Industry lauds Netflix’s desi move for Money Heist, see it increasing brand affinity

The immensely popular Spanish heist crime drama series, ‘La casa de papel’ (‘Money Heist’ in English), has reached its finale. Season 5 of ‘Money Heist’ will be available in Hindi, Tamil and Telugu and will be released in two parts – on September 3, 2021 and on December 3, 2021 on Netflix.

The heist drama has won a huge army of fans across the world over its last four seasons as they followed the daring bank robbery plan of the ‘Professor’ and his team of ‘specialists’. As fans of the series know, ‘Money Heist’ follows two long-planned heists, one on the Royal Mint of Spain and the other on the Bank of Spain, as told through the eyes of one of the criminals, Tokyo.

The series also made famous an old Italian song of resistance – ‘Bella Ciao’. Not many know that ‘Bella Ciao’ was sung by workers in paddy fields of North Italy to protest against the harsh working conditions. It was also adopted as an anthem to resist fascism and the Nazis by the Italian resistance during World War II. Since then, ‘Bella Ciao’ has continued as an anti-fascist hymn of freedom and resistance the world over in different languages and different versions.

Now, Netflix has Indianised this loved song for an Anthem to reflect fans’ feelings eagerly awaiting the finale of ‘Money Heist’. So, ‘Bella Ciao’ has become ‘Jaldi Aao’ in the desi version composed by Nucleya. Dedicated to the fans of the show, the anthem video features celebrity fans like Anil Kapoor, Radhika Apte, Rana Daggubati, Hardik Pandya, Vikrant Massey and Shruti Haasan. 

"I’m a huge fan of ‘Money Heist’, so working on this anthem was super fun"

-Nucleya

Speaking about his funky recreation of an iconic song, Nucleya said, “I’m a huge fan of ‘Money Heist’, so working on this anthem was super fun. As someone who loves the series, the song expresses what I and all other fans are feeling. Shooting the video was such an amazing experience and all the great artists who are featured in it have made it come to life. The song is peppy and in multiple languages, truly celebrating the spirit of fans who are spread across the nation.”

"The response to this film in the last 24 hours has been humbling."

-Shagun Seda, Director, Marketing: Film & Series, Netflix

Delighted about the response that the anthem has received, Shagun Seda, Director, Marketing: Film & Series, Netflix, on her LinkedIn account said, “Our dream was to create work that’s as iconic as the show we’re all crazy fans of. It was scary and exciting in equal parts. So, we put together a dream team of creative geniuses, and a crew we knew we could rely on to make miracles happen. The response to this film in the last 24 hours has been humbling. A huge shout out to the awesome Tara Kapur for anchoring the campaign and Divya Rao for running it flawlessly. To Barry Smyth and the larger team at Netflix for all the guidance and support. To the amazing team at Creativeland Asia for birthing, developing and crafting it, and especially to Sajan Raj Kurup for surprising us by making it better every time we thought we were happy with the product. To Dar Gai, for directing it with her inimitable zaniness, for making us feel, and for making sure we overused the word “BEAUTYYY” everyday, And to Pranit Sahni, and everyone at Jugaad Motion Pictures for Making Miracles Happen.” 

"Dedicated to the fans of the show,  Creativeland Asia has enjoyed creating this anthem that encapsulates fan emotions for the much awaited show of 2021"

-Sajan Raj Kurup, Chairman and Founder of Creativeland Asia

Speaking about his enthusiasm on collaboration with Netflix, Sajan Raj Kurup, Chairman and Founder of Creativeland Asia said, "From getting Nucleya to compose the anthem to writing and rewriting lyrics to mad shoot schedules  with celebrity fans like Anil Kapoor, Radhika Apte, Rana Daggubati, Hardik Pandya, Vikrant Massey and Shruti Haasan, ‘Jaldi Aao’ is a funky recreation of the iconic Bella Ciao. Dedicated to the fans of the show,  Creativeland Asia has enjoyed creating this anthem that encapsulates fan emotions for the much awaited show of 2021."

Industry’s reaction to the desi twist 

What the industry experts like the most about the ‘Jaldi Aao’ anthem is the seamless way in which an international favourite has been Indianised without losing the original’s essence.

"‘Bella Ciao’ has been a cult anthem amongst the diehard followers of the series"

-Manish Kumar, Founder, Digi Osmosis

Stating that he loved the Indian rendition, Manish Kumar, Founder, Digi Osmosis, remarked that ‘Bella Ciao’ has been a cult anthem amongst the diehard followers of the series and added that Indianising it is a master stroke, which will help the platform to penetrate the series to a wider audience.

"The first reaction to seeing the best of both worlds is wow!"

-Manesh Swamy, Senior VP - Creative, Social, PR, Marcom, Logicserve Digital

Commenting on the glocalisation of the anthem, Manesh Swamy, Senior VP - Creative, Social, PR, Marcom, Logicserve Digital, said, “‘Money Heist’ is a rage globally and the Indian audiences have also embraced all the previous seasons very well. The first reaction to seeing the best of both worlds is wow! Global and local movie stars, cricketers, and musicians all wrapped in one content piece – it’s every marketer's dream. Normally, you see this kind of celeb gathering either for a public service message or a big sports event. But it’s a very new thing for global OTT show promo.”

 "It makes absolute sense for the likes of Netflix to dub international content in regional languages."

-Shrenik Gandhi, Co-founder and CEO, White Rivers Media

Speaking about how the anthem in regional languages will create an impact on the viewers, Shrenik Gandhi, Co-founder and CEO, White Rivers Media, said, “In our experience of marketing Hollywood movies in the past, we have witnessed a great demand for English content to be consumed in the regional languages of India. Some regional markets have outperformed when Hollywood content is dubbed in regional languages. OTTs are doing the same and it’s perhaps a step in the right direction. It makes absolute sense for the likes of Netflix to dub international content in regional languages. It not only increases relevancy and brand affinity, but also helps establish a good regional connect in this ever evolving digital Bharat.”

Anthems are a great promotional strategy tool. In the past, a few Bollywood movies have created some great anthems. When executed well, they strike the right chord with the audience. Anthems are an effective clutter breaking strategy for a show such as ‘Money Heist’, especially when created with such well-known faces from across the country.

"An anthem is a great way to connect audiences and intensify the community and fandom around something"

-Rajni Daswani, Director, Brand experience, SoCheers

Sharing his views about the need for an anthem, and the kind of traction it creates, Rajni Daswani, Director, Brand experience, SoCheers, observed, “An anthem is a great way to connect audiences and intensify the community and fandom around something – the same way how we see IPL teams have their own anthems. They bring a sense of belonging to a certain community of people who have similar likes/ interests and are helpful in uniting people across demographic borders.”

Digi Osmosis’ Kumar added here, “We are a country in love with Bollywood, where songs, anthems have been an integral part of the storytelling. An anthem definitely helps viewers resonate with the content. Such a wide range of influencers as part of the anthem will ensure that it is seen and heard by core entertainment audiences through these influencers social reach. Additionally, with short format videos on the rise and the sheer creativity that the Internet audience has shown in the last 2-3 years, having original music-backed content definitely helps in the promotional strategy.”

Daswani felt that with Tamil and Telugu being the prominent speaking audience after Hindi and English, it is a great move to dub the show for regional audiences as it will definitely grow their audience base. “Netflix especially has started focusing on the South region as a market, which is evident in their last promo series ‘Namma’,” he pointed out.

Manish Kumar, too, felt that it was an apt move to make ‘Money Heist’ available in regional languages with the finale and grab the attention of non-English speaking markets as well. He noted that it was not easy to penetrate the audience base in a country like India, with such a diverse range of languages and viewer choices. “OTT platforms have definitely broadened the horizon for exposure to global content and it is important for any player in this segment to make its content available in multiple languages, which will help retain viewers on to the platform for a longer time,” he concluded.

(Edited and additional input by Shanta Saikia.)