Kishore Ajwani on News18 India’s experience with web series foray

Usually web series are associated with OTT platforms and have been driving eyeballs on them. Now, News18 India has become the first Indian news channel to launch a web series – ‘FIR No. 208’. The web series, which premiered on February 3, 2023, has been gaining traction with the viewers.

‘FIR No. 208’ showcases the web of deceit spun by conman Sukesh Chandrashekhar and his crimes that were not exposed in the public domain till now. There are several OTT web series based on dramatised versions of real life cases – most notably, ‘Delhi Crime’ – The Nirbhaya case, ‘Scam 1992’ – The Harshad Mehta story, ‘Jamtara’, ‘Rangbaaz’, among many others.

What sets apart ‘FIR No. 208’ is that it is based on the investigative reporting done by News18 India reporters and features interviews of the real people connected with the case, and since it is a developing case, there will be more updation and additions to the series in the coming times. The narrators featured in the show are investigators from Delhi Police and Enforcement Directorate, journalists who reported Chandrashekhar’s cases, his victims, employees of his companies and other individuals who had real encounters with the conman. Currently the series has five episodes.

In an interaction with Adgully, Kishore Ajwani, Managing Editor, News18 India, who has conceptualised the series and is the host, said that this the first time for any Indian news channel to launch a web series. He added that while so far web series have been the forte of OTT platforms, for a news channel to venture into that territory is an interesting progression to tap into the digital population as well.

“What differentiates ‘FIR No. 208’ from OTT web series is that while it uses dramatic narrative to carry forward the story, we are sticking to our expertise and making news-focused web series content,” Ajwani emphasised, adding, “This format can roughly be compared to a weekly newspaper edition with detailed reportage on an issue.”

Elaborating further, he said that while working on any indepth news reportage, an extensive amount of news footage is generated, which, while important, cannot be accommodated into a normal TV news feed. “But the leftover material has an interesting and strong narrative of its own. And the Sukesh Chandrashekhar case has enthralled the nation as it involves several big names and people want to know about the investigation, the background story. Hence, we decided to start with this story in ‘FIR No. 208’.”

On where TV news channel scored over OTT in such kind of content, Ajwani explained how OTT players don’t have access to what a trusted news source has in terms of a crime case investigation – such as minute details, sources, connections, official documents, etc.

When asked about the audience response to ‘FIR No. 208’, he said, “The audience response to the web series so far has been very positive. They thought that we were airing only one episode a day and wanted to know when the next episode would be out. They were pleasantly surprised to know that they could binge watch all the five episodes on our digital platform.”

He, however, refrained from speaking on the advertiser response as it was too early to gauge the numbers.

When asked to elaborate on the making of the web series, Ajwani said, “This has been a project I have been associated with from the drawing-board to hosting, through production. It is an important and interesting topic, Sukesh conned some really big celebrities and many people in a way, which makes for a thrilling story. So, our team extensively researched and came up with this web series. Being a news-media company, we know inside details of Chandrashekhar’s escapades with the common man, Bollywood stars, and prominent industrialists and their wives. This helps us explore the murky depths of this conman’s mind and show our viewers the true story.”

He further said, “There will be more such web series offerings in the future and we are currently working on it.” When prodded to reveal a bit more about the next series, Ajwani quipped, “It is about an equally interesting and unconventional case.”