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Tag: ) On Air with AIB

  • ‘Iss Pyaar Ko Kya Naam Doon Ek Jashn’ to ‘ICC World Cup’ What’s hot on the Indian OTT scene

    ‘Iss Pyaar Ko Kya Naam Doon Ek Jashn’ to ‘ICC World Cup’ What’s hot on the Indian OTT scene

    MUMBAI: The latest buzz about town is how Netflix is all set to launch in India later this week. But even without the American Video On Demand (VOD) giant, India’s over the top (OTT) scene has kept pretty active, thanks to all the new and edgy shows that the different platforms streamed last year and some more lined up to storm digital screens later this year.

    Hotstar, #Fame, Sony Liv and Ditto TV have kept the market up and running with carefully curated content, which paves way for a promising future for web-only content in 2016. In the light of the OTT space hotting up, Indiantelevision.com compiled a list of such initiatives on digital platforms in India that made an impact in the web-only content market.

    1) Iss Pyaar Ko Kya Naam Doon — Ek Jashn: No sooner did word get out that this phenomenal fiction show from Star Plus, that ruled the tele ratings chart three years back, was going to have a reboot through the network’s OTT platform, Hotstar, fans of the show were already going gaga over this mini-series. It was a clever move on Star India’s part to not only evoke nostalgia for the popular show but also turn a chiefly television audience towards its OTT platform.

    2) Love Bytes: While television is slowly only just proceeding to handle progressive and bold content, digital has been way ahead of its broadcast counterpart in this arena. Take Sony Liv’s exclusive web series Love Bytes for example. Targeted mostly at metro centric netizens, this show, which was initially launched on Zoom, was later moved to Sony Liv as India’s first-ever show exclusively for the digital platform.

    The 26-part series, which stars Kushal Punjabi and Sukhmani Sadana, portrays the ups and downs in the relationship of the lead characters Ananya and Abhishek.

    3) On Air with AIB: Think web only and YouTube in India, and the very first name that comes to your mind is All India Bakchod or simply AIB. Therefore it was no surprise when Star India roped in the four comedians for a new show On Air With AIB on Hotstar albeit with re-airings on Star World and Star Plus. This OTT first show garnered a huge response from the millennials and can be easily considered one of the breakthroughs in digital content. Inspired by factual comedy that is patented to American comedian John Oliver for his show Last Week Tonight, On Air With AIB delivered a new breed of comedy that makes fun of burning social issues and at the same time strikes a key note with the audience.

    4) ICC Cricket World Cup 2015: Hotstar became a new partner for all cricket fans in India early 2015. With its epic launch with ICC Cricket World Cup played in Australia and New Zealand, the VOD platform leap-frogged to one of the most downloaded apps. The matches were played in the wee hours of the morning leaving Indian fans fuming in dismay. In came Hotstar and in a jiffy Indian fans took to the app to get a fix of their favour favourite sport.

    5) Re-Gender (Indian adaptation): The new kid on the block in the digital content scene, Arre from Ronnie Screwvala’s UDigital is also all set to take everyone by surprise with edgy content that is rumoured to set some new standards in the industry and blur other lines. For starters, the platform plans to release a provocative docu-reality show that is inspired by Israeli LGBT show Re-Gender. Distributed by Armoza Formats, the show’s format allows gives men and women a chance to experience life of the opposite sex.

    While the show’s title in India remains tentative in India, it will be interesting what comes out of the three weeks’ shooting time at Chhatarpur in Delhi.

  • Red Chillies taps into young audience for ‘Dilwale’ via Hotstar tie-up

    Red Chillies taps into young audience for ‘Dilwale’ via Hotstar tie-up

    MUMBAI: Red Chillies Entertainment’s Shah Rukh Khan – Kajol starrer Dilwale in association with Rohit Shetty Productions has drawn up a comprehensive plan to reach young digital audiences by inking a strategic marketing alliance with Star India’s over the top (OTT) platform Hotstar.

    Dilwale’s promotions on Hotstar kid-started almost five weeks before its scheduled release.

    The production house has employed a start-to-end approach, which is showcasing all the great video elements released – starting from the trailer to two song videos and entertaining behind-the-scenes videos. Additionally, a one-hour video with Shah Rukh Khan and Kajol for Hotstar’s original show M Bole Toh has also been specially shot. The content momentum will be sustained right through the release weekend from Friday – Sunday.

    Dilwale content will also reach Hotstar’s film-lovers worldwide through Hotstar.com, with cross promotions across the Star network’s international TV channels. The TV cross-promotions of the Dilwale content on Hotstar will also roll out in India across Star Network channels.

    The Dilwale content will also be cross promoted across tentpole hotstar properties like On Air with AIB, Cricket, ISL and EPL amongst others.

    Dilwale marks the return of Khan and Kajol on screen. The movie, directed by Shetty, also stars Varun Dhawan and Kriti Sanon.

    Red Chillies Entertainment CEO Venky Mysore said, “Dilwale is the biggest film we have made and therefore we decided to promote it across all platforms, especially via Hotstar. Hotstar is a unique platform for a large, fast-growing and important young digitally active audience, which is an important segment for any film marketer today. We have taken a pure content-driven approach with several Dilwale video elements. We are delighted with the great response and the reception it is receiving through Hotstar – both in India and, through its website, across the world.”

    Hotstar head Ajit Mohan added, “We are delighted to partner with Dilwale to introduce an exciting movie to our audiences in India and across the world through hotstar. Hotstar is introducing a whole new way of promoting and marketing a movie premiere, and I must compliment Red Chillies Entertainment for their strategic, and brave new approach to reach a large and young digital audience in India and worldwide.”

  • Star India ropes in AIB for news comedy series

    Star India ropes in AIB for news comedy series

    MUMBAI: Star India has roped in India’s premier comedy collective All India Bakchod (AIB) for new news comedy series called On Air with AIB.

     

    The show will go on air in October and have 10 English and 10 Hindi episodes. It will first release on Star’s OTT platform Hotstar, followed by weekend airing on Star World and Star Plus.

     

    All four members of AIB – Gursimran Khamba, Tanmay Bhat, Rohan Joshi and Ashish Shakya synchronously said, “We have no idea why anyone in their right minds would ask us to inflict our views on unsuspecting audiences. Also, we live in such a perfect country where everything is amazing and where the maddening, infuriating and often silly state of affairs is not a comedic goldmine, so why would you have us do news comedy? But we’re doing this because we want to see what it’s like to be on a show that requires us to put on pants.”

     

    Taking a cue from insult comedy, which AIB is infamous for, Star India CEO Uday Shankar added, “I am told that based on extensive, exhaustive research, AIB are considered mildly entertaining and we should give them a show on our network. I have complete faith that we will regret this in the months to come.”       

     

    Star India digital head Ajit Mohan said, “We are sort of excited to bring AIB’s brand of mature humor to our platform. This may be the start of a new era of quality content in India, I am told. Janta hamein maaf karein.” 

     

    On Air with AIB will be a weekly series with English and Hindi episodes dropping simultaneously on Hotstar on Thursdays and on Star World and Star Plus on Sundays.