The India Web Fest Season 6 witnessed an array of topics being discussed with some of the biggest and most prolific dignitaries coming in and talking about the same.

One such topic was an important conversation about how Epic On is capturing the hinterlands with its relatable content. To discuss this topic, the panel included Mr. Sourjya Mohanty, COO, Epic On; Mr. Pavan Mallu, Producer, Blue Drop Films; Mr Yatin Gupta, Producer, Folklore Film Studio, and Ms Alka Shukla, Head of Content Development (Fiction), Rusk Media. The session was moderated by Mr Subhojit Ghosh.

Here are some excerpts from the conversation-

Subhojit: Shourya Sir, as somebody who is running a platform that is competing with some of the best around, right? In your path to being one of the best as well, what has been your strategy behind targeting the hinterlands with the kind of content that EpicOn has brought into the scenario?

Shourya: First of all, thank you to the forum for inviting me and then speaking about Epicon. And thanks to the audience who is out here. So I think, you know, Epicon’s journey goes back six, I mean, six years back. It started with full gusto and pride. And I’ve been associated for the last five and a half years with the platform. So we have grown to a 43 million user MAU base. You know, 43 million, it has taken us five years to build on the back of great content.

So when we speak about the hinterland or urban, I think we have understood one thing is that when we speak about content is the king, but the definition has changed over some time. Content is the kingdom. Because of so much content coming in, I think it’s a kingdom that you’re building. We are seeing the universe being built. And I was just speaking to Alka about that, that, you know, we have to build content which is ageless, timeless, and it is relatable as well.

Today’s audience is very smart in terms of, you know, not being loyal to a platform, but being loyal to a story. So we have spent a lot of time in terms of backing good stories, spending time around writers, around creators, who understand the hinterland rather, and more than that, understand the consumer. What is the need of the consumer at this stage, at this point, because it keeps on shifting?

So I think working with great creators and backing great stories have, you know, made us create, you know, 20, 25 plus originals, which have been, you know, streaming on the platform, on our partner platform like Jio, Tata Play, and, you know, Airtel. So that also has given us a wide user base. So the story is around creating ageless content and not, you know, having, you know, cutting corners, but, you know, backing great stories, which is apt for family viewing.

With family and friends, you can view on large screens and as well as mobile screens. So that’s the kind of, you know, pivot that we have worked all these years.

Subhojit: I’ll come to Alka ji here now. We were talking about trends, right? And there are different languages with different trends. So if I particularly talk, since we’re in Mumbai today, if I talk about the Hindi-speaking audience, right? What do you think are the key elements that a maker should target or understand? What are the essential, I would say, criteria that perhaps a producer thinks of when they kind of create content in that space?

Alka: So when you say key elements, and you mentioned Hindi-speaking and Mumbai, I think a slight gap here is that when you typically refer to Hindi-speaking markets, what you essentially look at is North India, Delhi, NCR, UP, Madhya Pradesh, and so on. But irrespective of whether it is Bombay or Hindi-speaking markets, it begins with understanding the pulse of your consumer. Authenticity, authenticity, and authenticity. That is literally what it is.

What that means is, for example, who is my target audience? Is my target consumer a 21-year-old Raju sitting in Kanpur who’s doing CA? Or is my target audience a 26-year-old Rihanna doing fashion designing in Mumbai? Then you sort of get into the details of the aspirations or motivations of somebody who falls into this sort of league. What are their inspirations and aspirations going to be? It is from there that you backtrack to determine what kind of story you want to tell. Because there are a million stories you can tell. The point is, are those stories a good platform fit?

As a creator, first, is this something that the platform feels works with its branding? Then, if it is a good platform fit, you get into what the target group of the platform is and what kind of stories you want to tell. So understanding the pulse of what you are trying to say, getting the authenticity right, and ensuring that through these stories, you are creating relatable storylines is crucial. If you don’t know whether you’re catering to a Raju or a Rihanna, your storyline, no matter how brilliant, is not going to speak to that audience.

One thing that as creators or makers we try to imbibe is that the show should talk to the audience and not talk at the audience. That is literally the foundation stone for the edifice you are trying to build.

Subhojit: Yatin, I’ll come to you. There’s this word, which I’m pretty sure a lot of you might have heard already—it’s called “glocal.” You prepare content around the local sphere, but it must be crafted in such a way that it appeals to a global audience. I think all the platforms, whether OTT or movies, are doing it this way. So, this “glocal” concept—if I may ask as a producer—how important is it? How do you, as a producer and creator, ensure that the glocal factor is kind of ensured?

Yatin: First of all, thank you, everyone, for inviting us to this forum. So, coming back to your question, it’s like when we find the stories, it’s never the criteria that we’re looking for a regional story or some story which can, you know, it’s an international story. The whole aim is that cinema, in a way, is a reflection of the society.

So, we need to understand what is happening in the society at present. And then we need to find out a story that can resonate with a larger set of audience. And of course, as she said, we also need to find that for which platform or which particular thing we are making the content. Because the TG of that thing has to be kept in mind while creating that whole set of content.

And if you’re making it in the right way, that this is, I know this is my TG and I know this is what is my budget where I’m making it. So, now I have to consider these two elements because a lot of the time what happens is that projects don’t fail, budgets do. So, you need to keep that in mind that there’s a certain limitation that I have in mind and now I have to find a story that has to fit into that budget. Because ultimately, you’re looking, you’re making a grandiose story and you have very little that amount of money in your pocket, then ultimately it will be a failure, it will be a disaster.

And once you fit that whole template, that there’s a certain budget, there’s a certain story which needs to be told, there’s a certain target audience. Now, if it is well told, it is not superficial, well researched, well written, then definitely it will transcend across the boundaries and it will hit the court, which is what every producer or every platform I think is looking for, that it should transcend and there’s a Mezapur also, there’s a Panchayat also, there’s a Bluetick also. And every show in its way has found its audience and people are very excited when they’re watching it. So, yeah.

Subhojit: I’ll come to you, Pavan sir. You know, as far as the Hindi-speaking market is concerned, the trends are constantly evolving and changing, right? And as we all know, change is the only constant. So, what are perhaps the trends that you’re observing in the Hindi-speaking market? And, you know, how are you kind of adapting to those trends and ensuring that you take them into account and then you move forward with the kind of content that you’re coming up with?

Pavan: Thank you for inviting me, first of all. And very rightly put, the biggest challenge that we all face is the changing trends. Now, it’s so funny that we are thinking of a story right now because probably a lot of crime shows are going around. We think that we’ll have another crime show. We develop it for six months, we do a pre-production, we start shooting, and by the time it comes on air, we are one and a half years down the line. And the trend has changed. So, we don’t know what’s going to be working where.

What we, in this case, do is create a story that does not follow a certain trend, but we are trying to create a story that has at least three to four primary elements into it. Those primary elements could be, one, it has to be relatable. All of us agreed with it. It has to be relatable. But what happens when few people don’t relate? So then it has to be, there has to be some kind of emotion attached to it. Either a comedy emotion, or an action, or a drama, or romance, or tragedy, or something, or a hard-hitting truth.

And if that also, and to pad it up with a lot of conviction that we want to make a story with. As a maker, I need to have conviction in my story. And the most important thing is innovation. Whatever we make, you know, today we need to get those eyeballs to the people. Eyeballs, the first eyeballs. Every platform, a cinema goer, a television platform, everybody wants that, kaise bhi karke, I want those people to come for the first five minutes of the show. Then I will make sure that they don’t go anywhere.

So, innovation is where, so these are three, four things. If we get a correct balance, then we have what you’re saying. Then it doesn’t matter if the trend is changing. Because people don’t know what to eat. We tell them, eat this, and they eat. That’s what has, that’s what cinema and medium, cinema medium has done to people. Okay, see this is a new thing that’s come into the market. Let’s try this. That’s when, and if people like it, then they will follow that. So, trends are something that we, makers and the platforms together can create. And, you know, manipulate according to us if we have our great conviction in those.

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