Adgully Exclusive | I don't want to be a media mogul: Prakash Jha

A celebrated auteur, the chronicler of India's engagement with modernity, and an astute critic of our society's follies ” Prakash Jha is the very personification of the public intellectual. That is why when he set up Maurya TV, the resultant buzz was loud and excited. In an exclusive interview with Adgully, Jha talks about the channel's aims.

Adgully began by asking Jha to explain the rationale for setting up Maurya TV. He said there had been a need for a dedicated regional channel which would take into account all developments and happenings within the states of Bihar and Jharkhand. "The channel will be Bihar and Jharkhand centric," Jha said. "Besides, there were a whole lot of media aspirants, young mass communication graduates, and those with the journalistic instinct and training who had to go out of the states to find work. It was because ETV or Sahara don't have their production centres in these states." He said it had always been his dream to set up centres of excellence in Bihar. "I am also establishing the first multiplex in Bihar," he said. "I want to create institutions where Biharis can get together, work and be proud of. The basic idea was to set up a centre of production; currently, about 175 people work at the channel. It is a full-fledged production house, everything happens in Patna and Ranchi." Jha said all content was produced in-house. "We have two in-house studios and the state-of-the-art equipment," he said.

Since content is conceived and prepared at Ground Zero, as it were, Jha said the eventual yield was different from his competitors'. "Sahara and ETV have their bureau offices in Bihar or Jharkand and their content goes, perhaps, to Hyderabad or Noida offices to be packaged," he said. "But we will be the first on the ground to cover any news event. We connect people live to developments, through shows on politics, society, or cities. We don't have stake in any other state. So we bring the ethos of the states in question to the forefront." Maurya was "a regional channel of a region, for the region and by the region", he said

Adgully then asked Jha to elucidate the programming salience of his channel. "We have a programme called "Rajneeti', which is on elections," Jha said. "Then we have "Asli Bahu Bali', which examines the culture of bahu balis in Bihar; "Bhal Ki Kaal' is a satire on political and social happenings. Everything is flavored with some kind of fiction and creativity. We have a complete creative team now, which is constantly bringing out new and interesting packages."

As for the character of Maurya, Jha said it was a news and entertainment channel. "By the time elections end in October, we will be running the entertainment sections ” all produced in Patna," he said. "It is a complete channel for the whole family. It offers news, entertainment and news-oriented entertainment. We are not launching any other channel."

Jha's sense of certitude is powered by his legendary big-brained thinking. But it is also backed by numbers. "We had research studies carried out by two agencies," Jha said. "We also carry out our own research. Mukesh Kumar is the director of the channel; Manish Jha handles distribution and marketing; and Vivaek Sachar handles sales. We have a very good team. They only need some comments and guidance from me, otherwise they are completely independent."

Maurya is free to air "as of now", Jha said. "Our distribution is excellent and robust in both Bihar and Jharkand," he said. "We are not available on DTH because we find the cost prohibitive at this point. On cable, we were number one for two consecutive weeks."

But what about the channel's market share? "Being a start-up, we have just got noticed and according to the recent TAM ratings, we are the No 1 channel in Bihar and Jharkhand in the regional news category," Jha said. "We look forward to attaining the Number 1 position by the end of this year and consolidating advertising and sales revenues." He said the channel should break even in a year.

Indeed, the channel has been securing more clients from Delhi, Kolatta, Hyderbad, and Mumbai. "We are working on all aspects [of marketing]," Jha said. "As we slowly become known and our content improves ” and as we become thicker in terms of tele-population in Bihar and Jharkand ” more clients will come to us."

In terms of campaigning, Jha said the channel leverages the whole spectrum of opportunities ” from radio to outdoors ” as it did during the launch.

"People are beginning to realise that Maurya is their staple and is giving them what they want," Jha said of the channel's TAM ratings. "People are appreciating the content of Maurya. However, we should not have this swelling in the head just because of the ratings. We have to keep persistently working and innovating and coming up with new programmes and making the channel more wholesome. Because news content alone does not attract the entire household. We have to innovate to create programmes which have news values, and at the same are entertaining. We want to put up two hours of entertainment programmes every day in primetime."

Jha said the good work would continue, but not necessarily because of him. "The creative people in Bihar will slowly have faith in the channel and sustain it," he said. "I can only be a guide. I am happy that I was able to set it up and run it and that it is doing well. I am not at all involved in the day-to-day running of the channel. My love is Bihar and I want to concentrate there. I don't want to become a media mogul. I want this channel to help the Bihari academic and intellectual. It should be able to help farmers, should be able to contribute to healthcare, education and entertainment. I like it to be a nerve center for all the media-related activities in Bihar and Jharkand."

The next inevitable question related to star-powered shows. Jha has an absolutely clear point of view: "If there is any star, he or she will have to be from Bihar. That is the reason even I don't appear on channel. I don't want to sell it with my own brand value because it has to be Patna and Ranchi oriented."

But Jha did acknowledge that stars have the power to attract. "Any show anchored by a well-known face will obviously be popular," he said. "For example, in "Dus Ka Dum', Salman Khan entertained people and did it well. And Amitabh Bachchan did the first KBC. For stars, it is just the matter of a good pay cheque. For channels, stars generate revenue and add to a brand and the product becomes popular."

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