Ever since the Internet became more accessible to a wider user base of feature-rich mobile smartphone owners, the variety in terms of content has also been evolving. While the demand earlier was only for downloading songs and watching song sequences and movies, the discerning user of today wants varied entertainment. Already, news and current affairs programmes are well-received.
Smart phones, tablets, phablets and what have you! Faster Internet speeds, lower costs. The Net is a must-have for today’s generation.
“With such dependence on the Internet, many of my overseas friends felt that they didn’t have enough Indian content available in English as compared to the profusion of regional language material from all over India. For instance, many south Indians settled abroad for decades are more comfortable with English than with their mother tongue. That’s when the bee in my bonnet started buzzing,” says Madhav Das, host of Rumble , a series of one-on-one conversations in English of 20-25-minute duration on YouTube.
Madhav found a like-minded ally in Suresh Menon, a techie and an IIT-ian, who runs Sushma Multimedia. “Using his limited facilities, we started recording conversations with guests drawn from varied backgrounds. The overall style of presentation is meant for easy listening,” says Madhav, who has already notched up 73 shows of Rumble , since its launch in July last year. “My first guest was Rana Bubber who spoke about the need for providing security to women by registering government-allotted land/house in their name instead of their husbands’. A U.S.-based website called Femocracy discovered our program and approached us to have the show featured by them as they believed in women empowerment. Among the others who have been featured on Rumble are RJ Ophelia, singer Devan, filmmaker and journalist Sudhish Kamath, HR professional Prof. Vishwesaran, dancer Jigyasa Giri, political activist/student Anirudh Belle and entrepreneur Shruthi Vinod Raj. The intention is to get the unsung hero and the common man to talk to us about path-breaking events in their life that will interest others. Right now, we are showcasing what’s happening in Chennai among Chennai-ites, but our audience is growing. Eventually, we will have to go national, if not global,” informs Madhav.
The venture, right now, is not yet generating revenue. Luckily, the cost of operations is negligible. “But, as we are growing and page views are increasing, we plan to do some marketing and promotion to reach a wider audience. In that sense, the Internet is still nascent in this country and we have to devise methods to bring in the revenue. In-film branding is one avenue. I have no restrictions about holding a can of Pepsi while talking to my guest,” says Madhav.
You can watch > Rumble with Madhav here .
