The power of content to influence society
India's television industry has come a long way in the last few years, highlighted by TV channels like Star Plus, Sony Entertainment and Zee TV. The content and audience have changed dramatically with the advent of OTT over the top platforms. Gaurav Banerjee, who has served as the president of Hindi entertainment star India for over 14 years, has seen it all. At the FICCI Frames Fast Track 2022, a convention organized by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce Industry FICCI in Mumbai, Banerjee says that content producers are accountable to the society and must never forget this. He believes in the power of content that has the potential to have an impact on society.
He says that you have to go back to the early 2000s to understand when content in India began to become big. He divides the revolution in television into three broad phases. Star Plus shows like Kahani Ghar Ghar Ki, Kyuki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi, etc. For the first time, women were at the forefront of storytelling. Banerjee, who heads Content at Disney Hotstar, said the impact was massive and significant.
He says that the tolerance for domestic abuse decreased by 10% due to these kinds of shows. The second phase looked at when the women did more than actually went out to work. We had shows like Diya aur Bhaati hum in which the protagonist was a woman IPS officer. TV told us there was no job a woman can't do. Even in phase 2 the institution of marriage was sacred. He said Phase 3 started with a show called Anupama in 2020, a show watched by over 250 million people in our country.
He said that this kind of storytelling is possible across platforms like TV and OTT. People like me have the choice of doing things for profit or doing it for larger social good. He says that we did it with Satyamev Jayate when no marketing budget was spent on any of our other shows and it was a great business decision because everyone was motivated to do better because they believed they were part of a larger cause. According to a report by media consulting firm Ormax, Disney Hotstar was the leader in the viewing of Hindi language OTT originals in India in the first half of 2022. TV shows like Anupama drive traffic on Disney Hotstar after sports. It's all about the co-existence of the two, OTT and TV going forward. We put out TV's best performing show Anupama first on OTT. He said that OTT opens up new audiences, but at the end we must believe in the power of content and its impact on people.
StarPlus is an Indian Hindi language general entertainment pay television channel owned by Disney Star formerly Star India, a subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company India.