Exclusive | Getting the right content is a challenge: Nick's Anu Sikka

Nickelodeon, popularly know as Nick  and a unit of Viacom18, has left no stone unturned to make its presence felt in the kid’s genre. With the success of its various shows like SpongeBob SquarePants, Ninja Hattori, Keymon Ache and Motu Patlu amongst many others, the channel’s constant effort to stand ahead of the curve, in the kid’s entertainment space is quite visible.

From being a single offering channel in 1999, today Nickelodeon as a franchise boasts of two channels Sonic and Nick Junior both of which are well accepted channels outside India. Nickelodeon is the world's number-one entertainment brand dedicated to kids and is viewed in more than 202.3 million households in 170 territories across the world including countries in Africa, Asia and the Pacific Rim, Latin.

Inspired from the characters of Lot Pot Comics, Motu Patlu is a lively comic caper that is set in the beautiful city of Furfuri Nagariya. Motu and Patlu are as similar as chalk and cheese… the Awesome Twosome are always on an adventurous expedition and have an uncanny ability to get into tricky situations. After the success of its most appraised show ‘Motu Patlu,’ the channel is all set with another animated film ‘Motu Patlu in Wonderland’ in association with Maya Digital Studios Pvt. Ltd.

Nick will premiere the first film of the awesome duo on July 7, 2013 and repeat on July 13, 2013 at 11am.

When Nick launched the 3D animated ‘Motu Patlu’ show last October the famous characters from Lot Pot comics struck a chord with kids and families across the nation instantly. After Keymon & Nani in Space Adventure, ‘Motu Patlu in Wonderland’ will be the second home grown movie by Nick.

The new movie ‘Motu Patlu in Wonderland’  finds Motu and Patlu leaving Furfuri Nagariya to start a new journey full of fun and masti in Wonderland. The lively comical caper has the same whacked out characters- Dr. Jhatka, Ghaseeta, Chingam, John and goons in this glorious Wonderland. On their trip, they encounter dinosaurs and evil aliens, who want to rule the world by turning it into ice. Will the Jungle Gods save their guests? Will the friends ever make it back to Furfuri Nagariya? The chase gets more hilarious when Motu and Patlu team up to fight with the destructive aliens.  In a complete comedy of errors, the viewers will see Motu and Patlu land in hilarious situations and later get rescued merely by luck.

According to Sikka launching the ‘Motu Patlu in Wonderland’ movie  has given Nick  a chance to take the characters out of their usual environment and bring them into newer storylines. She is also of the opinion that such initiatives  will build franchise and make Motu and Patlu more endearing to kids.

Their ‘Motu Patlu’ property has become a rage. Speaking about the tremendous response they have received for this property and if it was expected, Sikka said, “We had the faith in the characters and we loved the concept too. We could see the potential behind the characters hence we took a step despite a huge risk of a simple reason that there are no kid’s protagonist in the ‘Motu Patlu’ series which is very unusual in any kid’s series not only in India but worldwide too. So that was a huge risk but when we saw the concept we went behind it. We always believe in taking a step in the positive direction but the response was actually a big surprise for us.”

The kid’s genre has claimed an amazing importance in the television industry since past few years. We see the genre growing very rapidly and favoring this view point Sikka said,

“Yes, the industry has seen a lot of growth from past few years. We see a lot of new channels entering in the space. We ourselves launched two more channels from our kitty. The reason behind that there is huge chunk of population of kids who want to see something that suits them and is purely made for them, not something that is made for adults but due to lack of choice they had to watch that content. But now the trends have changed.”

“With so much of content and variety they do have a choice and today kids are one of the huge influencers in the family so why not. I believe the broadcasters are ready to cater to the kids with some original content. We are all set to cater to their needs and demands and I think the space has seen a substantial growth and will surely continue to grow if not at a faster pace,” she adds.

Actually it is quite fair to say that when it comes to ‘kids’, they are one of the most uncertain audiences in terms of liking and disliking content on television. They continuously want innovation, newness and freshness otherwise they easily switch from one show to another.

Sikka herself is a strong believer that if you do not take challenges it would be difficult to take a new step and move on in life . Speaking about the challenges in the kid’s entertainment space in terms of content and programming, Sikka stated that, “All that I believe is that choosing the right content is a challenge. If the content is right one can woo the audience. As we do a lot of acquisition too so the challenge also lies in acquiring the right content from outside in terms of making it acceptable to  Indian kids.”

Nick has always been quite aggressive in terms of marketing their shows and it is no different with ‘Motu and Patlu’. Be it on digital or on-ground, they have used all possible means of engaging with the kids. Stating the plans going forward, Sikka said, “As of now the movie is the big thing and we are trying to reach the hearts of as many kids as possible. The biggest means would be of course our channel which itself caters to 12 million kids. We would be doing a lot online this time too.”  

In term of strategies, Sikka believes that knowing your audience and understanding their needs and demands is the best strategy ever. She says, “It is important to pinpoint the pulse of your audience in terms of their liking and disliking of content. Also you really need to catch up with the changing trends and that too as fast as possible.”

With the success of Motu and Patlu, Nick’s association with Maya Digital Studios seems to  be strengthening . She says, “It has been a great experience working with Maya Digital team. We are really happy with the pace the team has worked and created the series and now the film. When we saw the 2 minutes clippings we fell in love with the characters. It has been a collaborative hard work.”

On a concluding note Sikka proudly adds, “There has been a great working relationship between the channel and the production house hence the product is a success.”
Do not miss  the comic duo’s  adventures that will unfold on your TV screens on 7th July 2013 at 11 am followed by a repeat on 13th July 2013.