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Menka Shivdasani

Entertainment is a very unpredictable business, and success comes your way only if the concept and content are good.

A still from Kaun Banega Crorepati

Entertainment is a funny business. In fact, Pritish Nandy, Chairman of Pritish Nandy Communications Ltd, says that because it is so unpredictable, he sometimes wonders if he should call it a business at all. "Business assumes a certain pattern of costs and utilisation of funds," he pointed out at an Advertising Club seminar in Mumbai on January 11. "If you invest a certain amount, you will get back a certain amount. But in the entertainment game, anything is possible; it can make you a millionaire or a beggar."

There are many people who have learned the truth of this the hard way, both in television and in films. Still, there must be some insights to success, and the point of the seminar was to try to figure out what works and why. The event, titled `Value/ Creation', focussed on the role of marketing in entertainment, and speakers included Ashutosh `Lagaan' Gowarikar, Rekha Nigam, former programming head of Sony Entertainment Television and now a scriptwriter, Sameer Nair, Chief Operating Officer, Star India, and Zarina Mehta, Director, UTV Group.

Nandy's advice was simple. For one, he said, you need intermediaries — marketing people — who "can pretend they know everything about the business", and most importantly, he said, "Stick to the integrity of your vision and pass on your enthusiasm."

Zarina Mehta tried to get more specific. Speaking from a perspective that spanned such colossal failures as Madhuri Dixit's Kahin Na Kahin Koi Hai and such successes as Shaka Laka Boom Boom, a children's show, Zarina pointed out that a show could fail because it was either too familiar or too different. The trick, she felt, was to have a point of difference but let it go hand in hand with something recognisable. Shaka Laka Boom Boom, for instance, a programme about a magic pencil, is set within a perfectly normal family; if it had been placed in the context of a bizarre family background, it would not have worked as well, she felt.

Zarina believes that the `KISS' — Keep it Simple, Stupid — method usually works. "If you can't sell your idea in 15 minutes," she says, "the chances are you will never sell it." According to her, you must create a "single strong selling point that addresses a strongly felt consumer need". In Shanti, for instance, India's first daily soap in 1995, the felt need of the viewer was to "be strong like Shanti". Tu Tu Main Main, the eternal struggle between mother-in-law and daughter-in-law, is still going strong, apparently, because it helps viewers tackle their own in-law problems with a touch of humour. "Find the need gap," she advised, "and know and respect your consumer".

The two major need gaps right now, she says, are comedy and children's programming.

Rekha Nigam gave a whole new spin to the subject. Tracing the growth of television in India, she pointed out that a new mindset had come into being. In the 1990s, she said, India began to come out of the closet, and Indians began to acknowledge themselves for who and what they were. "It suddenly became hip to say `We are like that only'," she said. Television found its own voice with Kaun Banega Crorepati in 2000, she added, "but the real revolution came with Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi and Kahani Ghar Ghar Kii. They were an affirmation of what we are all about. We have been coming to terms with our own identity and serials like Kyunki... unashamedly put family centre stage - which is the way it is for most Indians".

Television, being an intimate medium, can only work if the viewer identifies with the programme in some way, and this is something that most successful people in the TV business recognise.

Getting back to basics

Of course, for a programme to work, a good script is crucial. In a business where deadlines are tight, this is one aspect that is often neglected. As script writer Vinod Ranganathan (`Swabhimaan, Kittie Party', among other things) points out, writing a good script involves hard work, a keen eye and a sharpness of mind. "Lots of people want to be script writers," he says, "but they have so many wrong notions!"

Anil Wanvari's indiantelevision.com has been trying to address the problem through Qalam, a script-writing workshop. The first one was held last year, and this year's event, with Sony Entertainment Television as sponsor and UTV as associate sponsor, was held in Mumbai between January 9 and 11. Budding writers even got an opportunity to present their story ideas and concepts to creative professionals.

Rekha Nigam, a panelist on both occasions, says at least five participants have actively begun working in the industry today as a result of last year's event. This year, hopefully, the results should be even better.

Writing - or at least the imagination and talent that goes into it - is not something that can be taught, but there is a lot to be said for honing the skills of young aspirants and pointing them in the right direction.

In an industry that desperately needs good scripts and better programming, Qalam is fulfilling a need that is strongly felt.

The author can be contacted at menka@shivdasani.org

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