more!

     

     

  • The biggest challenge that is evident already, and will manifest itself fully once the critical date arrives, is consumer comprehension, writes Shailesh Kapoor

    Shailesh Kapoor: TRAI’s Tariff Order: What Lies Ahead?

    By Shailesh Kapoor

    There’s a buzz in the television industry over the last few weeks. TRAI’s tariff order set the ball rolling end 2018, and as the date of implementation nears, there’s high anticipation of how things will eventually pan out. The situation is fairly untested for the Indian market, and no one knows the exact outcome for sure.

    Today (February 1) was the day when it all comes into effect, but the date seems to have been extended to February 6 now. But it’s only a matter of days when we enter a new regime that’s more subscription-driven than ever before.

    The biggest challenge that is evident already, and will manifest itself fully once the critical date arrives, is consumer comprehension. In a market where consumers have traditionally been handed down a standard packaged offering, barring some premium channels available on a stand-alone basis, the comprehension of Pay vs. FTA itself is fairly low. Add to it the complexity of selecting packs and estimating one’s total spend for various possible scenarios and plans, and you have chaos waiting to erupt. The complicatedly phrased NCF (Network Capacity Fee) will worsen matters, as most channel communication handle this aspect too well. It can be that rude shock in their final cable bill calculation that consumers are still not prepared for.

    Channels have been aggressive in their communication, but consumer understanding of the detailing remains low. In reality, it may then come down to people taking the minimum basic packs or channels they need initially, and with time, adding the ones they realize are missing on their TV, but need to be watched. The two key questions here are: How soon will things stabilize, and who will lose out and who will gain?

    The answer to the first question is easier to estimate. Confusion borne out of lack of comprehension will create about 3-4 weeks of disruption. But Indian consumers are fairly savvy, especially when it comes to aspects that involve price sensitivity. While customer service executives at many DTH and MSOs are still all at sea, YouTube videos and WhatsApp forwards educating viewers are now in circulation, aiding comprehension. Once the date is there, things can gain momentum very fast. After all, it’s an Indian thing to do things right at the end. So, expect about eight weeks for full stability.

    ‘Who will lose and who will gain’ is a tougher question. Even the most popular pack (one of the top four Hindi GEC packs) may not get more than 30-40% subscription after things settle down (but for the impact of key cricket events like IPL and the Cricket World Cup). But eventually, the TV viewing time of 2.5-3 hours per day is going to hold firm. Hence, channels that are low on appointment viewing will probably tend to lose, while those high on appointment viewing will benefit.

    Appointment viewing has been the Holy Grail of television for years now. But very few in the industry actually understand this term in its truest sense. Often, high ratings are equated with appointment viewing and vice versa. This myth is likely to be shattered soon.

    Smart packaging is a key, and packs that lack a marquee channel, like a leader or no. 2 GEC, movie or news channel, may be at distinct disadvantage. That could change some of the dynamics of the industry, and even encourage alliances, if not acquisitions, of some of the smaller players in the category.

    Irrespective of how things pan out, the next few weeks are going to high on excitement and anticipation. Be prepared for some surprises along the way too!

     

     

  • There’s a lot to learn from the incident, which now seems to have lived its course, writes Shailesh Kapoor

    Shailesh Kapoor: Koffee with Kricketers: Much to Learn & Fix

    By Shailesh Kapoor

     

    The last three weeks, while this column was on a break, saw the out-of-the-blue eruption of a cricket controversy. Hardik Pandya and KL Rahul landed into trouble over their comments (especially Pandya’s) in the January 6 episode of Koffee With Karan. Trying to project a cool image, Pandya ended up coming across as brash, uncouth and misogynistic on the show.

    When I watched the episode that night, I found it distasteful. But like the three protagonists of the show, including its anchor, I didn’t see the controversy coming. A social media attack on the three was expected, even reasonable. But within hours, BCCI (or COA to be more precise) had sprung into action. The issue continued to heat up and soon lost all sense of proportion. The cricketers were recalled from the Australia tour before the ODIs. And the mess got so convoluted that it even reached the Supreme Court.

    The incident can be a seen as a case-study-like commentary on at least three areas:

    Boys will be boys

    The nature of comments by Pandya and Rahul are in the same league as those made by several politicians and other celebrities in the past, where deep-seated misogyny, probably a function of an upbringing and a culture that normalizes such a thought process, is on full display. It’s what one would call ‘locker room’ talk, except that we have seen it happen in the Parliament, in election rallies, on TV debates, in films, and now on a much-celebrated TV chat show. There have been some comments suggesting the cricketers should have known better what not to say on a public platform. But from the various previous incidents of this nature, none less than the much-publicised ‘Boys will be boys’ comment by Mulayalam Singh Yadav, it is apparent that locker room talk will make it to public platforms some time or the other, no matter how careful you are. Because locker room talk reflects your true mindset and values, and it’s difficult to hide it when you are in public glare all the time as a celebrity. The need is to address this mindset aspect. But very little debate over the last three weeks has focused on the mindset being the real problem, of which the Koffee With Karan episode is only a symptom.

     

    Confused cricket administration

    Cricket now has fairly evolved rules to handle on-field controversies. Match referees get involved and things follow a laid-down rule-book. The one-year ban on marquee Australian cricketers Steve Smith and David Warner last year, over a ball-tampering incident, is a good example of how effective on-field controversy handling generally is, if the quality of umpires and match referee is good. But cricket administrators, either at BCCI or ICC, have little by the way of rule-book or experience when it comes to handling off-field controversies such as the one involving Pandya and Rahul. As a result, the decisions taken are often arbitrary and knee-jerk. In 2000, Shane Warne was removed by the Australian Cricket Board from the Vice Captain’s position in the national team after a controversy about his obscene calls to a British nurse. Even then, the Australian media and public were divided in their opinion on whether Warne’s ‘indiscretion’ (their word, not mine) deserved such a harsh punishment. While ICC is not expected to write this rule-book, individual national boards will do well to set up internal committees that are equipped to handle such incidents, if and when they arise.

     

    Trial by social media

    The incident also highlights how social media plays a pivotal role of an influencer in such cases. In the absence of social media, the said episode would have gone largely unnoticed. I don’t envisage how a news channel or a newspaper would have picked this up as a topic of debate the next day if reactions on social platforms were hypothetically non-existent. As social media becomes bigger by the year, it also runs the risk of fuelling the lynch-mob syndrome in such cases, where public opinion, erstwhile restricted to living rooms and water coolers, is now for everyone to see and get influenced by. I’m quite certain decision-makers at BCCI/ COA read up on the comments on the episodes to update themselves of what the nation thinks, and most certainly, got influenced by it too.

    There’s a lot to learn from the incident, which now seems to have lived its course, with the ban being lifted. While Pandya, Rahul and Johar would have their share of learning, it’s also for the cricket administrators to do their bit.

     

     

  • He’s a genuine, one-in-a-million outlier, writes Shailesh Kapoor… and one with immense talent

    Ranveer Singh: A Star Like No One Else

     

     

    By Shailesh Kapoor

     

    The last Bollywood release of 2018, Rohit Shetty’s Simmba, is buzzing at the box office. The film’s extraordinary run in its first week puts it in a firm position to be the third-biggest Hindi language grosser of the year after Sanju and Padmaavat. While the full-blown mainstream entertainment package delivered by the film works as its biggest plus, Simmba benefits in no small measure from an inspired no-holds-barred yet mature performance by its male lead Ranveer Singh.

    If there is such a thing as taking a role by the scruff of its neck and owning it completely, Ranveer Singh has done that twice over last year. His January performance as Alauddin Khilji in Padmaavat had the audiences and the critics applauding him. Simmba is arguably a more towering performance, where Singh plays to the gallery for most part, delivering comic punches and clap-traps by the minute, till the film enters a certain emotional space, into which he transforms seamlessly, almost like he’s living the character’s journey – an incredible feat to achieve in a film that’s essentially designed to be larger-than-life and hence definitionally unreal.

    But it’s not just these two performances that have set up Ranveer Singh as the potential No. 1 Bollywood star in the coming years. There’s an off-screen persona that’s so unique and effervescent that it makes him stand out in a crowd of vain stars living in their bubble of (often self-fulfilling) stardom.

    Watch Ranveer Singh in this Actors Roundtable with Rajeev Masand. He’s clearly the biggest star on the table. But he’s also the most generous and fun-loving one of the lot. Early in the discussion, he praises Rajkummar Rao and Pankaj Tripathi for their film Newton. Towards the latter half of the show, he develops a rapport with the much-respected Tripathi. Watch them bond and you know Ranveer Singh doesn’t wear his stardom on his sleeve. Or anywhere for that matter. He goes on to compliment Tripathi on his film Gurgaon. The 2017 indie film got a limited release and hardly any takers at the box office, though it has since been discovered by many on Netflix. In an industry where people are too busy and self-occupied to watch other people’s work (some even say so proudly!), here’s a top star who’s had a busy year with two films, a high-profile marriage and several endorsements, but has somehow managed to watch a film many others may not even have heard of.

    This accessibility and generosity are such uncommon celebrity traits that you actually wonder if this is all a charade the man could be putting up to project a certain image. But the more you see and learn about him, you know that’s him for real. He’s a genuine, one-in-a-million outlier. And one with immense talent.

    In this episode of ETC Bollywood Business, watch (from 4:07) Simmba’s dialogue writer Farhad Samji respond to a question by anchor Komal Nahta on how Ranveer Singh responded to the script narration of the film. Or watch him on any reality show. Or watch him speak about Deepika Padukone. Or watch him dress bizarrely and then talk nonchalantly about his ‘fashion sense’. Watch him anywhere, doing anything. It’s a curious case of talent meets energy meets humility.

    Only time will tell how big a star Ranveer Singh turns out to be. But one thing is already certain: He’s a star like no one else. And he shall shine bright for that reason alone.

  • Shailesh Kapoor presents his list of the shows that drove the GEC category

    Top 5 Category-Defining Hindi GEC Shows of 2018

     

    By Shailesh Kapoor

     

    Even if only in relative terms, 2018 has been a better year for Hindi GECs than the last 2-3 years. The category, on a share decline since 2015-16, did not see a further downward trend, and there was some recovery too by the end of the year.

    In a year when original content in the OTT space, led by Netflix and Amazon Prime Video, grabbed most headlines, the Hindi GEC category tried to find its footing back. And though the ‘success’ achieved can only be considered partial in nature, it sets a good base for 2019 to emerge as a revival year for the category.

    Here is my list of five Hindi GEC shows that drove the category and its perceptions this year, eventually leading to a respectable year.

     

    5. Kaun Banega Crorepati

    KBC had another successful season, both in terms of viewership and its revenue impact on the channel (Sony), with the latter benefitting considerably from the digital revenues that have become a strong force for the show since the last season in 2017. All the classical elements remained, and the show was virtually a replica of the successful one last year. KBC is emerging as India’s comfort family viewing in the prime-time year-on-year. And you don’t mend what’s not broken.

     

    4. Kumkum Bhagya-Kundali Bhagya

    The 9-10 PM block on Zee TV has emerged as a fortress of sorts, owing to the two Balaji Telefilms shows that continued to thrive in 2018. In times of content fatigue being a real concern among viewers, Kumkum Bhagya managed to stay fresh and relevant. Kundali Bhagya, the more recent of the duo, found its peak towards the end of 2017, and held on to it through this year. The combo delivered a solid package of traditional and the modern, covering wide-ranging and engaging characters and emotions between them. How long can Zee-Balaji milk this double bill remains to be seen. But in 2018, the combination was rock-solid.

     

    3. Radha Krishn

    Star Bharat’s RadhaKrishn launched at the start of the last quarter of the year, and immediately propelled the channel’s viewership. It is bizarre to think that Indian television has not had a TV series of Radha and Krishna’s love story till this show came in. The idea was a winner at the get go, and the visual execution, supported by top-level music, made the show a quick audience favorite. Mythological shows tend to have a shorter shelf-life than family dramas. But RadhaKrishn has just about taken off and should have a good early 2019 at least.

     

    2. Taarak Mehta Ka Ooltah Chashmah

    Taarak Mehta Ka Ooltah Chashmah (TMKOC) is the KBC of television comedy. Nothing else that happens in the category can seem to shake up the staunchly-loyal viewer base the show has built. The difference, of course, is that unlike KBC, TMKOC is on-air all year. Now, that should make it doubly hard for a show to stay fresh and relevant. But no such concerns with TMKOC. Aided in no small measure by its immensely-popular lead character Jethalal, TMKOC may be a fixture of the Indian viewers’ watchlist for another 2-3 years at least, if not more.

     

    1. Kullfi Kumarr Bajewala

    Star Plus adapted its very successful Bangla show Potol Kumar Gaanwala into Kullfi Kumarr Bajewala in an early-2018 launch. The show found its real footing after the IPL, finding levels of viewership that were out of reach of new shows for the last 2-3 years. The endearing Kullfi even usurped Jethalal briefly to become the No. 1 fiction character in the category (Ormax Characters India Loves). Differentiated stories, when rooted in viewer relevance, can be runaway successes. And with Kullfi Kumarr Bajewala, this combination was achieved by a mainstream (read non-mytho-historical) Hindi GEC fiction show after a long time.

     

    Shailesh Kapoor is Founder and CEO, Ormax Media. He reviews trends and insights on MxMIndia every week. The views here are personal

     

     

  • How has a collective community of topline channels forgotten how to cover election results over the last few years, asks Shailesh Kapoor

    Shailesh Kapoor: The Mediocrity of Election Results Coverage

    By Shailesh Kapoor

     

    Earlier this week, on Tuesday, election results from five states were on the news agenda. The cliffhanger in Madhya Pradesh and the close contest in Rajasthan, combined with the story of Congress’ resurgence in the Hindi heartland, made for an irresistible news day by the end of it. But while the content proposition was delightful, the television coverage itself was terribly underwhelming.

     

    Election results have been event-like days for the news genre for decades now. With the advent of EVMs, the counting process got crashed from 1-2 days to 1-2 hours. Anything that’s in the T20 format works, and this format too is a television channel’s delight – it’s fast-paced, exciting, unscripted and unpredictable. The natural tendency, then, should be to hero the format and let it do all the heavy-lifting.

     

    But trust our news channels to complicate simple things. The Tuesday coverage across most Hindi and English news channels was like a T20 game where the cricket is good but the commentary and the graphics are terrible. You will still watch it for the cricket, even if the viewing experience s. It made me wonder what has made it come down to this. How has a collective community of topline channels forgotten how to cover election results over the last few years?

     

    There are many concerns with how such days have now started to pan out, but let’s focus on a few key ones. The first issue is the unnecessarily busy feel of the election shows, with multiple talking heads, both inside and outside the studio. As it is, the pace of results unfolding is breakneck. The various talking heads can be heard and seen jostling for attention, even as the anchor(s) attempt to balance the results with the commentary, which invariably is lost in the din anyway. Why do election results in their first hour have to be handled like a noisy primetime debate on a slow-news day?

     

    The second issue is about the graphics. In an attempt to outdo each other, channels have started investing in complicated, often non-intuitive, graphics that add little real value to the analysis. English news channels have been particularly guilty of it. Psephologists are one camera, jumping around big screens like energised bunnies, presenting data that is irrelevant, to use a mild word, when they should actually be behind the scenes, like a cricket statistician, arming the anchors with material that’s compelling and insightful.

     

    In my growing-up years, when the word “psephology” was first introduced into my vocabulary, I understood it as a fine balance between statistics and political insight, in context of election results. This balance has gone awry now. There is an overdose of statistics, but very little insight. In fact, the ‘insight’ part today seems to have an anything-goes approach. Comments are increasingly banal, often factually inaccurate.

     

    Seat-level leads, which were always a much sought-after aspect of election results coverage, especially in the General Elections, has been sidelined over the last decade. Even the 2014 elections had lesser emphasis on individual seats than 2004 and 2009. There is some token on-screen coverage, but very few channels have anchors and panelists who are actually aware of too many candidates by name and background. This robs the coverage of the classical personal touch. On Tuesday, it was rare to spot a local panelist across channels who knew the political faces in any of the five states.

     

    Then there is this confusing issue about multiple sources of results. Half an hour into counting, you will see at least five different results across various channels put together, some of which are in direct contradiction with each other. Till one hour after the results started trickling in, which way you thought Rajasthan is going was a function of which channel you were watching.

     

    Next Thursday, the ratings will be released and news channels will slice the data to do their share of emailers on how well they did on December 11. It will be an endorsement of mediocre coverage at a category level. And we shall see a repeat in the summer of 2019.

     

    Shailesh Kapoor is Founder and CEO, Ormax Media. The views here are personal

     

     

  • If there was any doubt one had about the power of good 3D cinema experience, 2.0 puts it to rest, writes Shailesh Kapoor

    Shailesh Kapoor: 2.0 and the Power of 3D

    By Shailesh Kapoor

     

    Last week, Shankar’s ambitious film 2.0 released worldwide in three languages. The film has managed to do well, especially in the Hindi dubbed version, even as the original Tamil version has been a notch below expectations. At about Rs 140crore (nett domestic) business in the Hindi version in the first extended week of eight days, the film has a chance of crossing the Rs 200cr mark, to become only the third Hindi film this year after Sanju and Padmaavat to do so.

     

    It’s now popularly agreed that the film lacks the screenplay quality or the emotional depth of many good Hindi films released this year. Even compared to the first film in the franchise (Enthiran in Tamil, Robot in Hindi), 2.0 is over-simplistic in its conflicts and its layering of its characters and their conflicts.

     

    But there’s an aspect that has clearly worked for the film. And that’s the third dimension in the 3D version of 2.0. The film’s 3D execution is immaculate, providing for much fun and spectacle, hitherto seen as the exclusive domain of Hollywood films in India. Much of the film’s first half, and its long climax, is watchable, and often eminently so, because the visual effects keep you engaged because of their imaginative constructs and flawless execution. Be it the use of mobile phones (in millions) as a visual device, or the graphics work on Akshay Kumar’s character Pakshi Rajan, 2.0’s 3D version is fertile with creative ideas in the VFX space.

     

    No wonder, then, that the 3D version has far outperformed the 2D version. The 2D version got almost 40-45% shows in the multiplexes, but has contributed to less than 20-25% of the multiplex business in the first week. Conceptualising and shooting a film in 3D is rare for Indian filmmakers, who have used 3D in the past as a marketing gimmick than a content form, converting films into 3D in post-production, leading to 3D visuals that are often irritatingly distracting to your viewing experience.

     

    But if there was any doubt one had about the power of good 3D cinema experience, 2.0 puts it to rest. With the advent of digital, cinema has increasingly become a spectacle-driven medium, with only high-content films offering immense uniqueness surviving at the other end of the spectrum. 3D, too, has become an integral part of the spectacle. There have also been experiments with the fourth and fifth dimensions, to create a sensory experience. But the 2.0 example proves that only when the experience is organically built into the concept at the very onset, it has the potential of giving worthy returns.

     

    Will India make more conceived-and-executed-in-3D films now? Only time will tell. A great story and canvas like Bahubali worked without 3D support. But every filmmaker is not a Rajamouli or a Hirani. And that’s why, relying on technology can be a safer, though more expensive, bet than relying on creating characters, deep emotions and genuine conflicts. That may not make cinema better off than before. But if that’s what cinema needs to survive over the next few years, so be it.

     

     

  • The Hindi GEC category’s programming mix is the healthiest in a long time., asks Shailesh Kapoor

    Hindi GECs: Mixing It Up… Finally!

     

    By Shailesh Kapoor

     

    While all eyes this year have been on the OTT/ digital space, the Hindi GEC category too is silently, but surely, going through a shift this year. One doesn’t need to look much beyond the evolution of the programming mix on the category to understand this.

     

    After the launch of eight new shows currently in pre-launch promotional stage, the genre mix of the category, based on 64 primetime shows across the seven Hindi GECs targeting Urban HSM, will look something like the following:

     

    The family/ women-centric + romance combination, which has traditionally dominated the category since 2000, controlling at least 65-70% of the programming mix, and peaking at 80%+ at times, now stands at a modest 45%. The ‘alternative’ genres are no longer alternatives, with 55% contribution to the programming mix as a collective. This is the healthiest the Hindi GEC category’s programming mix has looked in a long time.

     

    This change, evidently, is a result of the distress the category has faced over the last two-three years. With category share (as a percentage of total TV viewership) dropping consistently, Hindi GECs were left with little choice but to question if conventional family dramas and love stories are the path to sustained viewership. The rise of the alternative has been evident through shows like Naagin, Kaun Banega Crorepati, Comedy Nights With Kapil/ The Kapil Sharma Show and the ilk putting up solid numbers over time, even as conventional family dramas failed to make an impact, barring a select few.

     

    This shift makes 2018 the best year for Hindi GECs in recent times. While we are still five weeks of data away from doing an annual analysis, it is safe to say that there has been no further attrition in the category’s share this year. While that’s a good start, a lot more needs to be done. After all, two years of damage needs to be undone.

     

    The sinking ship in this mix is still the family drama genre. Most shows that are doing well in this set are pre-2015 launches. Very little that has launched since then has managed to survive more than a few months. More importantly, it is this 36% (amounting to 23 shows out of 64) that brings a perception of mediocrity and lack of innovation to the genre in the viewers’ minds. This year’s launch Kullfi Kumarr Bajewala provided an exception, emerging as a fresh yet relevant show in this mix. But as it moves ahead and enters its second year, it will have to face similar challenges as other family dramas too, those related to viewer fatigue coming from a long-running show.

     

    The ‘overdose’ of supernatural, fantasy and horror shows in the category is a popular topic in the media, with Naagin being the flagbearer, albeit not in a flattering way. But if 11 shows (17% of the mix) can deliver more category freshness and entertainment than 23 conventional dramas, why should that be a problem of overdose?

     

    I’m glad there would be something to write about in the traditional end-of-the-year Hindi GEC round-up in this column. The last two years have been too inert to write much. This year is better. Can 2019 then be the year when some of the glory, from the pre-2012 days, is won back?

     

     

  • The women’s cricket team is on a fine journey, but it’s just the start, writes Shailesh Kapoor

    Indian Women’s Cricketers: Stars in the Making

     

    By Shailesh Kapoor

     

    As I write this, I’m watching the Indian women’s cricket team bow out in the T20 World Cup, losing their semi-final game to England after a lacklustre performance. Thus far, it’s been an excellent World Cup for the team, where they won everything on offer, and fairly emphatically too.

     

    You can’t win everything. But the Indian women’s cricket team has been winning a lot more in recent times than ever before. The 2017 ODI World Cup in England is where the surge started. India reached the final and should have won it against the hosts, chasing. a modest total, but lost by nine runs in a tight finish. But the run of performances leading to that final made the media and the audiences sit up and take up notice. In particular, the semi-final performance against Australia, featuring a dream innings by Harmanpreet Kaur, where she scored an unbeaten 171, was the gamechanger in this regard. The rise of women’s cricket in India was covered in this column too at that time, which can be read here.

     

    Since then, the team has built on its strengths, and has now three clear stars headlining the unit. Mithali Raj is a veteran with many records to her name, while Harmanpreet Kaur and Smriti Mandhana are exciting, young batters who play a brand of cricket that’s immensely entertaining and new-age.

     

    During the ad breaks in today’s game, I saw Kaur endorsing a natural fruit juice brand. Raj has been endorsing brands too, and I’m sure Mandhana is beginning to get her share of credit on that front. This was unthinkable two years ago.

     

    Star Sports have done well to promote women’s cricket with all sincerity, well knowing that the ratings will take time to come. It’s too early to expect these games to show up on the top programme charts. But the rise in interest is definitive. When India’s men’s team lost the first T20 to Australia earlier in the week, an English news anchor covered it in the headlines, specifically prefixing “men’s” to avoid confusion. That tells you something about the progress that has been made.

     

    The women’s cricket team is on a fine journey, but it’s just the start. They will need to be consistent over the next couple of years to build a bigger fan base. That’s when the stars will come into their own, becoming sporting stars like Saina Nehwal, PV Sindhu or Sania Mirza.

     

    In the Ormax Sports Stars October 2018 report, four Indian sportswomen feature in the Top 25 most popular sportspersons in India (across sports, nations and gender), and these are Nehwal, Sindhu, Mirza and MC Mary Kom. Raj follows at no. 26, at less than 10% popularity share of Nehwal. So clearly, there’s a lot of fan base to still cover.

     

    The men’s team has done very well in the ODI and T20 formats in recent years, and now enter most series or tournaments as the favorites to win. That’s the next target for the women’s team. And it may not be too far away.

     

     

  • Shailesh Kapoor dwells on the role and place of digital media in the larger media landscape

    2018: The Year of Digital Confusion

     

    By Shailesh Kapoor

     

    The growth of digital media has headlined many conversations in the media landscape over the last few years. Many industry forums and conclaves have picked “digital” as their theme. It is nearly impossible to have a conversation with any senior television or films executive that eventually does not discuss how digital media is impacting their category.

    The over-arching feeling in many such forums or conversations is still one of confusion. Everyone is trying to make some sense of what’s going on, but there is so much going on and so little public data available that it is impossible to make much sense after all. The smarter ones are still focusing on picking up packets of information and trying to join the dots in their head, even as others jump to hasty, often faulty, conclusions (the predicted death of conventional television is at the top of this list).

    The last week, too, saw the media industry struggle with its ability to process the impact of digital media. There was, yet again, some talk about censorship of online content. This impossible-to-execute idea keeps propping up every now and then. The more you attempt to understand the thinking of the Government (or TRAI, which seems involved in some of this thinking), you sense that they are still struggling with two independent ‘challenges’ and but somehow trying to find common solutions to them: that of fake news via social media (including WhatsApp) and that of an uncensored original content space in OTT.

    The fake news menace is a real one, and while there are laws that address this area, the topic is still too nascent for the execution machinery. Censorship demands that keep coming up are about wanting to control as much territory as they can, an inherent entitlement most politicians or bureaucrats struggle to let go.

    While these are regulatory challenges, there are challenges on the industry side too. Last week, a big film (Thugs of Hindostan) released to scathing social media reviews. Within hours of the release, videos and memes were circulating on how poor the content of the film is. While this has happened in the past too, the sheer speed at which the information travelled this time was unprecedented. By the time the film entered its second day, it was already carrying the perception of being a low-grade product, and had received so much battering that even a higher drop in its box office collections from the first day to the second (it dropped about 45%) was not ruled out.

    Then there is the entire question of marketing economics. Most big advertisers are struggling with the important question on how to divide adspends between digital and conventional media. The question here is of both reach and effectiveness, making it even more complex than the more general query: “How many people are watching content online now?”

    In a widely-circulated Ormax report earlier this year, the collective impact of Facebook, YouTube and Instagram on the opening box office of a film dwarfed that of television, making some producers even question the presence of television in their media plans, especially for a film that’s modest in its budgets and its revenue ambitions.

    The coming year will be particularly interesting, as many will hope to find some answers to the many questions regarding the role and place of digital media in the larger media landscape. And before we forget, it’s an elections year. And that adds its own share of both spice and uncertainty. One just hopes that by end-2019, we are all wiser, with more information on hand, and a better aptitude to understand the interplay of different media in India and the world.

     

     

  • How big will 2018 be over 2017 will depend on the eight weeks that remain, writes Shailesh Kapoor

    Bollywood’s Big Festive Four

     

    By Shailesh Kapoor

     

    It’s been an exceptional year for Hindi theatrical business so far. The flow of hits has been consistent over the year. A series of seemingly ‘regular’ films, made in humble budgets, have cut through and become big, the latest being the delightful Badhaai Ho. As the year nears its end, it is set to be the watershed year that reverses the trend of declining footfalls and poor success ratio. How big will 2018 be over 2017 will, however, depend on the eight weeks that remain.

     

    The last two months of the year are packed with four big films, each with a mammoth potential of its own. If three or more of these films land where they can be expected to, given the credentials of the people involved, we may be looking at an exceptional 2018.

     

    Thugs Of Hindostan is first of the four, releasing next week on November 8. The film is set to be the widest release ever in India. It has many records to chase, especially in terms of a huge opening day and an opening weekend. The makers (Yash Raj Films) haven’t put out too much material, leaving a sense of intrigue around what anyway is a fairly unusual film for the Bollywood market in today’s times. Thugs Of Hindostan is incidentally Aamir Khan’s first Diwali release in 22 years, after the blockbuster Raja Hindustani in 1996.

     

    2.0, the next film from the Robot (Enthiran) franchise, is releasing on November 29. The trailer is out tomorrow (November 3). It’s a film that promises to give India a definitive leap in the genre of spectacle cinema. The numbers that can be expected, not just from India but globally, have the potential to make many other big films look very small in comparison. Shankar, like SS Rajamouli, is a director with great vision and storytelling skills. Great VFX are a given. But don’t be surprised if 2.0 has emotional depth too.

     

    The most intriguing film of the four is Aanand L. Rai’s Zero, whose trailer releases today on the birthday of its lead star Shahrukh Khan. Rai has forged a name for himself with the genuinely authentic Tanu Weds Manu films, especially the second one. He’s worked on this ambitious project since that film released in 2015. SRK hasn’t given a film that’s truly found audience appreciation for a while now. Very little is known about Zero, except SRK playing a dwarf, at the time of writing this. But if Rai can marry his world with SRK’s, we could be looking at something very special. Zero releases on December 21.

     

    Simmba, Rohit Shetty’s cop masala action flick with Ranveer Singh, will round up the year on December 28. Singh got accolades for playing Khilji in an all-out, no-holds-barred way, in Padmaavat earlier this year. But this is his big solo film, where everything rests of his shoulders. It’s his Singham. And we can expect him to make it his own. Simmba is more ‘routine’ that the other three films on this list. But never write the staple off.

     

    See you at the movies. Four times over.

     

     

  • Starting November, till the General Elections, we will witness India’s longest political festival, writes Shailesh Kapoor

    Death By Elections?

     

    By Shailesh Kapoor

     

    Five states go to elections in November and December, immediately after the Diwali week. The festivities that characterise the months of October and November every year will give way to a long political festival. Starting November, till the end of the next General Elections, which could be anytime between February and May next year, we will witness India’s longest political festival – one that may last six long months, without any letup. There have been election seasons in the past, but this one promises to be so long-drawn and fierce that it will suck you in first, and eventually exhaust you by the end of it.

     

    The states of Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan may see the Congress either coming back to power, or at least running BJP very close, if early opinion polls are anything to go by. This will set up the mood for the big 2019 elections. Because who wants a one-sided contest after all?

     

    Over the last few weeks, news channels have started launching their 2019 election shows. As we near December 11, which is the results day for the five states (and already a hashtag on a couple of channels), these shows will become bigger, both in terms of their air-time and their promotions. Once the 2019 elections schedule is announced, I suspect no other primetime programming will be left in the news category.

     

    The problem of plenty manifests in such a scenario. You have so much to choose from, with about 20 national (Hindi and English) news channels, more than a hundred news portals of some repute, and the many newspapers and magazines. How do you decide which ones to go for?

     

    There are three kind of audiences in this context. You could equate them to the three formats of cricket, in a simple but easy-to-understand analogy. The T20 type is not interested in the depth and the details. He would rather get his information quickly, while being entertained on the way. The count of political leaders they are aware of is in single digits. The Test connoisseurs, low in volume but very high on engagement, get into the smallest of details. They can name Chief Minsters of most states in India, understand the math behind how vote share does not always convert systematically into seat share, and know terms like Bellwether (some even spell it correctly). The ODI group is somewhere in between. They are more aware of the alliances and the leaders, but haven’t immersed themselves into the fascinating world of election numbers.

     

    These segments show similar age and gender skews as cricket. T20 is younger and the Test connoisseurs the oldest. Most women audiences who follow elections fall in the T20 category. While the exact sizing of these segments is not possible to share in a public column, suffice is to say that the choice is between volume and value, as one moves from T20 to Test connoisseurs. In TV, they call it Reach and Time Spent.

     

    Audiences tend to sub-consciously choose platforms that align well to their segment. Though, I suspect, the elections festival, and the media overkill around it, may convert some audiences from T20 to ODI, for a short period of time anyway.

     

    If you have the appetite for elections, like the Test connoisseurs, fasten your seatbelts for an intense season ahead. And if you are more the T20 type, be prepared. Because death by elections is round the corner.