With a flair for content innovation, Sameer Saxena leads the team at The Viral Fever in his current capacity of Chief Content Office & Head, TVF Originals. Sameer has spearheaded titles like Permanent Roommate, the first-ever original Indian web show; Tripling and Yeh Meri Family amongst others. Having crossed a realm of popularity and success with each title, Sameer’s expertise is validated by the fact that he is the only Creator- Director from India to have 3 of his titles listed on IMDb’s ‘Top 250 shows of all times’ List. An alumnus of Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay, Sameer kick-started his career in consulting, and then went on to explore the creative side of the business and worked with reputed organizations like Excel Entertainment and Endemol. He also founded Gravity Motion Pictures and was associated with the organization in the capacity of Director, Producer, and Actor. In a conversation with IWMBuzz, Sameer tells us all about the year gone by, future plans and a lot more.
2019 as we all know has been a fantastic year for TVF. Share your future plans
It has been lovely. We have had some terrific associations. We have had some good branded content and a lot of the content went on to become a huge hit. So, I guess the plan going forward use that association for the betterment, make more shows with them. There will be a couple of announcements which we will be doing soon. Also, we are looking forward to experimenting to a great extent with respect to new shows and new formats. We are also looking forward to venturing into the regional space. So yes, a very exciting year ahead for sure.
As I said earlier as well, 2019 has been a great year for you. How do you look at the year gone by?
Over the last 3 years, we have been going well. We made about 2-3 shows in a year. So that way, we are very satisfied. Going forward, we have a plan to make 12-14 shows as well. But I guess more than the numbers, it is the fact that we have made some good quality content is what matters the most. We are satisfied.
How do you look at feedback? What’s the kind of feedback you have been receiving?
Well, we as a unit have always been open to feedback. The audience is our teacher. We have been learning from them a lot. A lot of our content goes on Youtube so we know what they like and what they don’t like. So the feedback is always appreciated and it is always used to a good effect. The audience gives us a lot of love whenever we make good content and they also make you feel how you should if we don’t come up with good content.
Lastly, what’s your deciding parameter when it comes to deciding what content you want to make and what content you don’t want to make?
Well, all we have for ourselves is learning and nothing else. That learning has shaped up our instinct. So our experience has shaped up our instinct. We have been there doing it time and again so yeah, that definitely helps.