We’ll self-regulate and ensure consumers get content that they can watch: Manish Kalra

Manish Kalra, Chief Business Officer of ZEE5, has been associated with the OTT platform for more than four years now. Before this he was associated with Craftsvilla, HomeShop18. In an exclusive conversation with Adgully, Manish Kalra speaks about trends in content, censorship on OTT, and much more.

How do you pick and choose content for ZEE5?

We pick and choose content based on the consumer preferences. We keep a track on what they are liking, what they are likely to watch based on the trends that we see in the market and the consumption which happens on the platform. So, definitely we apply a few kinds of filters – such as strong plots, stories that are realistic and relatable, dialogue that finds resonance amongst the audience. Obviously OTT stories are slightly more complex. So, there are many layers to unravel. Some filters and benchmarks and frameworks are available with the team and based on basic consumer preferences we take a call on what is likely to work and what won’t work.

Has it ever happened that you had to say no to a certain concept and it ended up becoming a huge hit? How do you react to it?

Yes, I think it is sometimes a game of chances. It involves a lot of gut feel, and yes, it has happened and I am not very proud of it.

Do you always trust market research or believe in going with the flow or the trends?

I think it has to be a good mix of both. Obviously market research gives you the consumer trends, details about what the consumer is looking for. If you see certain trends in the international markets or within your platform or in some of the languages, you pick from that.

What, according to you, is a major difference between the consumption of content in regional and Hindi audiences?

I think it’s mostly the genres that we see. When I say regional, let’s say Bangla viewers, they relish a lot of family viewing as well as thrillers; Telugu audiences love the movies; Tamil viewers, too, love the movies, but they are appreciative of the original content that we create. We are pleasantly surprised with the success of ‘Kose Munisamy Veerappan’ and Tamil ‘Ayali’, which was a very evolving, forward looking story of a girl child, ‘Thalaimai Seyalagam’, which was a political thriller. I think each language has its own consumption pattern. Also, we do realize that consumers evolve and change at every pace and they like to watch content which will connect with them, so we keep evolving with them.

It is seen that despite taking precautions about censorship, at times platforms and the makers have to face trouble releasing their content. How do you deal with that? 

In the OTT space, we all are self-regulated platforms. At ZEE5, we are mostly focused on driving good content, and avoiding anything which has nudity or any intimate scenes. You will not see such content on our platform. That’s a decision that we have taken; obviously each OTT platform has its own ethos and choices to make, but for us, it is very clear that we will self-regulate and we will ensure consumers get the content that they can watch.

What, according to you, works for the audience in India – is it suspense, thriller, courtroom dramas, or local stories?

The consumers are evolving. So, while suspense thrillers and crime dramas definitely work, we are also seeing success with comedies. We recently launched a horror comedy, ‘Kakuda’, which has got a very good response and consumers have loved it. We had launched ‘Mrs Undercover’ last year, which was the story of a housewife becoming a spy, with a bit of comedy thrown in. Our audiences just loved that series. So, definitely comedy, family dramas, thrillers – all of them get good traction. The consumers are looking for wider choices on content and genres, and I think that’s the advantage that they get while coming on OTT platforms.

How do you look at the journey of ZEE5 in the past one year?

It has been an exciting year and we have learned a lot. Our consumers have stuck with us. They are watching more content. The time spent per consumer on ZEE5 is much higher. In fact, the team was sharing 85 billion minutes consumed in the last 12 months, which is amazing. More and more viewers are coming from Tier 2, 3, 4 cities, which is also very exciting. Thus, it has been an exciting journey. Like I said, we’re learning, evolving every day.

Going forward, what’s in store for ZEE5? Do you plan to introduce new features?

We keep optimizing our platform features. If you see, even right now, our app is one of the highest rated on Playstore and App Store. The team keeps optimizing basic user preferences on features, on UI, on UX and recommendations. It is an ongoing journey and we will keep at it.

Also Read: ZEE5's #AbHarMardKhatreMain campaign spreads 'Kakuda' fever nationwide