The digital revolution in India has established that a country mocked for its backwardness finally has a forum to showcase how progressive and creative it can be
A couple of years ago, the digital entertainment space in India charmed its then limited audience and how! Having successfully established itself as a mainstream medium for amusement in the urban sector, the Web is now also the go-to place for information and leisurely distraction alike. What was earlier a target bracket of people in the age group of 18-30 extended to much older internet surfers, more so with the launch of Netflix in India. Now, rural and urban India both could be seen engaged in this web of entertainment in a compelling unison.
Malik Ducard, YouTube’s Global Head of Family and learning, says, “India is among YouTube’s top 10 nations with maximum users. One of the highest traffic we get is from India alone.” And it is not just YouTube; numerous other channels, along with individuals signing up online to share their content, have kept viewers hooked to them.
They say, work so hard that you don’t need to introduce yourself any longer. The online entertainment channel TVF perhaps fits this description the most. Sameer Saxena, Head of TVF Originals, says, “When we started off, we pitched our ideas to TV channels and film production houses, only to realise that they won’t let us make what we wanted to make. Fortunately around that time, YouTube had started becoming popular and we thought ‘Hey! We don’t need anyone! We have a free platform that everyone is watching’. That was it! We started making our kind of content and used the digital platform, YouTube, back then to share it with people.”
Formed by a group of IIT alumni and later joined by creative collaborators from other institutions, TVF was for long considered India’s answer to Netflix. Today, as Netflix is available in India, TVF too has its own app, TVF Play. The channel is known for its original, riveting, cosmopolitan and immensely delightful content, both in the form of series and sketches. In fact, its Pitchers is not only considered one of the finest in the world but had also ranked higher on IMDb than shows like House of Cards.
Its director, Amit Golani, says: “Here at TVF, we belong to the same age group that we target to reach — primarily 18-34. So it becomes convenient for us to generate content that is relatable and yet unique. We have rounds of discussions, jamming sessions, reading sessions and revisions before we actually start shooting the shows.”
But with high expectations also come fierce criticisms. One of its most loved shows, Arnub with a U, is a hilarious talk show that roasts its celebrity guests. While the first season engaged the viewers with the scathing attacks host Arnub (Biswapati Sarkar) made on Shah Rukh Khan, Ranveer Singh, Parineeti Chopra etc, the second season received severe backlash from the unimpressed audience.
Saxena admits, “Criticism in the digital world is a thousand times more brutal than in TV or films because here it is right in front of you. People will write essays on your wall, in the comments, and there is no way you can miss those. It does affect the overall performance of the content because unlike TV or films, everyone can see how others are responding to that content and there is an obvious bias that might creep in when one sees so much negativity around the content.” Although TVF does turn it around with the tremendous reception of its other famous shows, Permanent Roommates, Tripling, and sketches such as TVF Qtiyapa, Girliapa, and many more.
It has also become a dependable source of financial returns. Pocket Aces, for instance, is a digital media entertainment company known for its digital-first content through multiple content brands such as FilterCopy (shareable digital content platform), Dice Media (premium digital storytelling platform), and Gobble (food content destination).
Aditi Srivastava, its co-founder, says, “In terms of costs, the digital space is one of the most inexpensive mediums for creators today. Audiences are accepting of a variety of content formats, production quality matters much less than it does in traditional mediums such as TV, and if you’re distributing through social platforms such as Facebook, WhatsApp, etc, then the audiences are themselves helping you spread content by sharing, commenting, tagging, and interacting with it, thus making your reach very high and your cost of reach extremely low.
“We already reach 25-30 million people each week. The reach and retention numbers are clear, the communication is two-way, and the real-time interaction with customers is just impossible to replicate on traditional mediums. Hence, advertisers are becoming more efficient, and slowly but surely moving their ad dollars towards digital. Since the number of original digital content creators is very small in India currently, these ad dollars will be enough to achieve sustainability. As the space matures, syndication and subscription revenue will also start to get significant. In the next few years, audiences worldwide should be consuming original Indian digital content in large numbers, thus making content IP all the more valuable.”
Through their channel Dice Media, they just recently concluded their second hit web series, little Things, creating a niche for themselves by showcasing an everyday love story between an ordinary couple. Since the release of its first episode, the series has received an overwhelming response, with over eight million views, 28 million reach, over 70,000 shares, and 50,000 comments.
But it is not just about the series alone. People now log in for tips on all topics, from banking to shopping to travel itineraries to study notes to learning how to apply make-up, even for relationship advice. Nisha Madhulika is a 56-year-old Noida-based homemaker popular for her vegetarian recipes made with easily available ingredients. She started her blog back in 2007 and adopted YouTube as a medium in 2011. Shooting her cooking videos at the comfort of her home, Nisha is among the top five YouTube stars in Asia and was also featured in the Top Chefs coffee table book by YouTube. Nisha has over seven lakh subscribers on her YouTube channel.
She says, “Before I started my digital journey, I was involved in the management of a journal publishing and software company. I took an early retirement from work and chose to stay at home when the commute became too long after we moved to Noida. I am used to working professionally, so I was looking to find constructive work from home. I was always interested in cooking, so I started a blog online for recipes. It got some success and built up a small following. I was asked by my followers to make videos. With a lot of work, I was able to figure it all out and started producing and uploading them on YouTube, and I’ve been doing that since 2011.”
Her audience is the family group from ages 24 to 35, and then another large chunk of people till their 50s. She also adds that she was told by YouTube India that she was the first Indian woman YouTube producer to hit the million subscribers mark recently.
About helping the Indian housewives break the stereotype that neither are they internet friendly nor creative, Nisha says, “My audience primarily comprises homemakers who want to hone their skills and create more happiness for their families. On a daily basis, I hear from thousands of men and women who are cooking for their families. Homemakers are not just taking care of the home, but also chasing professional and educational goals using modern tools like the internet.”
With the recent launch of YouTube Kids in India, children too have access to a range of shows from delightful fictional characters to science shows, as well as guest curated shows, such as by Ellen DeGeneres. Sixty per cent of YouTube’s traffic in India is generated through cellphone usage and hundreds of hours are invested in offline viewing. Reportedly, since the launch of YouTube Kids, it is also available for free on Google Play and Apple’s App Store in India.
Foreigners reviewing Indian content is another rage among the viewers, especially the young, urban lot. One reviewer who is immensely popular is Jaby Koay from California. He started by writing amateur screenplays on his father’s old typewriter and secretly borrowed his camera many times to make “backyard” short films. Gradually, he moved to shooting on VHS, to 8mm tape, and to mini DV, which was the first digital format available to consumers and prosumers. Around 10 years ago, he signed up for a YouTube channel and began sharing his short films and scenes he directed and/or produced. Today, his reactions to movie trailers, films and other clips are so sought after that his subscribers send him numerous requests every day and also speculate about his personal life.
He says, “Being able to sustain a living, touch lives, entertain people and converse with hundreds of thousands of people are the biggest achievements in my opinion. In a recent video, Winners and Gifts, I read a letter from a subscriber who mentioned how my channel is something that essentially helps keep her spirits up since her father’s passing. Given that I also lost my dad about three and a half years ago, not only was this touching but very relatable on a fundamentally human level. For me, losing my father put me in such a dark place, the only thing that brought me remotely within something even vaguely resembling comfort was focusing on being creative.
“Knowing that what I’m doing is able to bring comfort for even one person currently managing that level of loss is amazing to me. In the same video, I also read another person’s letter who mentions that my channel was the impetus for him to move forward with his passion. Week to week, if two days go by without uploading videos, a number of people will write in by e-mail, comments or tweets asking if everything is okay, as my videos have become a part of their daily routines.”
Koay also mentions that reacting, simple as it may sound, is still much complicated. “While I am the first to say trailer reaction discussion videos are deceptively complicated, detailed and time-consuming when you put into it what I put into it... all that effort, at the end of the day, ultimately culminates in a delivery of my opinion,” he adds. He also says that as a foreigner reacting to Indian videos, his perception of Indian culture has changed immensely.
Koay recalls, “I would say, being an ‘ignorant’ American, mostly concerned with American issues growing up and only encountering maybe a handful of Indians, I didn’t know much about Indian culture. I was somewhat aware of Indian television because I used to date someone who is half Afghani and her family watched Indian television. But the simple answer is I learnt that there is a rich deep culture with a lot of nuances to appreciate. Not that I assumed there was no culture at all, but as far as it concerned my existence previously, nothing outside of my local world mattered. Now, issues beyond my local world matter to me just as much as what goes on in my backyard.”
The internet in India is now a postmodern digital renaissance of sorts. Videos online have familiarised us all with more cosmopolitan stand-up comedy, more conveniently accessible documentaries, more enthralling series, more options to earn name, fame, and money, more topics to have delightful conversations over.
Be it a debate on net neutrality, demonetisation or if one wants to catch a missed episode of celeb gossip — from the Kardashians to Karan Johar — be it an attempt to share one’s own stint with a hobby (cooking, music, travelling, fitness etc) to earn more followers, or to start a career in blogging, this digital revolution has opened several gateways for all enthusiastic, spirited and talented people. Finally, a country mocked for its backwardness has a forum to showcase how progressive and creative it can be.