MxMIndia

Tag: Shailesh Kapoor

  • It's a crisis out there with comedy content on television and in cinema, writes Shailesh Kapoor. The quality (and quantity) has been down!

    India is waiting to be Tickled

     

    By Shailesh Kapoor

     

    It’s common knowledge that comedy is a popular genre of entertainment content worldwide. India is no exception, of course. Comedy is one of the most preferred genres for both television and theatrical consumption in India. It is also a unifying genre, binding age groups, genders, social strata and regions, on the strength of its powerful benefit, that of de-stressing.

     

    Yet, over the last few years, especially the last two, we have been in probably our worst phase in terms of the quality (and even the quantity) of content being dished out in this genre in India. There have been sporadic success stories in the regional space, but for the purpose of this piece, let’s focus on Hindi language content.

     

    About four years ago, SAB TV had promised a lot in this genre. They had some exciting new shows on-air. But in recent times, the channel has lost some of that momentum, and its flagship show Taarak Mehta Ka Ooltah Chashmah has lost its slot leadership too. Sensing the gap perhaps, Life OK has entered a similar space now, with Hamari Bahu Rajni Kant launching last month and May I Come In Madam coming up next week. The female perspective in Life OK’s comedy is unmistakable. How well this ‘experiment’ works will be in known soon.

     

    The only fiction comedy success story over the last three years has been Bhabiji Ghar Par Hain, the &TV programme that managed to find resonance, in its characters, treatment and setting. But even that show has not managed to grow after a very strong start. Star Plus’ attempt in this genre, Sumit Sambhal Lega, an Indian adaptation of Everybody Loves Raymond, failed to create a stir. Color’s Mrs. Pammi Pyarelal (2013) was a non-starter too. Zee TV’s weekend offering Neeli Chhatri Wale found an audience, but never quite skyrocketed on the popularity charts.

     

    With Taarak Mehta past its prime, the fiction comedy genre faces an apparent opportunity situation, whereby there is a huge audience available, but the right content just doesn’t seem to come by. Instead, non-fiction (though scripted) comedy has been in the spotlight over the last three years, because of the immense popularity of Comedy Nights With Kapil, and the subsequent migration of the star to Sony, announced formally earlier this week.

     

    In films too, the situation is not too different. The entire 2015 has only three mainstream comedy releases in Bollywood: Tanu Weds Manu Returns, Kis Kisko Pyaar Karoon and Singh Is Bliing. This year, two sex comedies released and bombed badly within a week of each other.

     

    There has been much talk in the industry, especially television, about how comedy is a tough genre to write and that we just don’t have the writing talent for it. Production houses and channels cite examples, one after the other, of how they have burnt their fingers with the genre. Those bad experiences have been wrongly rationalised as: The audiences do not like watching comedy in a daily format.

     

    The notion is evidently not true. The need to de-stress goes up with every passing year, and with it, the lucrativeness of the comedy genre keeps rising as well. A lucrative genre doesn’t mean mediocre content will deliver. But in times where new launches in other genres have failed one after the other, there are very high chances that the next big fiction hit on Hindi television will be a comedy show.

     

    When and on which platform that happens, is the million-dollar question indeed.

     

  • The huge success of films and also Naagin on weekends makes one wonder why weekday shows aren't rating at weekend levels despite more audience availability, asks Shailesh Kapoor

    Shailesh Kapoor: PRDP… And the search for blockbuster ratings

    By Shailesh Kapoor

     

    Salman Khan starrer Prem Ratan Dhan Payo was only a moderate success in its theatrical release last Diwali. The film broke the record for the highest opening day box-office, on the strength of its lead star, aggressive promotions, a chartbuster title song and a wide festive release. But thereafter, it struggled to consolidate, getting patronage largely from smaller towns and single screen theatres.

     

    The film eventually ended its lifetime India business at well less than Rs 200 crore, only about 60% of Bajrangi Bhaijaan’s business, another 2015 Salman Khan release. It scored an average 56% on Ormax’s WOM (word-of-mouth) rating, a measure of audience appreciation, well short of Bahubali (83%) and Bajrangi Bhaijaan (77%), and not in the Top 15 of the year.

     

    None of this came in the way, however, for the performance of the film on television. In BARC India’s ratings released yesterday, Prem Ratan Dhan Payo(Star Gold) outperformed Bajrangi Bhaijaan and Bahubali to emerge as the most-watched television premiere from 2015. It also set the number to beat in the short history of BARC India.

     

    The film was promoted as a Valentine’s Day attraction on television, though it is safe to say that the few urban Indians who celebrated Valentine’s Day (Sunday makes it tougher) didn’t do so by watching PRDP together on the telly. But then, we know by now that those “few” are too few to count, in the context of audience measurement.

     

    What the big-city theatre audiences look down upon as kitsch, is gold for television viewers. Ironically though, when Bollywood uses mass television to promote its new releases, it never quite gets this dichotomy. The notion that everyone who watches TV goes to theatres every other weekend is of course a highly flawed one. The actual proportion is less than 10%.

     

    The huge success of films and also Naagin on weekends raises another pertinent question: Why are weekday shows not rating at weekend levels, despite more audience availability on weekdays primetime? If the top weekend properties can attract more than 6% audiences to one destination, why are the top weekday shows even struggling to touch the 3% mark.

     

    On the face of it, high fragmentation on weekdays is the explanation. But in real terms, it’s more a symptom than a cause. Weekdays are seeing increasing fragmentation because they lack those marquee content pieces that have the ability to aggregate audiences. It perhaps becomes easier to maintain the quality of storytelling in a biweekly show than in a daily. Shouldn’t we be seeing more biweeklies and weeklies then?

     

    Whichever way one looks at the data, the success of movie premieres like PRDP suggests that audiences will aggregate to one destination, no matter how high the clutter is, if the content has the requisite pull. Outside Naagin, our television lacks such aggregators today. Will 2016 give us another one? Your guess is as good as mine.

     

  • This has been the best season for award shows on television, both in terms of quality of content and ratings, writes Shailesh Kapoor

    Shailesh Kapoor: Televised Events: The Best Season Ever

    By Shailesh Kapoor

     

    Indian award shows have earned themselves a lot of infamy over the last decade or so. With the rise in social media debates over years, the silliness of the process (or indeed the lack of it) behind selection of winners in various award shows has been criticized extensively. Many stars have also been candid enough in their interviews to admit that they have been offered awards in exchange of a guaranteed event appearance or a discounted fee for a performance.

     

    Right from the selection of categories to the choice of winners, it has been one big mess, across all award shows, without exception. I wrote on this topic in this column back in 2013, and I don’t have to edit a word in that piece to make it 2016-compatible. Some things will never change.

     

    But what has changed is the approach towards the televised events the award shows potentially create. This has been the best season for award shows on television, both in terms of quality of content and ratings. Big Star Entertainment Awards, Colors Stardust Awards, Star Screen Awards and Filmfare Awards have all met with varied levels of success, and have been a lot more engaging in terms of their content than they have been over the years.

     

    Here are a few reasons why televised events (not the ‘awards’ part of them) are flourishing, and will continue to do so:

    1 The focus of these events has shifted from awards to entertainment, keeping the television audience in mind. The TV audience can’t care less about who won the Best Music or the Best Supporting Actor. Most of them don’t visit theatres or follow Bollywood anyway. They just want to be entertained, via comedy and dance performances. This has been understood better than ever before.The fact that the winners are announced in the media days before the televised event is aired further brings weight to the performances.

     

    2. Younger Bollywood stars are a lot more uninhibited about what they can perform or say on the stage, and are willing to go that extra mile, well knowing that these events build their equity, by exposing them to the masses via television. Ranveer Singh has been in top form this year, killing it at every show he has been a part of.

     

    3. Top shows (except Naagin) have a rating of 3-4% today, vis-à-vis 5-7% a few years ago. Award shows have been outperforming running fiction and non-fiction content by rating in the 3-6% range.

     

    4. The clutter of sameness on GECs has been bothering viewers for a while now, and televised award shows are emerging as effective clutter breakers.

     

    5. By making Filmfare a ticketed event this year, not only did the magazine manage to get an additional source of revenue, it also made the televised event look a lot more purposeful. Some other award shows may not have the equity to go ticketed, but it’s a new dimension in the mix nevertheless.

     

    As we get closer to the Academy Awards on Sunday, Feb 28 (Monday early morning IST), it is safe to say that the “awards” part of the award shows is nowhere close to that level of aspiration (for the talent) or credibility (for the audience). But the entertainment part of the televised events is finding viewer traction. A lot of traction.

     

  • He is a comedian of immense talent, the best mainstream Indian media has seen ever. But it’s not his talent they have to harness, writes Shailesh Kapoor, adding: they have to make the man find himself again

    Shailesh Kapoor: Kapil Sharma And The Loss Of Innocence

    By Shailesh Kapoor

     

    Till about two-and-a-half years ago, not many knew his name. Kapil Sharma had been on TV since 2007, when he featured on the third season of The Great Indian Laughter Challenge. But his real brush with fame and success came when he got a show with his name in it: Comedy Nights With Kapil (CNWK).

     

    Face recognition to name recognition is a critical leap every actor in showbiz aspires for. It’s a good barometer of “having arrived”. Lot of TV stars, and even film stars, don’t have name recognition after years of being around. TV stars are generally known by the name of the most famous character they played in their career. Till today, many know Boman Irani as “Maamu”. And we routinely meet consumers who refer to Dalip Tahil as Madan Chopra as a matter of fact.

     

    I had been following Sharma’s work on Comedy Circus for a couple of years before CNWK happened. He was the stand-out comedian on that show, head and shoulders above the rest, in his spontaneity as well as a unique touch of innocence he brought to his performances. His freshness stood out. There was an unmistakable sense of “common man” to him.

     

    When Colors gave him a show with his name in it, and even got him to produce it, they were placing their bets on a man who had the ability to deliver the goods. And he delivered them indeed. Enough has been written about the phenomenal success story of CNWK, including on this column. It seemed like a match made in heaven. A top channel and a top talent, with a show in his name. What could go wrong?

     

    But things indeed went wrong. Today, Sharma is off-air, putting together a show that is rumoured to be going on-air on Sony in the near future. CNWK itself didn’t have the best year in 2015, as ratings flattened out. Colors has a replacement show on-air, but without a titular hero this time.

     

    A small-town struggling actor-comedian comes to Mumbai, achieves success, has a huge tryst with fame, builds a fan base most top Bollywood stars will be enviable of, and then begins to lose his bearings. That’s a classic story, right? Wait, we have even seen the female version of that. The movie was called Fashion.

     

    Talent management is a tricky business, and all channels and production houses encounter celebrities who can give them a pain in their backsides at some point or the other. Petty squabbles over vanity vans, flight tickets for hair and make-up crew, hotel room class, costume selection, etc. are commonplace.

     

    But illusions stardom brings with it can go beyond such squabbles. By all accounts, official and off-the-record (I have never met Sharma), it’s apparent that Sharma had a tough time managing success, and didn’t have the best people around him to advise him either. Over time, that innocence of Comedy Circus, and the first two years of CNWK, was giving way to a certain swagger of success. He even started building his stardom it into his lines (a terrible thing to do), almost sub-consciously perhaps.

     

    But the camera can expose you. The weakening of innocence reflected on screen. May be he was not working on the show as hard as before, maybe he didn’t want success as badly as before, having achieved it already. Whatever the reason, the Kapil Sharma of 2015 was a less endearing version of the Kapil Sharma till 2014. Bollywood aspirations also took their toll (they often do for big TV stars) in the same period.

     

    The channel which airs his show has its task cut out. Sharma is a comedian of immense talent, the best mainstream Indian media has seen ever. But it’s not his talent they have to harness. They have to make the man find himself again. If they manage to do that, it would be like the last act of Madhur Bhandarkar’s Fashion. When one rediscovers innocence and the hunger to excel. All over again.

     

  • Cricket 2 is T20, be it nation v/s nation or leagues… it's entertainment first and sports later, writes Shailesh Kapoor

    Shailesh Kapoor: T20 Cricket: India’s ‘Second Sport’?

     

    By Shailesh Kapoor

     

    This Republic Day, India beat Australia in the first T20 International of the ongoing series. Earlier the same day, the Indian women beat the Aussies too, in a record run chase. Thus started a long season of T20 cricket for the Indian viewers; a season that will go all the way till May end, when the IPL concludes.

     

    India finishes three T20s in Australia, then plays another three with Sri Lanka, followed by the T20 World Cup in India in March, and the IPL in April-May immediately after. More than 80 T20 matches will be aired this period, not counting the women’s T20 World Cup, which is also scheduled for March.

     

    For those whose initiation into the sport of cricket was through Tests and ODIs, this may come across as a crazy cricket schedule, almost an off-putting one. But for a wide section of sub-25 audience, this is the cricket they enjoy seeing the most – the three-hour entertainment show, over the eight-hour or five-day drag.

     

    I may have made this point in this column a couple of years ago, but it’s worth saying again that the sport a person (and by extension, a country) grows up to love is the sport he (or she) grows up to watch (and possibly play) when he’s a teenager. Typically, 12-17 years is the age band when the mind is most impressionable regarding the sporting taste of a typical urban Indian.

     

    Times are changing, though. For many in the 12-17 age group, the “entertainment” that sports provided has been replaced by social options, loosely grouped under the generic category of activities (including the virtual ones) called “hanging out”. Hence, the challenge to engage them will continue to get tougher by the year.

     

    In the pursuit to find the ‘second sport’ in India after cricket, broadcasters and sports marketers have launched every possible sporting league. Some of these leagues have done genuinely well, while others are merely projected media successes, despite low viewership and financial losses to most stakeholders. A dozen leagues later, India has not got any closer to finding that second sport.

     

    But even as that effort continues, the sport of cricket is virtually getting split into two. Cricket 1 is the old cricket – Tests & ODIs – attracting a small section of 25+ male audience (40+ for Tests) and increasingly becoming a niche proposition, unless there’s a big event like the World Cup once in four years.

     

    Cricket 2 is T20, be it nation vs. nation or leagues (IPL primarily, for now, for the Indian audiences). Cricket 2 is entertainment first and sports later. It’s more gender-inclusive for that reason. It targets 15-30 as its core constituency, though the national team playing T20 would tend to get Cricket 1 audiences into it too.

     

    Year-on-year, the proportion of Cricket 2 audiences will grow, as the 15-30 year olds get older. A decade from now, Cricket 2 will address a much wider 15-40 audience, and be perhaps the only cricket that gets ratings.

     

    To that extent, India seems to have found its second sport (or the new first sport, more appropriately). Call it Cricket 2, Call it T20, it’s a new sport alright. And its strength will be on display, all the way till end May this year.

     

  • Bhupendra Chaubey came across as blatantly misogynistic and applied a culture and values framework to steer the interview. Our politicians do this all the time. But Chaubey is a journalist, and should have known better, writes Shailesh Kapoor

    Shailesh Kapoor: ChaubeyJi: The New Face Of Patriarchal Patrakaars

    By Shailesh Kapoor

     

    Unless you are living under a stone, you would be aware of a certain Bhupendra Chaubey having interviewed Sunny Leone on his CNN-IBN show ‘The Hot Seat’, and the consequent social media wrath he had to face. While the television and print media have chosen to ignore the said interview, it’s been fodder for digital media over the last week.

     

    I have not seen much of Chaubey’s work. He’s not been an “in-the-news” journalist who begs to get noticed, for right or wrong reasons. In fact, the said interview was the first time I actually watched any long-form content featuring him.

     

    From the name, I assume that ‘The Hot Seat’ is a grill-the-guest format, much like Karan Thapar’s show ‘The Devil’s Advocate’ that used to air on the same channel not too long ago. But how do you grill an entertainment industry personality who has no topical controversy around her? You do what Chaubey did: Take a vicious line of questioning about one aspect of her life. That she has been a porn star. Give it an Indian culture spin and you have a ‘story’.

     

    One could say, what’s wrong with that after all? A few things.

     

    To begin with, I think it’s highly unlikely that Leone knew the format of the show (I’m assuming it has one). The Hot Seat is no KBC or The Newshour, so when you come on it to promote a film, it’s just another promotional interview.

     

    Chaubey came across as unprepared. I don’t think she has seen any of Leone’s film work, even songs or promotional videos, or tracked the box-office of her films, to know what her Bollywood impact has been. Leone has got a lot of press at the time of Jism 2 and Ragini MMS 2 releases, so research on her recent career would have been just a few clicks away. (Some other interviewers these days do the other extreme, where every other question starts with: “In a recent interview, you said…”)

     

    He was also unprepared on his material in general. Those PornHub stats he rattled out seemed to be a text message from a confused intern sent during the interview’s filming.

     

    But more than anything else, Chaubey came across as blatantly misogynistic. He applied a culture and values framework to steer the interview. A framework that probably exists in his head, and but was presented as if it was India’s official culture and values framework. Our politicians do this all the time. But Chaubey is a journalist, and should have known better.

     

    In a subsequent blog, he defended himself, including a disclaimer that he hasn’t ever watched Leone’s porn work, and can’t even if he wanted to, because he has kids at his home (Never attended Logic 101?). Another page of that value framework on display!

     

    Leone has gained significant support from various quarters, but this story is not about her. It’s about the existence of patriarchal mindset in our journalism, even if it’s in minority. (There are others in the Hindi media who have been guilty of similar misogyny in the past).

     

    I’m not sure if the News Broadcasters Association has guidelines on moral conduct of journalists, especially in context of gender sensitisation. It may be time to consider the idea. Because it was embarrassing to see a male journalist tell a woman guest he has invited on his show, at a filming location of her choice: “I am wondering whether I’m getting morally corrupt because I’m interviewing you.”

     

  • So which character of a fiction-non-fiction show came out tops last year? Here's Shailesh Kapoor's list based on Ormax Characters India Loves

    Top 10 Hindi GEC Characters For 2015

     

    By Shailesh Kapoor

     

    Character popularity is now well known to be singularly important driving force towards programme loyalty. In the last of the yearenders in this column, here’s the list of the top 10 Hindi GEC characters (including non-fiction) for 2015. This list is based entirely on the results of Ormax Characters India Loves, an ongoing survey that polls more than 35,000 Hindi GEC viewers over the year across more than 20 markets.

     

    10. Maharana Pratap (Sony): Warrior portrayals hold intrinsic appeal, yet they remain largely an under-served genre on Indian television and even cinema. With Bajirao Mastani succeeding at the box-office, we can expect more warrior ‘biopics’ on the celluloid. On television, Maharana Pratap kept the genre’s flag flying through the year, though with a lot less intensity by the time the year ended.

     

    9.Salman Khan (Bigg Boss – Colors): He had a great year at the movies, with probably his best film in the last decade (BajrangiBhaijaan). But for many television audiences, Salman Khan’s primary identity is that of the Bigg Boss host. Khan has been often accused of taking sides on the show, but even his hardest critics cannot fault his commitment that comes shining through every weekend.

     

    8. Chakor (Udaan – Colors): Chakor’s character lost considerable steam during the year, starting the year in the Top 5 but ending it outside the top 20.With innocence being a scarce commodity in adult characters on television these days, child protagonists tend to stand out even more. But only till they don’t start behaving like adults!

     

    7. Pragya (Kumkum Bhagya – Zee TV): KumkumBhagya is emerging as a long warhorse for Zee TV, and much credit should go to its lead pair played by SritiJha (Pragya) and Shabbir Ahluwalia (Abhi). As the year closed, Pragya grew to an even stronger position,  signaling a good 2016 for this popular character.

     

    6. Akshara (Yeh Rishta Kya Kehlata Hai– Star Plus):It’s been seven years since she first went on-air. Her character journey over years has mirrored various life-stages and challenges Indian women would tend to face in their life. In the largely-unrealworld of television soaps, Akshara has managed to infuse her share of relatability and warmth for many viewers.

     

    5. Sandhya (Diya Aur Baati Hum–Star Plus):Between them, Sandhya and Akshara represent two facets of the Hindi GEC heroine. Sandhya is a woman of aspirations, but one who strives to balance her work and her family in her journey, while Akshara is a nurturer at heart, willing to let go for others. Between them, Star Plus has a strong 9-10pm slot that’s currently their prime-time pivot.

     

    4. Ashok (Chakravartin Ashok Samrat – Colors): Another warrior prince story that was waiting to be told on the small screen. Aided by good casting and production, Ashok emerged as a strong character challenging the dominance of female protagonists in the GEC space. Can we now have a PeshwaBajirao show on TV, please?

     

    3. Kapil Sharma (Comedy Nights With Kapil–Colors):The comedian dominated the non-fiction list in 2015, no different from what he managed in 2014 and much of 2013. He’s Colors’ fourth entry in this list, and the combination of Salman Khan, Chakor, Ashok and Kapil Sharma accurately captures the formula behind the channel’s success. In 2016, Sharma will move to Sony, his original home from Comedy Circus. He’s come in for criticism on various things, ranging from misogyny (on the show) to unprofessionalism (off the show). 2016 could be a defining year for Sharma, at the end of which he would either emerge stronger or begin to fade out.

     

    2. Jethalal (Taarak Mehta Ka Ooltah Chashmah – SAB): SAB TV remains a one-show channel and yet a strong force to reckon. Jethalal (played by Dilip Joshi) is the centerpiece around which this show continues to thrive, now for seven and a half years. The ratio of Jethalal’s popularity among male audiences to female audiences is a staggering 8.2, highlighting the dichotomy of our mass television content, which is family viewing in practice, but often not in spirit.

     

    1. Ishita (Yeh Hai Mohabbatein–Star Plus):Yeh Hai Mohabbatein combines various genres and sub-genres into a unique show. It has romance, inter-cultural conflicts, social issues, family and a lot more. It has even ventured into the supernatural space recently, as if to tick that pending box. But at the core of this huge success remain its leads Ishita (Divyanka Tripathi) and Raman (Karan Patel). Her motherly love is the central quality that makes her no. 1, especially because it’s love for a ‘daughter’ she’s not given birth to.

     

     

  • Shailesh Kapoor picks his Top 5, standing out in a crowd of 500+ channels as true success stories

    Shailesh Kapoor: Top 5 Channels that made the Maximum Impact in 2015

     

    By Shailesh Kapoor

     

    In a new annual feature, here is my choice of five channels that made the maximum impact in 2015, standing out in a crowd of 500+ channels as true success stories.

     

    This list is not based on ratings alone, though it is one of the inputs. Channels that ended 2015 with significantly higher position of strength vis-à-vis where they stood at the start of the year have been considered as prime candidates for this list. To that extent, we could call them the broadcasting success stories of 2015.

     

    5. Times Now: It has its share of detractors, but Times Now continued to dominate the English news genre in 2015, first in TAM and then in BARC India ratings. But it makes it to this list not just for that reason. Today, Times Now has set the rules for television news in India. Its competitors are routinely seen as promoting “less noise” and “more news” as their unique offerings. With many spoofs, funny videos and jokes centered around it, the channel, and its principal (and only) face Arnab Goswami, has gone beyond being a news brand to one that defines the discourse around the Indian media, good or bad.

     

    4. Nick: Kids television in India has been a low-key category, with not much media attention. In a commoditised category where each channel is driven by one or two animated properties that are wallpapered on the FPC, Nick managed to stay ahead of its competition all of 2015, and by a wide margin too. The channel has seen huge success with homegrown animation, first with Motu Patlu and recently with Shiva. With a 50% lead over competition, Nick is set to have a great 2016 too.

     

    3. Zee Anmol: No one cared about this channel much, till rural ratings were released by BARC India from Week 41. The free-to-air channel rules the rural markets, widening its lead in recent times to almost 100 GRPs. It has also been ahead of Star Plus and Colors in many weeks at a national (Urban+Rural) level. Even as the media industry is getting used to BARC India ratings and its implications on trading, the introduction of rural ratings has been the big step forward in 2015. And Zee Anmol has been the big beneficiary.

     

    2. Colors: The channel was the challenger to Star Plus for much of early 2015. But as the year progressed, it came into its own, backed by high-power weekend launches. Comedy Nights Bachao did well, but it was the blockbuster success of Naagin that took the channel ahead of Star Plus on a consistent basis as 2015 drew to a close. More importantly, Colors had a year of consistency in its fiction content for the first time since 2009-10. So much so that Bigg Boss did not get its usual 9pm slot on weekdays, where high-performing fiction was retained. Bigg Boss may have suffered as a result, but Colors continues to flourish.

     

    1. Hotstar: The no. 1 “channel” of 2015 in this list is not a conventional TV channel, but a platform that came as a new, almost niche, idea but managed to become a lot more mainstream by the end of 2015. Sports content is one of the drivers of Hotstar, and this was the year of the Cricket World Cup, helping the brand grow. But Hotstar continued to do well beyond sports too, with properties like Badtameez Dil and On Air With AIB that did not do too well on TV finding acceptance among the OTT audience. 2016 is set to be a year of OTT overkill in India, and Hotstar is everyone’s target to beat, including the just-launched Netflix India.

     

  • Most new launches failed to get going in the year, many of them wrapping up even before the year ends, writes Shailesh Kapoor

    Top 5 “Gamechangers” on Hindi GECs in 2015

     

     

    2015 has been an odd year for Hindi GECs. While long-running hits like Yeh Hai Mohabbatein, Saath Nibhana Saathiya, Kumkum Bhagya, Diya Aur Baati Hum and Sasural Simar Ka continued to dominate, most new launches failed to get going, many of them wrapping up even before the year ends.

     

    While the list of Top 5 gamechanger shows of the year for 2013 had a lot more variety, the 2014 list was a bit of a stretch, in the absence of any real impact properties besides Yeh Hai Mohabbatein. The 2015 list below has a peculiar problem of its own – It relies heavily on one genre (mytho-historical) which in not exactly on the ascendancy. The 2015 list lacks conventional daily soaps, where long-running shows have towered over new launches in a hopelessly one-sided battle that the former have been winning for over three years now.

     

    5. Siya Ke Ram: Star Plus’ Siya Ke Ram makes it to this list largely for being a well-managed launch that ensured that the show opened very well. The interpretation of Ramayan is interesting, but the show lacks that operatic feel Mahabharat on the same channel had. Perhaps we would see more of it as the story progresses. Much else Star Plus launched this year did not work, but Siya Ke Ram has the ability to reverse that as it enters its third month soon.

     

    4.Sankatmochan Mahabali Hanuman: It’s perhaps the least-talked-about GEC success story of the year. On a platform where a regular fiction show struggles to cross 0.3 TVR, Hanuman has been clocking 1.5+ TVR consistently, with time-spent numbers at par with category leaders like Diya Aur Baati Hum and Kumkum Bhagya. The success of Hanuman, albeit limited by its platform’s current potential, proves yet again that viewers will discover engaging content, however cluttered the environment is.

     

    3. Chakravartin Ashok Samrat: The Colors show completes the hat-trick of mytho-historical shows on this list. The show has been on-air for about a year and perhaps past its peak too. But Ashoka has been the pillar (no pun intended) around which Colors built its strong challenger position to Star Plus during this year, overtaking it with great regularity in recent weeks. It also clearly separated Colors as being a variety-centric family platform, in contrast with Star Plus’ female-targeted fiction positioning.

     

    2. Bhabhiji Ghar Par Hain: &TV may have taken its time to find its feet, but its driver show, the modestly-mounted but sharply-written comedy Bhabhiji Ghar Par Hain, has managed to find an audience on its own. Fiction comedy is perhaps the most difficult genre to create formulaic hits in, given that a lot depends on performances and consistency of writing, episode after episode. This somewhat-saucy comedy has ensured &TV enters 2016 with at least one winner on hand.

     

    1. Naagin: There’s one thing common to this list in 2013-15: The winner stood head and shoulders above the rest. It was Comedy Nights With Kapil in 2013 and Yeh Hai Mohabbatein in 2014. This year, the extent of Naagin’s success has taken everyone by surprise.

     

    While those two list-toppers grew from modest beginnings to positions of strength, Naagin was a runaway hit, opening at levels most hit shows aspire to peak at, and growing further from there.

     

    Naagin deserves credit for infusing zest in an oft-told story, and upping the level of visual treatment and histrionics. But it’s also further proof of the Indian obsession with all things supernatural. And how that Naagin has hit the mark, watch out for more supernatural and creature stuff in 2016. You have been warned.

     

  • Shailesh Kapoor and Ranjona Banerji comment on how the news media has handled the Chennai deluge

    Two views on news on Chennai

     

     

    Shailesh Kapoor: For our Media, Chennai is no Mumbai or Delhi

     

    By Shailesh Kapoor

     

    Call it nature’s fury or a man-made calamity, or indeed a combination of the two, Chennai is reeling under one of the most severe crises a big city in India has seen in many years. And it doesn’t seem to be getting over in a hurry, despite great support from various constituencies, ranging from the Army to the social media.

     

    News of incessant rains in Chennai began to come in about two weeks ago itself. It was given the status of an also-ran headline, getting 30-second coverage in non-primetime, or a cursory mention in the inside pages of national newspapers.

     

    Earlier this week, when it became clear that the crisis is only deepening than solving itself out, media reluctantly began to cover Chennai. It was still outside the main hours and the front pages. Only about Wednesday (just two days ago) did Chennai become the main story in the Indian media. Ironically, the social media had taken up the subject at least two days before that.

     

    Chennai is no North-East. It’s not that obscure part of India that people have barely heard about, and have no social or commercial connect with. It’s a big city, traditionally classified as one of the four metros in India.

     

    But the media treatment of Chennai rains would make you believe something happened in Nagaland or Lakshadweep (not to say that these places do not deserve media coverage). It was news from the outside, through the lens of a media that operates out of Delhi and Mumbai, and looks at rest of India as if it’s only a matter of completion.

     

    Remember July 26, 2005? One day of rains and the resultant situation made the media follow the story full-throttle, for at least a week. Even this week, Delhi’s pollution story has competed with Chennai for coverage on most Hindi news channels.

     

    When it comes to showing and seeing Tamilian (or “Madrasi”) characters as caricatures in our entertainment content, most of us don’t bat an eyelid. But when it comes to covering a big story from Chennai, another section of the same media can develop cold feet. And “forced” to cover it, they carry headlines like “India stands united with Chennai”. What does that even mean? Chennai is a part of India. Why does India have to show its unity for one of its own?

     

    I call this the ‘Head Office (HO) Bias’. The editorial team tends to give naturally high weightage to stories from the city it is based in, or runs major operations from. There are two reasons for this. One, you see the story around you, e.g. if you are based out of Delhi, you can feel the pollution in the air. Two, you have some of your best journalists placed in these cities, especially the HO. So you are likely to get better stories and exclusives from there.

     

    Some would even give the ratings argument, such as Hindi news channels not being watched down South, and the story being of limited public interest in the rest of India. I would normally support that argument for a conventional political story, but when it comes to national crisis, a different lens can surely be applied. Or is that too much to ask for?

     

    		  

    Ranjona Banerji: Thankfully, the national media woke up to Chennai’s plight in December

     

    By Ranjona Banerji

     

    Tamil Nadu has been battered by rain for most of November. The city of Chennai has been particularly ravaged. Close to 150 people died from rain-related crises in November. But for the national media, especially television, all we saw was raging and fury over why Delhi chief minister Arvind Kerjiwal hugged former Bihar chief minister Lalu Yadav and how dare actor Aamir Khan’s wife express an opinion.

     

    It is unfair to claim this was just a north-south divide that we have seen in the media for decades. There was something more on display here. It was that sort of hysterical mindless race to find the subjects that could generate the most sound and fury that seems to have become the rule these days. It also demonstrated an obsession with politics and playing upon the political divide. When people’s lives and homes are being destroyed by unprecedented rain, you cannot really have a good noisy debate of Sambit Patra versus Sanjay Jha.

     

    One can grant them that many other things were happening. Paris suffered one more terrorist attack. The prime minister was travelling and meeting his overseas fan clubs. The climate was visiting the global stage once more. Election results had to be discussed threadbare. Artists and intellectuals continued to express distress. Rain, no matter how much damage it caused, was obviously not exciting enough.

     

    Thankfully, the terrible surge in rainfall in Tamil Nadu in December suddenly got the media’s attention. Newspapers had it on their front pages and news channels gave us 24 hour coverage. All of them were relatively sober in their coverage and until Thursday night had not descended into a political blame game. Massive efforts were made to coordinate with rescue services and to highlight the efforts being made by voluntary organisations and concerned citizens to help affected people in any way possible.

     

    Full marks must be given to all those reporters and camerapersons who braved rain and flood water to bring us their stories. It is they who are the backbone of this celebrity-driven TV media we are now surrounded by. TV has changed the dynamics of a newsroom to the extent that viewers cannot see beyond the anchors and young wannabe journalists only aim for that perceived fame and glory without realising background work that goes into making a story a success. Yeah, end of lecture and please watch Network (the film) if you haven’t already.

     

    But you have to feel for newsrooms here, even when it comes to getting politicians to comment on just about everything. We in India appear to have a shortage of experts who are well-known enough or articulate or can be easily located. It sounds odd to write this but it is something experienced firsthand when I was part of several edit page teams. We have partitioned our lives in such strange ways that academia is often aloof and also unwilling to communicate in a manner than non-experts will understand.

     

    Especially now when it comes to the environment and climate change and technology, we need public intellectuals to come forward and explain and share. If they don’t, we’re going to be stuck with Sambit Patra holding forth on everything…

     

    **

     

    December 1 was World Aids Day. There was cursory coverage in most newspapers and the horror story is that India, having done so well, is now back to the edge of disaster in controlling HIV/Aids, government funding having been cut and foreign funding having dried up. The best coverage of this impending horror came from the comedy group AIB, on their new very watchable show on Star World. Ya I know, but really. Go figure.

     

    Image courtesy: Press Information Bureau

     

  • At this rate, the distinction between the Bollywood news channels (where I recently saw a full account of why Ranbir Kapoor's driver quit his job) and mainstream news channels can blur very soon, writes Shailesh Kapoor

    Shailesh Kapoor: Want A Controversy? Dial A Celebrity

    By Shailesh Kapoor

     

    Till fairly recently, entertainment content was the domain of non-news channels and magazines. News media would rely on political, global, social, crime and sports to fill their airtime or pages. Celebrity news was limited to a weekend entertainment show, or to channels and print supplements delivering entertainment gossip.

     

    In what can only be described as a further dumbing down of the news media, celebrity news is now taking primetime headlines. This has been achieved using the rather interesting route of combining celebrity news with the relevant socio-political themes running in the news at any point of time. So you juxtapose a Shah Rukh Khan or an Aamir Khan with intolerance, and you have content that has the ability to spark off a million Whatsapp jokes. Which probably means it’s newsworthy enough!

     

    Anyone who has seen the full videos of what the two Khans said, and in what context, should be wondering what the fuss is all about. Celebrities have been accused for years for not taking stands on relevant social themes, and of being dumb and unaware of their country (something Alia Bhatt smartly made a virtue of). So when a celebrity indeed takes a view, one should see it as a welcome change from how celebrities behave in general. Whether you agree with the view itself is irrelevant in this context.

     

    Yet, what happened in the Aamir Khan case, in particular, underlines the problem at hand. Almost everyone got the news as “Aamir Khan said he wants to leave India because of intolerance”. Some got it as “Aamir Khan’s wife suggested that they should leave India because of intolerance.” These headlines ran on primetime news for almost a day, with a short byte. Some channels showed a slightly longer version of the byte. But the context was set: “Aamir wants to leave India. Is he justified? Discuss.”

     

    So anyone who got the news (Whatsapp and Facebook are key sources in urban India today), got it with an inbuilt conclusion about the man’s patriotism. If you agreed with his view, you may as well be called unpatriotic yourself. Not too many would actually see the full video, but even if they did, they would see it with a conclusion already in their head.

     

    Calling celebrities to events like literature festivals, leadership summits and business summits is itself a questionable idea. Seasoned event curators know that a celebrity face drives media attention and sponsorships. It’s a glamorous shortcut to making an event more saleable. Most such events have heavyweights (political or media) backing them, and getting a big star or two can be just a phone call away.

     

    Earlier, you would get them to speak about their life, or inspire the audience with their success story. Over time, such content has been served in plenty and lost its relevance. The political questions make for better copy. Articulate stars will be articulate enough to give good copy anyway.

     

    The reactions to the Aamir Khan byte, fuelled by limited information and a herd mentality, have been dangerous and silly at the same time. Snapdeal has been caught in the crossfire. The suggestion that he said this on purpose to promote Dangal shows limited understanding of the media business in general and Aamir Khan in particular.

     

    At this rate, the distinction between the Bollywood news channels (where I recently saw a full account of why Ranbir Kapoor’s driver quit his job) and mainstream news channels can blur very soon.

     

    Or has it already?

     

  • What started as an experiment has now gained in size and momentum, writes Shailesh Kapoor

    The New Hindi GEC Fad: Supernaturally Yours

     

    What started as an experiment about a year ago has now gained in size and momentum. Hindi GEC fiction, often criticized for being behind times, is going through a phase that’s taken the viewers by surprise. It’s a phase when some of the top serials are relying on the supernatural – ghosts, spirits, black magic – to drive eyeballs.

     

    Now, this should not make much sense. Till not too long ago, the genre was understood as one that connects the ordinary Indian women to the world outside, giving her the confidence to learn what she otherwise can’t. What was routinely called “regressive” in the media was termed positive and confidence-building by the target audience. Shows that helped women navigate their relationships better were runaway hits. Where does supernatural even feature in all this? Channels may choose to put it on-air, but why is it actually working?

     

    Simply put, I believe the consumer is “compensating”. She’s compensating herself for having watched one type of content for almost 4-5 years now, which is based on broad constructs of navigating relationships. After a while, you are bound to get a feeling you have seen it all, and every new show is a version of an existing one or a fairly recent hit. Most new launches have not worked and shows launched in 2009-12 continue to rule the roost (an earlier column on this topic is here).

     

    The consumer is looking for variety;for something that she hasn’t seen before. That’s an eternal human need. When Sasural Simar Ka (SSK) first put supernatural content on-air, the viewer saw it with a mix of skepticism and intrigue, sometimes even as unintentional humor. Other shows have tried it subsequently, and recently, none less than Yeh Hai Mohabbatein (YHM), the epitome of contemporary Indian fiction for many audiences, took the supernatural route.

     

    Then we have Naagin, which launched recently as a weekend show and has gone on to become a blockbuster hit in its first three episodes. The snake theme has always interested Indian audiences, be it through cinema, television or cinema on television. Naagin is one of the best-produced Indian content pieces on this subject. With a full-throttle promotional campaign backing it, Naagin’s success is a rare case when all the right boxes get ticked together.

     

    But Naagin is a weekend show and weekend content promise escapism and relaxation. But on weekdays, the infestation of supernatural content is bizarrely interesting. Consumers don’t even know what to call this sub-genre of sorts. They are beginning to assign the word “horror” to it, which captures the ridiculousness of it all.

     

    But if it’s working, it’s working, right? That’s where the note of caution comes in. Both the big shows where it has been used (SSK and YHM) were on-air as regular fiction shows without a supernatural element for almost two years before they experimented with this sub-genre. Some new shows have tried going the supernatural route early in their life stage and it has not worked.

     

    What does this tell us? That if you have characters who are already popular, and the program has built a sizeable audience base around their popularity, a supernatural track can help manage viewer fatigue by providing the unknown element. But it will not help build a viewer base from scratch, unless it’s a show like Naagin, which delivers what it promises – unabashed snake-y entertainment.

     

    Am I suggesting that all hit shows with popular characters will benefit from a supernatural twist? Not really. It’s a fad, and another show or two go this route, we would begin to see viewer rejection instantly. She’s already not impressed, but watching it as something off the beaten path. If it becomes the beaten path itself, then this mini-trend could die a rather abrupt death.