With scale, innovation and impact Mahabharat on Star Plus says it all!
Mahabharat, the epic saga, is one which can be told and re-told numerous times with multiple perspectives and new dimensions. The powerful narrative is capable of stirring up debates and uncovers different facets of human behavior in existence even in the present day scenario. Now Star Plus is bringing this fascinating saga to their audiences but this time with a difference. The narrative will be by Lord Krishna himself and this magnum opus produced by Siddharth Kumar Tewary's Swastik Productions, will portray the relevance of the epic even in today’s age and viewers will be able to draw parallels with their present day lifestyle and experiences.
The project, Mahabharat, that has been in the planning stage since the past three years has finally taken shape. It will star Saurabh Jain, Pooja Sharma, Sayantani Ghosh, Pallavi Subhash, Prannet Bhatt and Puneet Issar. The visually stunning promos centered around the provocative characters of the epic are just one of the many disruptive promotional activities lined up for the launch of this mega production that premieres on September 16th, Monday to Friday at 8.30 pm on Star Plus. The series consisting of 128-episode series will be available only for premium viewing on television beginning September 16. During the first 15 days, every episode will be of 22 minutes duration and from October 1, when the ad cap is expected to be implemented, each episode will be of 24 minutes duration.
Nikhil Madhok, Sr. Vice President, Marketing says “Disruption was the key thought around our campaign. That's what you will see in every medium we have used to promote the show starting with the set of the differentiated character promos that are getting attention. e.g. we positioned Shakuni not as a scheming old uncle but as a brother who loved his sister Gandhari so much that he dedicated his life to taking revenge on Hastinapur for the injustice meted out to her. You will find the same thought of disruption in the clutter breaking launch day innovation in print. Wait and watch!"
He adds, “The campaign is deep and extensive going all the way from Metros to LC 1 towns. While there is a lot of action around launch, we also have some exciting ideas lined up post the launch of the show”
Among their launch innovations is a special programme ‘Making of Mahabharat’ which aims to stir up the viewer’s imagination while also giving them a glimpse of the ambitious scale of the project. It includes interviews with the key crew from the show that includes personalities like Bhanu Athaiya, Rajit Kapur, Omung Kumar, Mihir Bhuta, Thomas Xavier etc, apart from exclusive behind the scenes from the show. This content is airing during prime time on the channel as well as in the digital space.
Earlier the series did not meet with much success, so sharing his expectations towards this show. Madhok said, “Ideally we had three learnings and challenges from the earlier series. Last time the characters were showcased more like Roman gods rather than Indian historical characters. The costumes that they wore resembled 
Are they looking at simulcasting the show? To this he replied saying that though it will not be a simulcast Star Jalsha and Star pravah which would be telecasting the show two weeks later after the initial launch and it would be dubbed in Bengali for channel Star Jalsha. “We launch on 16th September and they launch on 30th September and time bands too may differ,” informed Madhok.
Among their promotional strategies is their objective of targeting the youth who are less familiar with the story and characters. By utilizing the Kinect Mirror technology the channel has introduced an interactive virtual wardrobe in colleges a unique experience, which allows youngsters to virtually dress up like some of the popular characters from Mahabharat and instantly upload their images on social platforms. Also in store for them are breathtaking visuals from the show with the help of Glasstrons which have been located at various youth hangouts by promoters who have been deployed by the channel. These special glasses will give patrons an on-the-go audio-visual experience of the Mahabharat sets, promos and the other visually stunning content.
In this regard he elaborated on the TG and clarified when asked if it would cater to the whole family or only the youth in particular. Madhok said, “Yes, of course the content is designed keeping in mind the preferences of the whole family but with that our key target is also the young audience who has never watched Mahabharat like the older generation did in their times. So with this show, being our ambitious project, we would want to build a connect with the younger audience too. Though our target is that the entire family watches the show together but our marketing campaign is youth focused.”
Justifying the reason further he said, “Well, the reason behind it is the fact that the people who have known the essence of Mahabharat will anyway come and watch the show but the challenge is to reach and attract younger audience hence we have played a lot with technology and social media. Lot of graphics that we are using is different; the kind of wardrobe used for the characters has been designed keeping in mind the different sets of audience.
Another unique initiative from the channel involves the exquisite Mahabharat Museum which will showcase selected weaponry, jewelry and finery worn or used by the characters in the show. Set up in major malls of the various cities, the Museum gives the viewers a fascinating first-hand look and feel of the show and its characters and that too prior to the launch of the show on television. The museum will also take the viewers on a 3D virtual tour of Mahabharat’s grand set, a visual delight, wherein locations including the magnificent Hastinapur palace, Vrindavan and Kunti Bhoj will be depicted. Viewers in small towns of India too feature in the channel’s upcoming initiatives. For their benefit the
the same museum has been converted into a 'Mahabharat Museum on Wheels' that will have LED installed canter vans traveling throughout the country.
Shedding light on the idea behind the museum concept Madhok said, “The museum is being executed by the agency called ‘Wings’. The idea came out after a brainstorming session done by our marketing team. We basically thought in terms of engaging people more with show. We are doing a lot of activities around the show online but we wanted to engage our audience more deeply and can look and feel of the characters. We wanted the audience to know more deeply about the kind of jewelry and clothes these characters used to wear.
Star Plus has also set up a series of exciting and innovative on-ground activation initiatives in their effort to bring their magnificent offering alive in cities across the country. Their high impact outdoor campaign is expected to cover 100 cities across the country which includes mall activation. Also among their innovative marketing activities will be seen a life size mannequin of Arjun firing an arrow at a fish rotating on a motor above him.
Explaining about the same Madhok says, “We are doing mall activation in eight cities namely Delhi, Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Baroda Lucknow, Agra, Indore and Bhopal. The character activation will go to around 100 small towns of India and since it is a national activation it will go through the cities but with a major focus on MP, UP and Bihar.”
Among their other promotional activities is a nationwide print innovation that has been planned on the launch date and capsules on the making of the show will be uploaded on Youtube.
Speaking about the star cast for Mahabharat, Madhok informed that the star cast is fairly new this time but audiences will see familiar faces in certain roles. “Most of the cast this time are those who are not fairly well established in the industry,” he said.
It is evident that emotional investment too assists in building up the characters image in the show. Elaborating on this Madhok says,” So, at one point we realized the fact that only visual effects and graphics will not be enough to pull in people. Yes it does work like an icing on the cake but at the end of the day what matters is the fact that how well are your characters positioned and connect well emotionally with your audience. So a lot of work has gone in terms of balancing the visual spectacle and emotional intensity. One of the most popular theatre artist, Rajat Sharma, has been invaluable to us when it comes to training the actors for the show.”
With regard to radio activation plans Madhok gave a detailed explanation on the same. He said , “It is focused in 4 states namely Delhi, Mumbai, UP and Gujarat. Also we are present in leading radio stations in these markets as far as ad-spots are concerned but our partnership is with Radio Mirchi. There has been a lot of buzz on the stations since a few days now . They have been talking about the Mahabharat museum and some more special set of activities scheduled for next couple of weeks on Mahabharat. These include starting some conversations around the characters in a unique way which would create relevance towards the youth. So basically we are focusing on engaging more with the youth.”
This time round Mahabharat the second longest epic in the world targets the young audiences with their modern technology and intense story telling.
To engage with their viewers on the digital platform Star Plus has introduced a mobile app which allows users to listen to shlokas from the epic, take part in daily contests, pose with different weapons and jewelry from the show and even go through the entire family tree of the Mahabharat characters. Post the launch of the mobile app would they be launching videos too? Madhok shares, “Surely we will be creating a short term content on the digital space like youtube, facebook etc. Though the content on the digital space would just be a gist to attract the audience to come and watch the show on television, we do have plans of expanding and we would make sure that the content we open up would be monetizing hence we are still working towards that.”
“To be honest that has not been one of the drivers but the focus has been on how to reach out to as many families of this country as possible and especially youngsters. We have shows on Star Plus that have been doing well on the international market front too but the focus of this show remains the Indian market,” said Madhok when asked if in terms of marketing the focus is on attracting international audience too for the epic saga.
It is imperative to conduct research where a show of this magnitude is concerned hence confirming the same Madhok says, “Research that went into the show was fairly extensive from the production point of view in terms of what should be the right costume, how did the people live in those times, weapons used etc. We did not do a consumer research in terms of should we go ahead with Mahabharat or not instead we decided to go ahead with the show and thought of how best we could do it.”
Most historical shows on television have been working with the 1 hour format but Star Plus is working on the 24 min format. Sharing his views on this and whether it would hinder the audience interest in the show in any way, he avers, “Most historical offerings have been 1 hourly but that trend was prevalent more during Doordarshan times. But of late historical shows have followed a 24 minute time band with Ramayana, on NDTV Imagine, being a trendsetter. Since then a lot of shows in the genre have been daily shows. We have shows that have been doing well in the genre of half an hour time band like Mahadev on Life OK , Ramayana on Zee etc. I believe that if the content is strong enough to invite the audience any time band or any format would succeed.”
Most of the locales for the shoot of Mahabharat was outdoor thus increasing their production costs and the marketing spends of the channel has been in the range of 20-30 crores.
Sharing his views on the adcap issue he said that they are all geared up as per TRAI’s needs and demands on October 1st 2013 . So from then onwards all the content will be 24 minutes duration and Star Plus is all set for that.
Where sponsors for the show are concerned they have a total of 10 sponsors as of now. Fortune Oil is the presenting title sponsor, whereas Ghadi Detergent is the powered by sponsor. When the series is tailor made for the regional channels more sponsors are expected to come on board.
With creative associations ranging from writer Salim Khan, noted author
Devdutt Pattanaik, Oscar winning designer Bhanu Athaiya, music directors Ajay-Atul, action director Ram Shetty and Oumang Kumar as set designer on board, Mahabharat has already raised the standard for future shows of its genre. Strengthened with innovative and disruptive marketing activities, it is has clearly become the most awaited show on television this year.
Hence the interesting conversation concluded with Madhok promising that this latest offering from Star Plus and the magnitude of its presentation will not disappoint their audiences in days to come.
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