It’s tough to understand the commerce behind cinema at the moment: Goldie Behl

Producer Goldie Behl is returning to fiction shows with ‘Jaane Anjaane Hum Mile’ on Zee TV. Behl, who ventured into filmmaking with ‘Bas Itna Sa Khwaab Hai’ in 2001, has produced and directed shows for both television and OTT platforms.

In an exclusive conversation with Adgully, Goldie Behl speaks at length about the challenges of working daily, enjoying working on OTT,getting back to making films and much more.

How does it feel to return to fiction on TV? 

I’ve been doing web series for OTT; actually OTT is also TV, only it is more premium. I think that India as an audience is more attuned towards television dramas and tele-novela kind of daily format shows. So, we’re excited to venture back again into daily soaps. Let’s hope the experience is great and we can continue with it.

How challenging is it to do fiction after a long time?

Linear TV times have not changed, they are pretty much the same. So, I was quite amazed to know when I restarted this journey that nothing much has changed as far as operations go, however, the mathematics and business part of it has changed. So yes, the content has become a little bit more progressive, but the drama high points and the tentpole situations and all are similar to what they used to be. Within that we try to give something fresh, unique and different. Fortunately, Zee has a very strict banking system, which is good because then you can put more time and energy into the quality of the product. So that is refreshing.

When I started my career in television, we used to shoot for longer hours. But now we shoot for normal hours and have Sundays off. Things are more systematic now. But the challenge is how to make sure that the show is a long-running one. As a producer the biggest worry is about the show underperforming and the channel pulling it off air. How do we recover our investments in that scenario? That is the only worrying point and challenge that you try to circumvent.

You have seen the time where TRPs used to rule the scene. Now things have changed. There is TVR now. Do you think the game has changed when it comes to numbers?

I think that the audiences have fragmented. So, now there is content for every kind of audience, hence the volume of people watching may have decreased, but other things have increased.

If you want something more cerebral or more premium, you go to an OTT platform. But if you want something that is more mass appealing and consumed by most of the audience, then you go to linear TV. If you want something larger-than-life and grand, you go to the cinema hall. If you want to watch something while you’re doing something else, you go on to YouTube or you listen to an audio story – I’d like to add here that we are doing audio stories as well. Thus, now your needs are divided into different things.

So, I don’t think it would be fair to compare it to a time where things like ‘Remixes’ or ‘Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi’, etc. ruled the roost. At that point there wasn’t much of an option either on TV or in films. If you wanted to watch a live act, you went to the theatre. Nowadays, live events are also doing so well – be it rock concerts, live performances at restaurants, etc.

But as far as content goes, the audience is now fragmented, so you have a different audience within that. I think TVR is still a robust mechanism to measure viewership. You have to go by some currency. So, that’s the currency that people acknowledge. Thus, I am not too perturbed by that.

Could you tell us more about your upcoming reality show?

We just acquired the rights of the format from the UK and the US. There’s a show called ‘Buy It Now’, which has been announced recently with All 3 Media, who bought the format for India. The US version has just released online and we are bringing it to India. It’s still under development and we are hoping that it gets a good nest to be in. Though it is a business show, it is very, very different from ‘Shark Tank’.

How has the response to ‘Rosepod’ been?

It’s been almost a year now since we started ‘Audio Stories’ and we are getting a lot of traction on that. As I said earlier, the audience is fragmented. What we have found is that there are a lot of people who don’t necessarily want to watch the screen, but want to hear some entertaining content, which need not necessarily be music. While driving people might want to listen to a story instead. Rosepod is doing basically that.

The audio story and podcast market is such that you are catering to very high-end consumers, who want to listen to something informative and new. We have podcasts for them with slightly more elite conversations. But that is audio and not video.

You can have audio which is supplemented by video. But if you can’t afford to stream too much video, then we have audio stories that are of around 10-12 minute duration from different genres such as romance, mythology, business, fiction and non-fiction. We are finding a lot of traction in that as well and have been gradually increasing our library.

Do you think it is a safe bet to release your content on OTT?

Yes, definitely. I do a lot of work with ZEE5. ‘Mithya’ just released on November 1, 2024, which has been receiving a good response. I haven’t done movies for a long time. Maybe in the next 3-4 years I might venture back into cinema, but right now, I am very happy and comfortable doing web series. I’m purely a producer really, but I personally enjoy the creative canvas that OTT series offer, because you can tell a lot more story and you can show a lot more characters than in films.

Unfortunately, I’m finding it tough to understand the commerce behind cinema at the moment. First making a film for theatrical release and then expecting that some OTT platform will buy it – I think you’re anyways on the backfoot. So, why do content that is not from your heart? I believe cinema should be made primarily for the theatrical experience. If you’re not doing that, then you’re just making a project and trying to cut corners and only earn money. Of course, money is important, but that cannot be the primary and only objective.

So, you are not planning to do any proper theatrical releases currently?

I will if I find something worthwhile. I am open to looking at new projects. In the last 3-4 months, I have opened myself up to hearing new subjects and speaking to directors and then get the casting done. Since it is a very star-driven theatrical experience, it is all about who can get on board the biggest/ most saleable/ popular actors.

We have seen many content-driven stories not doing well in theatres? What is your opinion on that?

Good content will always find its place. Take for example ‘Laapata Ladies’, the film didn’t do that well theatrically, but today it is considered as a successful film because the perception is successful. ‘Laapata Ladies’ has done so well on Netflix. The theatrical business of another recent film, ‘Kill’, was underwhelming compared to the high expectations that we had, despite having a great story and a fantastic starcast. But ‘Kill’ has found great appreciation on Hotstar. Therefore, I always believe that good content will never go unnoticed.