Mumbai: If you enjoy Bhojpuri content, then Zee Biskope should be your go-to channel to fully immerse yourself in it. Since its inception, Zee Entertainment Enterprises' first curated Bhojpuri movie channel, Zee Biskope, has been creating content with the aim of addressing the audience with specific needs, aspirations, and psychographic content & projections. The brand has won 104 marketing awards within the first two quarters of financial year 2023, a never-before-seen feat in the category.

ZEEL’s chief cluster officer (east) Samrat Ghosh & Bhojpuri cluster chief channel officer Amarpreet Singh Saini in an exclusive chat with Indianyelevision.com shared how Zee Biskope takes the help of the audience to curate content and tries to engage with new innovations.

Consumer centric content 

Ghosh believes that the channel is consumer-centric and has a very robust research mechanism by which they try to stay in touch with their audience 365 days a year. "At the center, we have always kept the consumer in mind, whether in terms of the content that we create or in terms of the marketing that we do."

Speaking about the reality shows, he explained, "We thought about creating a platform wherein we go across the length and breadth of India to find the talent. We select to shape them, and they eventually turn out to be a household name."

Saini noted that the channel always tries to do something that has not been done in the category, keeping the audience in mind before being innovative and experimental. "We are here to serve entertainment to the viewers the way they want it. In whichever form they bought it. We didn't want to do the already done thing."

He continued by saying that having a distinct content arm for marketing Zee Biskope was always the plan. "This allowed the audience to experience the brand and its values while also establishing a relationship with the brand, similar to how content does, and it was from there that the entire vertical of engagement initiatives arose."

The channel curated the content for worldwide holidays like Valentine's Day, Mother's Day, International Camera Day, etc., by taking into account a variety of other relevant days.

The core philosophy of the channel, whether for content or marketing, has been that it will not do what has been done, but rather something new. However, that new thing will be embedded in the region's rootedness.

Bhojpuri fandom 

The channel is focused on showcasing Bhojpuri movies to the audience and is now also delving into Bhojpuri fandom. "Nobody has explored this space of Bhojpuri fandom; there's a lot of love for the stars and their movies; when someone is a movie fan, especially a Bhojpuri, it doesn't stop with watching the film and turning off the TV. There are numerous other emotions. And so much more that you live alongside the movies, which is what the channel will be exploring."

It is also coming up with international events like Bhojpuri film awards and taking it to the international diaspora to give a sense of pride to the viewers in the region.

Speaking of success, Ghosh believes it is not only confined in terms of the weekly gross rating points (GRPs), it goes much beyond that. "With the audiences, you develop a sort of complete branch community by the kind of experience you give them, and your only goal is to gain the greatest possible share of voice in terms of the consumers' mind space."

OTT  emergence 

Ghosh believes TV and OTT will coexist. He said, "It is not either-or. It is a plus because, at the core, we are creating a robust content offering for the consumer so that content turns out to be relevant and has some relevance in their lives. So we'll keep creating content that could be on television, an OTT, or a different platform. But at the core, what we try to do as a brand is try to touch the heart of the consumer. The channel's content is also available on the media giant's OTT platform  Zee5."

Saini added that the big distinction between TV and the other platforms in India is that TV is still a collective medium. "The whole family watches TV. India still has a higher prevalence of single-TV households, which brings the family closer. Everyone watches in the living room. When watching TV content, people search for a particular ethos or set of nuances because it must satisfy all family members without causing discord and instead strengthen the sense of community that already exists in the home, as opposed to other platforms, which cater to more individualised consumption.

"The fact that people watch TV on their mobile devices is widely known, but TV remains distinctive in that it produces content that is more, how do you phrase this, collective consumption content, and that content has a power of its own. And it continues to be the most potent force you now have, at least in this nation," he expressed.

Zee Biskope engages with users by focusing on user-generated content with shows like Kamariya Kare Hip Hopand Talent Camera Action. "We have seen a hunger among the people in the region to become stars, to be celebrated, and to be known; they have the talent, but they lack the means, so we have harnessed the entire power of UGC in these initiatives," he noted.

Challenges 

While talking about challenges, Ghosh pointed out that the Bhojpuri television and film industry is scattered and needs to have a hub for more content . "The entire television & film industry is locally based; if we create a Bhojpuri media hub, more professional players will attend the market, allowing the category to grow as a whole." And, most likely, it will result in a more robust ecosystem that will be locally based outside of the region, providing job opportunities to local technicians as well."

Zee Biskope is soon coming up with Bhojpuri originals to make it a movie channel. Speaking on this development, Saini said that the consumer has the capacity to grow more, but this growth will be slow and somebody will have to take the leadership position of experimenting, inviting that challenge. "There will obviously be a failure rate, because every new experiment will not work the first time. Some would require fine tuning, while others would necessitate some level of investment to get people used to a new kind of entertainment, like we are attempting to make it a movie, plus people are so used to seeing only movies on a movie channel. In the initial attempt, we are attempting to bring original shows based on Bhojpuri fandom as another vertical, as well as homegrown movies as a different vertical, " he concluded.