Executive Dossier

“I would have been worried if Boogie Woogie didn’t spawn a clone “

Published

23 years ago

May 8, 2003

An actor, singer, dancer and anchor all rolled in one, pretty much sums up Ravi Behl’s multi faceted personality. Apart from his stint in various Bollywood movies like Narsimha, Agnisaakshi and Boyfriend to name a few, he has acted in the highly acclaimed Hollywood film ,’The Far Pavilion as well.

As a child , Ravi practised dance in front of the mirror and was often reprimanded by his mother for wasting his time . Today , he is the co- director and co-host of the popular dance based show Boogie Woogie which has created history of sorts on television.

A self-professed bathroom singer who confesses he has had no professional training in music, Ravi has released an album called Ladkiyan and is currently hosting a song based show called Hai Na Bolo Bolo on Star Plus.

A man who believes in realising his dreams and stretching his creativity as much as possible , Ravi met up with Indiantelevision.com’s Agnes Sebastian and spoke about his plans for the future.

Excerpts:

What prompted you to take up the offer of anchoring ‘Hai Na Bolo Bolo’? Have you taken any professional training in music?
To be very frank, I really don’t know how I landed with Hai Na Bolo Bolo. I was told that Karan Oberoi who earlier anchored the show with Nausheen was having trouble with the dates, so I was called. I love music, so I opted to do the show. As far as music training goes, I am a self professed bathroom singer( laughs ).

Most of the songs on the show are ones anyone would have grown up listening to, so one does have a vague idea and for songs one is clueless about – you can hum along. It is a chilled out Sunday morning show, wherein the basic aim is to have fun. You need to be impromptu and have good vibes with the audience.

How different is anchoring ‘Hai Na Bolo Bolo’ when compared to ‘Boogie Woogie’?
Naved and I have been anchoring Boogie Woogie for eight years. It is but obvious that we work like a team and share a common chemistry. We don’t have a script for the show; we just go in and have a good time, which is why our antics seem effortless. Hai Na Bolo Bolo on the other hand is a new show and moreover having a lady co- host does have its limitations (laughs). But, she’s a lovely person and we get along quite well.

Naved Jafri and your name seems to have become synonymous with ‘Boogie Woogie’? What are the new things to look out for in the show?
Boogie Woogie the dance based show has been on air for the last eight years. The show has undergone a complete overhaul and will air with a new look this month. We are currently holding auditions in Kolkata and Jamshedpur, following which the finals will be held in Delhi , Chandigarh, Ahmedabad and Mumbai. We realised that people who were really keen on participating in the show were unable to do so due to various constraints like distance, the expenditure involved etc . So we decided to reach out to them instead of the other way around.

“You need to be impromptu and have a good vibe with the audience”

What inspired you to come up with a show like ‘Boogie Woogie’?
Javed Jafri, Naved and I realised that while there was a lot of music related stuff on television, there was practically nothing on dance. So we decided to do something about it and Boogie Woogie was born. The show primarily showcases and taps the tremendous dancing talent in our country. The name was coined by Naved, after the popular English song. Sony liked the concept and since then, there has been no looking back. We’ve been around for nearly eight years now, so I guess that speaks for how popular the show has been.

” No one can be greater than the show. The show should reign supreme”

Recently, Sahara TV announced that it would be airing a similar dance based show called ‘Grooves’? What are your views about that?
Boogie Woogie is a unique show and thus the question of competition doesn’t arise at all, if that’s what you are trying to imply. Moreover, Grooves is a clone of Boogie Woogie(BW). One can only imitate an original. We have had many clones of BW like Kyaa Masti Kyaa Dhoom, Razzmatazz to name a few. I believe that imitation is the greatest form of flattery . Actually, I would have been worried if Boogie Woogie didn’t have a clone.

Which other shows have you worked on ?
Naved and I did a show called Paisa Vasool for SAB TV which unfortunately had to be called off due to some reasons. We are currently working on another show for Sony, but it’s still too early to reveal details…

Producers and directors complain of channel interference. What is your say on this issue?
I would not necessarily term it as channel interference but as creative inputs (laughs). Though there is no doubt that one has to pay heed creative inputs, we ensure that while doing so we don’t compromise on the essence of the show. Nothing, rather, no one can be greater than the show. The show should reign supreme.

What are your views about the other shows currently on air?
Well, if you are referring to soaps on air they are good examples of how effective glycerine and loud make- up can be. If you’ve seen one , you have seen them all. The channels are churning out the same old stuff. As for the sitcoms, I think they are the saddest thing I have ever watched on television . There is a dearth of good comedy shows on television today.

So have you given up acting altogether ?
No, I haven’t . I have decided that I will do only those roles that excite me. It should be something up my alley. I would love to play interesting characters and thus broaden my horizons. I want to stretch my creativity as much as possible.

“I would not necessarily term it as channel interference but as creative inputs”

What is your mantra for a successful life?
Well, I believe that you should be earnest as far as your work is concerned. Be practical, focussed and do what you want with your complete heart and soul and success will definitely be yours.

Executive Dossier

Game on, fame on as Good Game hunts India’s first global gaming star

Published

1 month ago

January 27, 2026

indiantelevision.com Team

MUMBAI: Game faces on, pressure high India’s gaming ambitions are levelling up. Good Game, billed as the world’s first as-live global gaming reality show, has officially launched in India with a bold mission: to crown the country’s first Global Gaming Superstar.

Blending esports with mainstream entertainment, the show brings together competitive gaming, creativity and on-camera performance in a format that tests more than just joystick skills. Contestants will be judged on gameplay, screen presence and their ability to perform under pressure, reflecting how gaming has evolved from pastime to profession and pop culture currency.

Fronting the show are three high-profile ambassadors: actor and entrepreneur Samantha Ruth Prabhu, Indian cricket star Rishabh Pant, and gaming creator Ujjwal Chaurasia. The winner will take home Rs 1 crore ($100,000) among the largest prize pools for any Indian reality show along with the chance to represent India on a global stage.

Backed by a planned annual investment of up to Rs 100 crore, Good Game is also courting brand partners, promising a minimum reach of 500 million among India’s core youth audience. The creators position the show as a bridge between entertainment and interactive culture, offering long-format content, community engagement and commercial scale.

Auditions are now open to Indian citizens aged 18 and above, inviting amateur and professional gamers, creators and performers alike. Shortlisted candidates will be called for in-person auditions in Mumbai on 14 and 15 February, and in Delhi on 28 February and 1 March 2026.

With big money, big names and even bigger ambition, Good Game signals a shift in how India views gaming not just as play, but as performance, profession and prime-time spectacle.

Digital

SpotDraft hires new CMO and CFO to fuel global push for its AI contract platform

Published

3 months ago

December 3, 2025

indiantelevision.com Team

INDIA: SpotDraft has strengthened its senior ranks as it gears up for faster global expansion, naming Alon Waks as chief marketing officer and Amit Sharma as chief financial officer. The appointments follow the firm’s $54 million Series B round earlier this year and mark a push to scale across the Americas, EMEA and India.

The AI-powered contract-lifecycle-management platform has posted 100 per cent year-on-year growth in customer acquisition, counting Apollo.io, IPSY, Mixpanel, Oyster and Panasonic among its global clients. The firm processes more than one million contracts annually, with volumes up 173 per cent and nearly 50,000 monthly active users.

Waks, a veteran of Kustomer, Bizzabo, CreatorIQ, LivePerson and ZoomInfo, will steer global marketing and category positioning as legal teams adopt AI-driven tools. Sharma, who has led finance across scaling tech firms since 2016, will guide financial strategy, investor relations and market expansion.

Both hires aim to sharpen SpotDraft’s bid for a larger slice of the fast-growing legal-tech market, expected to exceed $63 billion by 2032. Co-founder and chief executive Shashank Bijapur said the company is focused on scaling go-to-market operations in the Americas, deepening leadership in EMEA, and accelerating AI capabilities for general counsels and legal-operations leaders.

Clients report shorter deal cycles and better alignment between legal and business teams. “What used to take weeks now happens in days,” said Abnormal Security senior legal operations manager Susan Koenig. DeepL head of legal operations André Barrow, said SpotDraft has helped reframe legal “from a cost centre to a generator of revenue”.

Executive Dossier

Outdoor Ads Get Smarter as LOC8 Shifts OOH from Visibility to Attention

Published

3 months ago

November 28, 2025

indiantelevision.com Team

MUMBAI: Out-of-home ads were once the wallflowers of marketing seen by everyone, noticed by few. But in an age where attention has become the world’s most fought-over currency, even billboards are getting a brain upgrade. Enter LOC8, OSMO’s AI-powered attention engine, quietly reshaping the old OOH playbook by measuring not just who could have looked at an ad, but who actually did. The shift is subtle but seismic: impressions are out, impact is in and data, not gut instinct, is calling the shots.

In a landscape where marketers question every rupee spent outdoors, LOC8 is turning lampposts, flyovers and traffic islands into precision-mapped attention laboratories. By crunching dwell time, visibility zones, perceptual size and real-world obstructions, the platform is dragging OOH into a future where creativity meets computer vision and where the best ideas aren’t just eye-catching, but eye-measured. From automotive facelifts to FMCG novelty and real estate trust-building, the message is clear, outdoor has stopped shouting and started listening. Indian Television Dot Com explores more about it in an Interview interview with OSMO co-founder Nipun Arora.

On how OSMO is shifting outdoor advertising from a visibility-led medium to an attention-led one through LOC8.

Traditional OOH has long been measured by visibility and impressions i.e how many people could see an ad. OSMO, through its proprietary AI platform LOC8, is shifting that narrative more towards likelihood of being noticed. Using computer vision and machine learning, LOC8 analyzes real-world video data to measure visibility zones, obstructions, dwell time and perceptual size; bringing precision to how attention is quantified outdoors. It moves the focus from mere impressions to quality of impressions, making OOH a data-verified, attention-led medium comparable to digital in accountability.

On how marketers can use LOC8’s dwell-time, visibility and perception insights to craft more effective, emotionally resonant OOH campaigns.

LOC8 helps brands understand how people truly experience outdoor media how long they look, from what distance, and under what conditions. By quantifying dwell time, visibility duration, and perceptual size; marketers can plan campaigns that align with real human viewing behavior. This empowers creative and strategy teams to design emotionally resonant storytelling where messaging, visual hierarchy and placement are optimized for how people actually notice and process OOH creatives.

About what LOC8 has revealed through campaigns like Renault Triber and Namaste India on how categories such as auto, FMCG and real estate use attention metrics to drive outcomes.

Each category uses attention data differently but all share one common goal: to convert outdoor visibility into measurable engagement.

• Automotive | Renault Triber

For the new Renault Triber facelift, bold creative met data-led planning through LOC8. By analyzing on-ground video data, LOC8 measured real audience attention across placements factoring in visibility zones, obstructions, traffic speed and perceptual size. This enabled Renault to identify corridors that delivered maximum reach, saliency and engagement, optimizing media efficiency and ROI.

• FMCG | Namaste India

In OOH, innovation is the hook and assets are the bait. But bait often hides the hook. With Loc8’s attention metrics, we ensured the bait wasn’t a hurdle, rather it became the perfect stage for innovation to deliver its full impact! The insight proved that creative novelty, when validated by attention data, drives deeper engagement and measurable brand lift.

• Real Estate

For luxury and real estate campaigns targeting HNI/UHNI audiences, attention patterns differ especially between front and rear passengers, who are often the core audience segment for premium sites. LOC8’s ability to distinguish rear vs. front visibility plays a critical role here. It helps identify sites that offer longer viewing windows and stronger perceptual dominance from the rear seat where decision-makers are most likely seated making it a key differentiator for premium and trust-led categories. Together, these insights prove that auto optimizes for impact, FMCG for recall, and real estate for trust visibility showing how attention metrics adapt to category goals while ensuring measurable outcomes.

On how attention analytics will shape the future of brand storytelling and media planning as OOH becomes more digitised and data-driven.

As outdoor digitizes, attention analytics will inform not just where to advertise but how stories are told in public spaces. This evolution transforms OOH from a static broadcast channel into a dynamic attention ecosystem, where creativity is optimized through evidence-based insight.

On how LOC8’s data-led framework helps marketers quantify OOH impact and make outdoor a more accountable, ROI-driven medium.

LOC8 bridges the gap between intuition and evidence. By quantifying metrics like visibility duration, attention opportunity index, and visual saliency rank, it allows brands to benchmark site performance and justify investment. This data-led approach brings transparency, comparability and ROI measurement to a medium historically driven by perception.

On how OSMO ensures AI and computer vision enhance creativity rather than reduce it to numbers.

OSMO believes that technology should enhance creativity, not overshadow it. LOC8’s attention models reveal what naturally draws the human eye helping creative teams refine design cues, contrast, and visual hierarchy for greater impact. By merging art and science, LOC8 empowers creativity with intelligence.

About the creative best practices and design cues LOC8 has uncovered regarding what truly captures consumer attention outdoors.

LOC8’s visual cognition analysis has surfaced clear patterns across campaigns:

• High contrast and minimal messaging outperform cluttered designs.

• Motion cues draw significantly longer dwell times.

• The first two seconds are critical, creatives must establish focus instantly.

• Contextual alignment between the creative and its environment increases attention by over 30%.

These learnings offer a scientific foundation for creative effectiveness helping brands design OOH that’s visually magnetic and emotionally memorable.

On how attention metrics will integrate into omnichannel planning where OOH, digital and social work together for unified brand impact.

Attention can become the unifying KPI across OOH, digital and social to creates seamless storytelling continuity, where outdoor triggers digital engagement. The future of omnichannel planning lies in attention-led integration ensuring that campaigns don’t just reach audiences everywhere but truly capture and hold their focus.