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Tag: Shree Venkatesh Films

  • 1000 hours of original content a year is our target: Hoichoi’s Vishnu Mohta

    1000 hours of original content a year is our target: Hoichoi’s Vishnu Mohta

    The Bengali content market may not be spoken of much, but it is not without its share of audience. There are 258 million Bengali speaking people around the world, and this is the target for the latest kid on the block. Hoichoi, a Bengali OTT platform was launched on 20 September 2017 by Shree Venkatesh Films, a Kolkata-based media company.

    Hoichoi means positive activities happening around you. The ad-free platform has already launched seven original web series and three more are lined up for this month. Co-founder Vishnu Mohta, who has been with SVF since a decade, speaks to Indiantelevision.com’s Kirti Chauhan about the growth and future plans of the platform.

    What was the thought behind launching a Bengali OTT platform?

    We wanted to give our customers high-quality Bengali entertainment and the market was ready for it. Currently, India is equipped with all the ingredients to make content available over the internet with a ready to serve system, availability of bandwidth, cheap data, digital payment friendly generation and a smartphone handy generation. It was the right time to provide content for people to consume on their smart phones and set top boxes, which include internet, connected devices like – Apple TV, Roku TV, Amazon Fire TV, etc.

    Where all are the Bengali audiences located?

    India and Bangladesh contribute the largest Bengali community. In India, the Bengali speaking community is around 90 million, wherein, Bangladesh has a population of around 160-170 million Bengali expats and rest of the world has a Bengali diaspora between 5-8 million.

    Currently, 30-40 per cent of Indian population has access to the internet. However, in the coming five years, the number will double, which will include the crowd of tier II and III cities. This new internet user will prefer to consume content in his vernacular language. 75 per cent of the new internet users will come from rural India, of which 75 per cent want to consume content in their local language.

    What would make a person pick Hoichoi over others?

    Our experience of over 20 years has enabled us to understand the needs of the Bengali people, which will be visible through our original content. Apart from this, we have the largest collection of the best in Bengali entertainment that is not available on any other platform. We are offering 360 degree entertainment – movies, original shows and in the future, it will be music streaming. We have started with over 500 movies, 1000 songs and 10 original shows in Bengali language.

    What type of content does the Bengali community like to watch?

    They are an evolved audience. They like to watch mystery shows and films, horror movies, mass films, documentaries and much more. They have an ability to absorb different genres of content.

    What are the new shows in pipeline?

    We are coming up with a stand up comedy show called ‘Stand up’, then another show is ‘Bhutu Re’ which is an investigative story around a haunted house and the third one is ‘Bouma Detective’ where a housewife will be playing the role of a detective. We have 4 shows for November and December too.

    You have kept different subscription charges for Indian and global audiences. Will the same pricing be applied in Bangladesh, which economically weaker than India?

    Our subscription charges for Indian audiences are Rs 399 for 12 months, Rs 249 for six months and Rs 149 for three months. Internationally we have kept the charges around $8.99 per month and $79.99 per year. The international audience is ready to pay for content since they are already in the habit. We haven’t come up with subscription charges for Bangladeshi audiences yet but it won’t be very different from India.

    Will there be any content specifically catering to Bengali audience of Bangladesh?

    We are in process of buying and creating content for Bangladeshi audience. We are creating 2 feature films in Bangladesh, likely to release next year.

    Why did you choose ViewLift for technology over Brightcove, Kaltura or Diagonal Technologies?

    We wanted to work with an experienced company that is aware of current technological demands of the Indian market, since we are new to digital. ViewLift is specifically working on this technology from the past 10 years and has already launched similar platforms worldwide. We are the first Indian company to have worked with ViewLift. Other technology providers like Brightcove, Kaltura and Diagonal are best in content management system. They are a platform itself and you can build on top of it but can’t provide an end-to-end customisation.

    Why you did not choose in-house technology option?

    It would have been a time-consuming experience for us if we had taken the in-house technology option. There was a possibility of making mistakes in the beginning while dealing with the learning of new technology. We did not want to make any mistake in the beginning and so decided to take an expert as our technology partner for best results.

    What is the average time spent on Hoichoi?

    We have just begun and within a month, the average time spent on Hoichoi is around 39-40 minutes.

    How large is your team?

    Hoichoi is a collaboration of three separate teams. We have 300 experts working for SVF, some of whom are actively engaged in the development of Hoichoi. We have 35-40 people of ViewLift working with us. And, Hoichoi separately has a team of 30-35 experts. Altogether, 200 people are working for Hoichoi.

    What are your future targets?

    Our ambition is to create 1000 hours of original content every year, i.e., three hours per day. In addition, we are targeting to launch two shows every month.

    Q. When and what are you planning to bring for kids in your library?

    Kids as a separate genre on Hoichoi will likely be seen early next year. It will be a combination of acquired/curated and created content. Satyajit Ray has written various interesting stories catering to kids. We are planning to translate them in animation for our kids.

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  • ETV Bangla recreates ‘Balika Vadhu’ in Bengali

    ETV Bangla recreates ‘Balika Vadhu’ in Bengali

    KOLKATA: Come 15 April and ETV Bangla will have a host of original content for its audience. The channel which has created an afternoon time band, ‘Duronto Dupur’ is set to launch four new shows to keep its viewers hooked on to the channel and carve out a space in the regional general entertainment genre.

     

    Of the four new soaps, one is Gouri Daan, which is inspired by the popular Colors show Balika Vadhu. Starting 15 April at 1:00 pm, the programme aims at creating a niche for itself in the Bengali market which has had several progressive shows.

     

    So why remake a popular Hindi show into Bengali? Answers ETV Bangla programming head Ritika Roy, “ As per our research, in 2013, West Bengal emerged as the fourth largest state in the country, which competed in the category of child marriage and 55 per cent of the girls who were married were far younger than the marriageable age.” Also the channel in order to hook its afternoon band audience wanted to take up a strong issue-based story. The West Bengal government also launched a campaign last year called ‘Kanyashree Prakalpa’ for curbing child marriage in the state.

     

    While one can argue that Gouri Daan was not a replica of Balika Vadhu, the essence is the same. It is also leant that the storyline has been changed in keeping with the Bengali sentiments.

     

    The show which is being produced under the umbrella of Shree Venkatesh Films, will initially create 300 episodes for the series. “We have created a bank of 11 episodes, which will be aired in the course of two weeks,” informs Shree Venkatesh Films director Mahendra Soni.

     

    Those starring in the series are: Soumik Chattopadhaya, Torsha, an eight year old newcomer, who will play the lead character of Gauri and Sumanto Mukherjee, who will be seen in the role of a grandfather.

     

    The show will be shot not only in Shantiniketan, but also at Varanasi and Murshidabad. “This apart from the 10,000 square feet set created for the series,” says Soni.

     

    Elaborating on the plot of Gauri Daan, Roy says, “The series kicks off with Lord Shiva appearing in the dream of Sumanto Mukherjee (the grandfather), asking him to marry off his youngest granddaughter.  We have depicted child marriage to raise awareness about this menace in our society.”  

     

    While not revealing any details on the cost of each episode, Roy says, “It will be at par with other players in the Bangla regional channel space.”

     

    According to city-based media experts, on a fiction show a regional GEC can spend anywhere between Rs 1 to Rs 2 lakh per episode. 

     

    “Till date, the noon slot had re-runs of the evening shows. By airing original content, we are also looking at some share in this monopoly market,” says Viacom 18 executive vice president and business head – regional channels, ETV Kannada, ETV Bangla and ETV Odiya, Ravish Kumar.

    So who would be the sponsors for the afternoon band? Answers Kumar, “Talks are on with several advertisers. Nothing has been finalised as yet.”

     

    The network will do all that is needed to promote the new shows. “We will put up 300 hoardings across the state, apart from spending on radio spots and print advertisements,” he informs.

     

    When quizzed about the ratings the channel was expecting to garner through the new show, Kumar says, “We are not expecting anything. All I can say is that Balika Vadhu is quite popular even after running for so many years.”