Once known as the queen of Indian television, today Ekta Kapoor has made the transition to the digital bandwagon with the company’s streaming service, Alt Balaji launched in April this year. The move was motivated by Kapoor noticing a lacuna in content for the urban Indian. By her own admission, the Balaji front-woman has honed her skills and become aware of how the audience has changed.
At the dawn of the millennial, Kapoor struck gold with Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi (2000) . The show’s success was testimony to her foresight. “If you need a research team to tell you about people and taste, especially after doing the same thing for 23 years, then there is a problem,” she says. Which is why Balaji has backed both mass and class projects: case in point, the feature film Udta Punjab (2016) and the TV show Naagin which premiered in November 2015 on Colors TV.
“Take a risk. When I was 17 and a half, I made Hum Paanch (1995); then at 24 I made Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi , I think – I won’t give you my age – it’s time I can do it again”, she emphasises while talking about her digital venture.
Family friendly
No doubt, television viewership is growing in double digits, even travelling to remote towns in the country. However, the upper crust of Mumbai, Delhi and other Indian cities “are getting exhausted” by that same content. Alt Balaji wants to bridge the gap between what’s available on English streaming giants (Netflix and Amazon) and regular television content. “If I put [my] content on TV it would not work,” she says.
Today’s content consumer can belong to one of three categories: urban niche, urban mass or rural mass. Kapoor wants to position Alt Balaji somewhere in the middle with the urban mass. “Shows like Boygiri is for a young man while The Test Case is aimed at grown-up woman,” shares Kapoor. “For a younger woman there is Dev DD whereas a much older woman would relate to Karrle Tu Bhi Mohabbat . Bewafaa Sii Wafaa is a show for the urban couple.”
By the end of the year, Kapoor wants to have at least ten shows for anyone who falls under the urban mass tier, while adding 42 titles of Balaji original content on the app and double that number next year.
The key according to her, is to create content aimed at individual viewers. “My brother is completely into thrillers, dad wants to watch political shows and my mum wants to watch grown-up dramas,” offers Kapoor. “Everyone should get something to watch”. But the joint managing director and creative director of Balaji Telefilms, is quick to clarify that she’s still in the business of making family content. “It’s just different shows for the whole family.”
Future footfalls
Currently, the ALT Balaji app features aggregated content in several languages including Hindi, English, Tamil, Bengali and even Korean. “A lot of Indian dramas have been [inspired by] Korean dramas,” she says adding the Asian country’s brand of melodrama is perfect for Indian tastes. “[Besides] buying Hollywood shows would be cost intensive.”
Profits are expected to start reeling in after four years. Venturing into such an advertisement-free, subscription-led model is risky, but Kapoor is naturally hopeful. “We have an understanding of the audience, we have brand recall and once you become a B2C model, you take risks but the gains are higher,” she states adding that the app is available in 65 countries so far. The payments are pooling in but growth is the need of the hour. “[But data] was a major deterrent when we were planning, hence we have options like ‘download now and see later’,” says Kapoor. “For any technology to survive [data] has to become easily accessible to the lowest common denominator,” she asserts.
For any television show to profit from advertising, what’s required is millions of viewers. “For a subscription-led platform, I would require say, four million after four years,” says Kapoor. So no wonder then, she’s zeroing in on small pockets of viewers. Take Romil and Jugal for instance, a show about two men falling in love. Soon Kapoor wants to develop a section on thrillers, political dramas and even bring back the Indian soap in a different format. She’s always had it her way, and Kapoor continues to have her eye on the prize and this time it’s your mobile device.
