MUMBAI: The inspiring tales of real life heroes, people who stood up against all odds, the stories that will melt everyone’s heart are the stories that Culture Machine’s Blush is set to recite under its Blush Original vertical. Encouraged by the heart-warming response for its first documentary-narration on Bollywood stunt woman Geeta Tondon, Blush has come up with a new story based on Papa Reji to be released on Father’s Day.
Papa Reji Thomas gave up his government job and started the Bless Foundation to shelter HIV+ve kids that have been abandoned by their families. Reji shelters 22 children, he takes care of their medical treatment, their living expenses and their education with the help of public donations. He has so far managed to rehabilitate 90 percent of the kids brought under his care. His wife and kids stay with these children as one big family, giving these kids parental care and a place to call home.
The channel calls Papa Reji’s story a reality check. During times when we are stuck with our worldly problems, people with the least amount of money and huge hearts are making a difference. “It does not take a big bank account to help people, it takes determination and a very big heart” expressed Blush channel director Akanksha.
The film on Geeta Tondan narrated the tale of how she survived an ugly marriage, of her escape from brothels and her bringing up her two young children. It recounted how Geeta made her space to do stunts for Deepika Padukone and Alia Bhatt as Bollywood’s leading stuntwoman.
Blush has content under many verticals like Unblushed, which has stories of outstanding celebrity heroes, and Blush Verdict for its entertainment column. The Original space is entirely dedicated to the real life stories that deserve to be told. “We wish to inspire people through these strong hearted humans, Blush Originals is a celebration of humanity and spirit that people have to live it” explained Seda.
In spite of Blush being a women-centric content creator, Blush Originals is planning to not only concentrate on female stories, but also narrate any inspiring story from a chaiwala to an up market entrepreneur. Any tale that can inspire. Seda asserted that through digital platforms it has become much easier to create awareness among people and have them share what they have gone through. Digitization has brought people together to empathize and understand the other person’s journey, and Blush is planning to make most of it. It is also open to creating something around a concept and connect various individual stories to it.
Each documentary is planned to be shot in its own taste say the makers. All the productions are in-house, shot with Sony F7 and 5D Mark III cameras. Blush Originals is set to release one documentary per month. The production team has informed that its is ready with two more videos to be released in July and August.
Explaining about the people to be showcased, the makers said that they pick up stories amongst themselves. “These are the people we come across day by day, it could be my friend or a neighbor or just someone I run into. There is a story everyone has and every story deserves to be told” added Seda.
There is no specific search team. It is an in-house task to find people. The makers also claim that they have such a good response after the first video that stories are coming to them now.
On the marketing and promotion front, Blush is majorly using cross promotion with its sister YouTube channel Being Indian. Otherwise it is pushing the videos through regular online marketing strategies. “Documentaries have reached the right audiences through digitization” commented Seda while explaining the promotion front.
There are no tie ups with any brands or sponsors as of now. These documentaries are intellectual properties of Blush.
