Adgully Exclusive | CELL 18's Zubin Driver betting big on regional TV production

Having done his Masters in Literature and Aesthetics, he also worked as a drama critic simultaneously for a year. With his experience in the advertising avenue, Driver has garnered a lot of insights into the industry, before he switched to his current job.

"The Hindi regional space is a space that is looking for an idea every minute. It is a weekly drama and the cost of entertainment is very high. I believe idea is king. If you have a big idea and then execute it well and refresh it every day, you are on the winning track," Driver said

Talking about the focus at Cell 18 he said, "Our focus right now is to become one of the ruling production houses in the regional space. We have a very clear focus. We believe the regional space is the space to be in right now. GEC is overcrowded space. Cell 18 has had a successful run as far as regional Marathi goes. ETV started its upswing in terms of GRPs because of Aflatoon. And now recently we have launched DNA on ETV Marathi and is from an international format."

"We have also just launched a new show on Star Pravah called, Bhandaa Saukhya Bhare which is a reality show. The kind of work we are doing is quality work and impacting viewership very heavily. This is our focus in this space. And our second focus in this year is to develop the ad film making business. We are systematically attacking that market. We are going to put together a panel of directors. We are going to explore the ad film market. We are also involved in the broadcast design space. We do complete channel design, we have done three Telugu channels. That is the third space we are involved in," he further added enthusiastically

He goes on to say that one needs to understand that audience today does dual viewing. Viewership as an activity is changing and is simultaneously getting interesting. The key is to be in the right place at the right time, Driver said.

"The content broadcasters in regional space have realized that they need to upgrade their act and that their audience consumes in a dual way. In the GEC space, what is interesting is that international formats will work even in India. It works because human beings, middle class people are homogenous. Broadcasters have realized this which is saving them a lot of development time and money. It is a big sea-change," he further added.

Commenting on the Advertising business of Cell 18, Driver said, "Advertising business is a nascent business. The key over here is how to do something different because there are enough players in the market. What we bring to the table immediately is post production funnel which is the edge that we bring. We are also a Corporate which means, we are highly professional and extensive resources."

"We believe Marathi space is a huge space but we will be migrating into other regional spaces like the South. I also see a lot of potential in Bengal and Punjab," he further stated.

Speaking about bringing successful writers and artists on live screen, he said, "It is a very technical thing, you cannot blindly shoot a play and telecast it on television. It becomes very boring and unwatchable. So first we have to adapt it into a tele-structure and can't go mechanically about it. It has to be shot in the television designed ways. I think the audience today is decreasingly less for something like this. You have to make your literature more entertaining"

The trend today is to pick up social issues and spin a story around it on a regional backdrop. Most of the serials today are based on this. However a social cause cannot be enough to keep the audience entertained throughout. "Can I keep engaging you with my content? The social cause you may remember in the beginning but what will bring you back? That is where a story takes shape. Everyday content has to be great," Driver said.

Over his years of experience, Driver comments on how he has seen this space evolving. "The Hindi regional space is a space that is looking for an idea every minute. It is a weekly drama and the cost of entertainment is very high. I believe idea is king. If you have a big idea and then execute it well and refresh it every day, you are on the winning track," he said.

The challenge in this space is to ensure audience engagement at all levels. "You risk too much on ideas that you have no surety on or real constructs on. It is a vast gamble where everyone is gambling with lots of ideas. I think engaging and entertaining ideas on a daily basis will work. That is why KBC works and Indian idol works. Bigg Boss works sometimes because the challenge is to get engagement on a daily basis," he said.

Driver believes the second challenge is how to deliver ratings. Many do not pay enough attention to this. However at Cell 18 it is of prime importance. "How to cut away from the crowd and do something exceptional? The second challenge is to deliver ratings. I take it very personally. We will try our best to deliver optimum ratings which is one of our mandates. We believe we need to be accountable as much as everyone else," he added.

Driver also discussed how prime time is changing in today's scenario. In Marathi television the prime time used to be from 7pm onwards. However with Bhandaa Saukhya Bhare, a daily show on Star Parvah has created Marathi television history by delivering higher ratings than 9pm shows, which has pulled back the prime time band to 6:30pm. This time band has been created because of urban living. When this evening band is stretched it presents more opportunities for advertisers, creates more revenue for broadcasters and gives content to the viewers at 6:30pm.

Talking about future plans for the year 2011, Driver said "We want to become a leading player in the regional space and migrate into other regional spaces and start building out a Hindi GEC business and build out our ad film business and also look at international markets in terms of broadcast design and production space. We are also going to get into interesting stuff on 3G in the mobile space."

Driver on an ending note advices young enthusiasts entering this space to train in big production houses, where people follow processes. "Always try to work on big shows because your learning curve then is much higher," he added. | By Janees Antoo [janees(at)adgully.com]