Fremantle’s Aradhana Bhola on pandemic, reality shows & regional content market

Aradhana Bhola, Managing Director, Fremantle India Television Productions, is in charge of all the content produced out of Fremantle in India. She has worked on producing award-winning shows like ‘India’s Got Talent’ (Colors), ‘Indian Idol’ (Sony), ‘TED Talks India’ (Star Plus), ‘Covershot; (National Geographic Channel), and digital shows like ‘Hear Me Love Me’ (Amazon Prime India), ‘Confetti’ (Facebook), etc.

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In an interview with Adgully, Aradhana Bhola talks about the COVID-induced production restrictions and how her team surmounted them, the explosion of the regional content market, the relevance of reality shows in augmenting TRPs, and much more. Excerpts:

What is the impact of the pandemic restrictions on the Indian television industry? How did it affect you and how did you manage the implications of the pandemic?

The restrictions have been put in place from time to time depending on the on-ground COVID situation and we respect the fact that the intention behind them is the health and safety of people first. Having said that, obviously, they impact the way we function.

At Fremantle, we chose to see the pandemic challenges as opportunities to find innovative ways to continue to create irresistible entertainment whilst leaving no stone unturned to keep our cast and crew safe. For instance, in the case of ‘Indian Idol’, when shoots were not allowed in Maharashtra, we were amongst the first few production houses to create a bio-bubble in Daman so that we could continue to offer our loyal viewers fresh episodes. In the case of another show, a YouTube original that we produced, ‘YouVYouTube’, we designed the production plan in such a way that the show was shot remotely, enabling the YouTube creators and the participants of this fun quiz show to play from the safety of their respective homes.

Besides following all protocols like sanitization, temperature checks, regular testing, etc., we activated work-from-home for non-production staff very early in the pandemic cycle as a preventive measure, given that we were getting a heads up from the Fremantle territories worldwide. We also organised vaccination drives for our team members and their families.

How have reality shows emerged as one of the stimulators for TRPs in India?

Common-man reality shows with inspiring talent and life stories resonate with the viewers. Our shows like ‘Indian Idol’ and ‘India’s Got Talent’ have been running successfully for many seasons now, with a certain loyal viewership. Celebrity-driven reality shows have the added voyeuristic flavour that viewers lap up. No wonder then that they are topping the ratings chart.

Do you think it is time for the TV content creators to rethink their content strategy in the backdrop of iconoclastic content creators on OTT platforms?

While from the pure content creation perspective, the rules of engagement don’t differ massively from one medium to another, it is true that with the advent of OTT platforms, the range of storytelling has increased. There’s room for more experimentation and the overall production quality has gone up. I think that’s a positive development and ultimately benefits the end consumers (viewers).

How are regional language shows bridging gaps between cultures?

Content consumption has gone up significantly in recent times. At one level, content is becoming that much more local and at another level all kinds of content are getting dubbed or subtitled into multiple languages. As a result, there is more exposure to different regions and cultures and we are closing in on the gaps. At the end of the day, all the viewer cares about is how good the idea is and how entertainingly it is presented.

How is Fremantle building content observing audience demand?

With social media growing, now more than ever, there’s pretty direct and almost instantaneous feedback from viewers on anything that we create. While our own passion and conviction about an idea play a major role in what we choose to produce, obviously, there are learnings from what resonates or fails to make the expected cut with the viewers and we keep innovating and evolving accordingly.

What are Fremantle’s upcoming plans in creating more digital shows?

We have some very exciting projects in the pipeline currently. Watch this space for more!

Please tell us about the introduction of the regional editions of ‘Indian Idol’, such as ‘Indian Idol Marathi’, ‘Indian Idol Telugu’.

The regional content market has also grown and is now looking at more and more international formats. We are delighted to be expanding Idols to different regional markets. While some basics of the format remain the same irrespective of the region (Idols exists in 56 territories worldwide), it’s the localisation for each region that makes the creative process both challenging and exciting. We have been very fortunate to get not just the best names in terms of judges like Ajay-Atul in the case of Indian Idol Marathi but also some fantastic talent from the respective region. Idols has again and again proven to be a great platform for raw talent to blossom and that is a big part of what makes the whole journey worthwhile in the end.