Basing volumes on the ballooning numbers of smartphone users and the booming Hindi and regional audience, the AlT Balaji app may just redefine the online entertainment space, says CMO Manav Sethi
Just when we are beginning to warm up to streaming of live TV, shows and films, signing up for Netflix and Amazon Prime, devouring varied and interesting content that’s redefining the art of story-telling everywhere, home-grown studio Balaji has seized the first mover advantage in the digital space. This week it launched AlT Balaji, a Netflix-type app that will be streaming 250 hours of original content in Hindi and will soon add regional content to its bouquet. With no ads, some initial discount, even rewards and only 60 paisa per episode, it gives each owner of a hand-held device a chance to snack up on what the international players do not have: original Indian stories. Manav Sethi, CMO, AlT Balaji, is upbeat about the launch and hopes to be present the day when Ekta Kapoor, currently considered as the country’s undisputed TV moghul, completely switches over to the digital platform.
How are they so sure about taking over the nascent entertainment app business with the numbers yet to deliver for the bigger playersIJ “You need to see what existing players have got. Either they are doing catch-up TV or they are into sports. Hotstar (from the Star Network) has very little original content. It spends humongous amounts on TV rights of IPl and then tries to monetise it. Then it has live TV and show archives accessible on your smartphones. No player in India has a value prop as of now. But we have committed to play 250 hours of original content this year itself. If you draw a parallel with a global player like Netflix, who did 600 hours of content last year, we have already begun with a bang. Even Amazon and Netflix have written huge cheques but none of the shows are out. Considering the India studio culture is not as organised as it is in the US or UK (here we have too may variables like running behind the cast, the writer, the director, screenwriter...), only Ekta Kapoor, who has been creating and curating TV shows at the pace of canning one episode a day, could take the plunge and serve up fare with a frenetic pace. Not only that, having worked across GECs, she has the best understanding of her target audience and what they expect or could expect. We are leveraging these strengths,” says Sethi, confident that they will take entertainment consumption in the country to the next level.
What AlT Balaji is aggressively doing is filling up the web audience space between English and the Hindi or vernacular. But personalising content for 100 million consumers and making sure they hit the right button is a tall order indeed. However, this new start-up has a “safe” mix for what Sethi describes as the “intelligent mass audience.” So there’s the familiarity of a Ram Kapoor-Sakshi Tanwar’s Kar le Tu Bhi Mohabbat, where she plays the shrink to his ageing and cranky superstar, a carry-over from their last TV show. Then there’s The Test Case, helmed by ace director Nagesh Kukunoor and starring Nimrat Kaur, about a woman officer’s journey to become a commander. This is a courage under fire story, anticipatory and taut, considering women in the Army have just been cleared for combat duties and are yet to experience the whole gamut of field challenges. The ace duo of Hansal Mehta and Rajkumar Rao are bringing alive the personality of Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose. Meanwhile, the urban tribe has something to look forward to in Romil and Jugal, a twist on Shakespeare’s Romeo Juliet where the protagonists are gay and Dev DD, where a female Devdas embarks on her own journey of self-discovery. There’s also the coming-of-age Boygiri. “We have kind of completed the entire spectrum of issues that has so far not been dealt with in television. But we talk about them in the corridors, in our bedrooms, in our colleges and in our offices. For Bose, we have done a humongous amount of research. We are presenting him not from the point of view of history or the Indian freedom struggle, we are looking at him, the person. Bose, the person, is still an enigma with some files yet to be declassified. There’s a story waiting to be told to unravel his unknown self. And he is such a figure that he can fire up the imagination of today’s youth as well. We have lent it credibility and quality by roping in director Hansal Mehta,” says Sethi.
Sure, the web offers a democratic space. But AlT Balaji is being careful about not treading the territory of either TVF or AIB. As Sethi says, “We are never going to make content that is preposterous or objectionable. Our stories are deep-rooted and we will not do anything that will be antithetical to our consumers.”
But in the end it is all about numbers and economics. Sethi insists that they have made foolproof calculations. “We have about 950 million mobile users with about 100 million internet or broadband-enabled audience. Of that 400 million can be sliced and diced. As a platform, the mobile phone helps to create a one-is-to-one relationship with a consumer as compared to TV. So if you don’t like Romil and Jugal, you are at absolute liberty not to watch it. Which is why from a business standpoint, I am giving you five episodes free to make your call. If you like even one or all of our shows, then you pay me less than Rs 1 a day which works to about Rs 300 annually. This is cheaper than Netflix or Amazon. And you get relatable stories with an Indian ethos.”
He has done the math. “If you look at youtube, it has about 180 million monthly active users. About 67 per cent of the usage graph is the Hindi consumer. English is a miniscule seven per cent. We are attempting to build on this base. For all its spread, Netflix has only 1.5 million paying users because it is focussing only on English. Shift the focus to Hindi and regional languages and you suddenly have huge volumes staring at you. That’s what we intend to address and that’s where we intend to take our stories to. We are offering ad-free snackable content. So every episode is of about 20 minutes that you can finish watching in a Metro or while waiting for a meeting or at the airport. On flights, I find 80 per cent of passengers watching something or the other on their smartphones that has been downloaded. India, according to me, is going through a cataclysmic shift which is personal entertainment.”
AlT Balaji is already seeing itself as a self-generating engine and will not rely on the mother ship called Balaji Telefilms to balance the troughs. Sethi wants competition. And tough competition at that. “We have only seen the tip of the iceberg. I would really want competition that would make us stand up on our toes. May the best storyteller win.” So will TV flatten outIJ “It won’t be dead because if there is anything that India taught us, it is that there will be layering. Having said that, even an Indian housewife has a smartphone and India is the only geography that is adding more smartphones every month compared to anywhere else on the planet. If this is true and the Jios of the world are willing to give bandwidth, then content will be the ultimate king.”
Photo: Pankaj Kumar