Beginnen Media launches India's 1st Rural Ent Channel, Azaad

Beginnen Media was launched in October 2019 and is headquartered in Mumbai. Beginnen, as the name suggests, is the German word for 'Commencement of Something New’. The Vision of the organization is to  pioneer a 'People Specific' range of products and services. It believes in the power of collaboration and its core values  include People Focus, Inclusion, Diversity, Empathy, Market Focus and Accessibility. Its Mission is to develop innovative,  authentic, creative entertainment experiences and related multi-media products. Innovation is a strategic value at  Beginnen Media and a fundamental part of its corporate culture. 

Beginnen Media is spearheaded by Mr. Bharat Kumar Ranga, a stalwart whose influence in the broadcast business is a  shining example as he continues to inspire innovation in the Media & Entertainment industry. Ranga is known to inspire  and give a new dimension to the world of media business by developing High Performance, People-focused teams that  deliver exceptional service and profits. Recognized as the Performance Accelerator because of his uncanny ability to  identify market opportunities to deliver extraordinary results, his global experience and cultural fluency have led to the  creation of eleven new platforms that were successes in India and across the world. 

Beginnen Media aspires to meet customers where they are and provide an entertaining experi- ence for everyone across  platforms. The first offering from Beginnen Media is Azaad, India's 'FIRST Premium Hindi Entertainment Platform that  will feature Content Exclusively for the 'Rural Mindset’. Azaad represents a strong belief in the 'Power of Engaged  Connections' with its stakeholders. With its premise being 'People First. Rural First: the building block of the brand Azaad  has been to service a 'Latent Demand' of an Underserved Audience Segment with a Huge Untapped Opportunity.  Currently, the channel has select hand-picked syndicated family entertainment, all localized in Hindi. It will also soon  launch its Original slate that will encompass the rural person's entertainment needs with relevant and relatable narratives. 

Beginnen Media Managing Director, Bharat Kumar Ranga, said, "We are working towards fostering a new culture of  doing business in the media & entertainment industry and creating a 'People-Centric' model. Our aim is to cultivate an  inclusive strategy considering audiences in rural India as a part of our growth plans. Since creativity has an expiry date,  we are constantly searching for the next successful idea leading to tremendous wastage. While our new model of  Consumer Specific Entertainment Channel is focused and is not dependent on any new creative formula. We believe that  it's time to transition from a creative-centric model to a consumer-centric one. 

"Our model is not about having deep pockets, it's all about the deep understanding that we have of the rural person's  emotions, aspirations and entertainment needs. The rural viewer is often confused as a free viewer and are completely  ignored, but they are actually a mindset and we would like to capture their thought process. Beginnen Media's flagship  brand, Azaad is just the first small step in creating a premium people specific product for the rural person.

We consider Azaad as premium as it means superior thought, clarity in vision and it does not mean high cost or  spectacular imagery. In the first year of Azaad, we want to create a niche in this super mass category of rural audiences.  The content will clearly be created based on what the rural consumer wants to see and not what we would like them to  see,” says Ranga 

Beginnen Media also announced its leadership team with executives who add deep experience across verticals to further  strengthen the organization's ability to develop more personalized experiences with new and existing audiences who  have a rural mindset. Their work will support the momentum that the company is already experiencing in its launch  phase and is expected to create future vectors of growth. The five-member core leadership team announced by Beginnen Media, Managing Director, Bharat Kumar Ranga includes Mohan Gopinath as Director - Project and Operations, Doris  Dey as General Manager- Product, Rachin Khanijo as Chief Marketing Officer, Johnson Jain as Chief Revenue Officer  and Dinesh Bhutra as Chief Financial Officer. Speaking about the team, Ranga says, "There are some talented jewels  who are a part of my team. I am very proud of them. Some have worked with me for over a year and the rest have joined  about six months ago and are doing a brilliant job:' 

"The first person to join me on this journey was also a part of our promoter team in my entrepreneurial journey. Mohan  Gopinath first worked with me when he was heading Zee Cinema cluster and later, we launched the Bengali movie  channel, Amaar Cinema, the sales entity, Screenmax Media and he has led several independent projects to successes.  He is our Director - Project & Operations;' says Ranga. Mohan Gopinath is a media and broadcast veteran with nearly 25 

years work experience. In his 18 years stint with Zee Entertainment Enterprises Limited, he has covered the entire  spectrum of functions ranging from sales, marketing, distribution, content, acquisition along with the P&L responsibility  of all brands that he led including ZEE Cinema and Essel Vision Productions Ltd. He turned entrepreneur and co-created  Bhu Entertainment in 2015. This entity handled Sales, Film marketing and promotion and Distribution across the various  platforms in India and internationally. He was also a content catalyst for two leading production houses and successfully  helped Viacom launch its first movie channel, Rishtey Cineplex. As Beginnen Media's Director - Project & Operations,  Mohan Gopinath says, "The media environment is changing rapidly and despite a plethora of content options, none are  focusing on the Rural segment. Azaad comes with a beacon of hope, awareness and positivity to cater to the Rural  Mindset in the quest for a better tomorrow:' 

"Then we have the 'Architect' of our model who understood what our consumer with a rural mindset would like to watch  and is then creating shows for them. Doris Dey is General Manager - Product. She's a brilliant, creative mind who has  worked closely with Ekta Kapoor at Balaji Telefilms. She conceived and created some great shows like Bhabhiji Ghar Pe  Hai at &TV. Here, she drives original and curated content that we've got after consistent research;' adds Ranga. At  Beginnen Media, Doris Dey spearheads Business Development, Programming & Content Strategy, Product In-novation,  Content Creation and Curation. In a career spanning 18 years she has successfully helmed various roles of a Writer,  Creative Director, Creative Producer, Programming Head (Fiction), Business Head (Fiction) and an Independent Producer  (OTT). In her previous stint at Essel Group, she envisaged and launched &TV.' Doris Dey, Beginnen Media, General  Manager - Product, says," Rural India is the real India. Our focus is to create stories of hope and aspiration that resonate  with them but are not divided by artificial boundaries of class, caste, religion and geography.

We are consumer-driven, cost-effective and innovative as a brand that will challenge and change the way we do  content-business." 

"Then there's consumer marketing and brand Azaad, distribution, research and On-Air-Promotions. Our Chief Marketing  Officer Rachin Khanijo was a part of the team that launched Colors, Head-Marketing at &TV, he had also worked at Eros  & an EdTech firm when I asked him to join us. Creative people work better with observation. All of them have gone  through extensive rural orientation with me as they have worked creating urban focussed channels and this was their first  op-portunity to set up a rural brand;' shares Ranga. With Marketing, On-Air Promotions, Research, Corporate & Digital  Communications, Public Relations & Distribution under his purview at Beginnen Media, Rachin Khanijo is a renowned  media professional with over 17 years of extensive MarComm experience. Across years, he has worked with Large  Organizations and Start-ups in the Media & Entertainment industry, constructively providing strategic marketing impetus  and di-rection to their growth plans. His career includes stints such as 'Associate Director - Marketing I COLORS: 'Marketing  Head - &TV: 'Brand Director - Filmfare, Femina, Good Homes: Vice President - Marketing, Eros Now. Speaking about his  association with Beginnen Media as Chief Marekting Officer, Rachin Khanijo says "I'm truly excited to be a part of the  dream run of building 'Azaad - India's FIRST Premium Hindi Entertainment Channel: exclusively for the Rural Mindset.  With People Centricity at the core and a strong belief in the Power of Engaged Connections with the Rural Person, brand  Azaad aims to be a category creator. My endeavor is to constantly build a deeper understanding of the Rural Person to  Attract, Engage and establish Connect with them. Further to build affinity, our approach is to place brand Azaad as One  amongst them, reflecting their Dreams and Aspirations 

"Our Chief Revenue Officer is Johnson Jain who comes from ZEE and is a young go-getter who has worked with me in his  early years of his career when I was heading Sales at Zee. He's equally enthused about this model. He knows it's a genre  that does not get the right yield currently but, he's taken up that challenge to help create our model and is driving our Ad  revenues & digital revenues division;' says Ranga. Having spent 19 of his 20 years of experience in the Media &  Entertainment industry, Johnson Jain specializes in Advertising Revenue and has worked in varied genres. After a Sales &  Marketing course from NMIMS, he started his career with Doordarshan and has worked with leading media  conglomerates including Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd., Sony Network (SET India) & 9x Group. He has played a key  role relaunching Zing in 2016 and is one of the few dy-namic sales professionals to devise and conceptualize two AFP IPs  - Expeditions - Youth Biking Show and Game On-Cricket which had top cricketers including Virendra Sehwag, Yuvraj Singh,  Shreyas Iyer, Yezuvendra Chahal, Harmanpreet Kaur and many others. The successful Arijit Singh Symphony concert in  Mumbai that was the first LIVE with an orchestra of 75 musicians is another milestone in his career. Joining Beginnen  Media as Chief Revenue Officer, Johnson Jain says, "Backed with two decades of rich experience in the media industry,  I'm excited to partner in achieving the vision of Azaad of being 'The First People Centric Channel'. My experience will play  an integral role in shaping the revenue model for a new advertising category of Rural and Free-To-Air which will take  Azaad to the next level. Azaad will also uniquely offer a digital environ-ment in television by ensuring focused and captive  audiences, a safe programmatic environment for brands and zero wastage in targeting audiences with the rural mindset 

"We probably have the youngest Chief Financial Officer in our industry. Dinesh Bhutra is extremely brilliant, sharp & we  needed someone to get this model right. Dinesh completely understood the finance angle of our model and also oversees  Administration & Human Resources;' adds Ranga.

He is an Associate Member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India. He has more than a decade of experience  in various sectors like Airlines, Telecom, Entertainment, Education, Finance, Media, Data Centre and Refinery including  Jet Airways, Reliance Jio, Essel Corporate, MT Educare Ltd, ISSL (Settlement & Transactions Ltd) and was the Founder of  the management consulting firm, Axlient Consultants. He has handled Business Restructuring & Turnaround  Management & Internal Audits, Financial & Operational Review, Business Audits Process Improvements, Cost & Financial  Controls, Strategic Decisions & Planning Payable Management, Commercial Evaluation, Treasury Management, Material  Management, Budgeting & MIS and Taxation (both Direct & Indirect). Beginnen Media, Chief Financial Officer, Dinesh  Bhutra says, "I'm enthusiastic to join an organisation which has a vision of creating a business model in the television  industry that is innovative. Azaad has unique strengths, a strong business model and I look forward to working with the  team to execute on the company's priorities as we hope to create India's first rural entertainment channel 

Azaad is available on DD FreeDish and select Distribution Platform Operators (DPOs) in the heartland markets  and it is available on DD FreeDish on Channel No 36.