Our ideas have been very powerful and the timing just right: Ashish Patil

Interview with vice-president Yash Raj Films

Earlier this month, Ad Age, a magazine focused on marketing and media, listed ASHISH PATIL as one of the 50 most creative people of the year globally. Incidentally, the vice-president (Y-Films,  brand partnerships and talent management) at Yash Raj Films, is the only Indian in the list that includes creative minds such as David Bowie, Prince, Mark Zuckerberg, Tom Ford and creators of Pokemon Go, among others. Avantika Bhuyan speaks with Patil about the Ad Age list and his vision for Y-Films, with the brand having completed a year recently. Edited excerpts:
 
Were you surprised to be included in the Ad Age list? 

 
It’s been quite overwhelming. They reached out to me last week and we had a long chat about the 6 Pack Band (India’s first transgender music outfit launched by YRF). When Angela, their Asia head, talked about the global list of creative people, I thought that they wanted to include the band. When I saw the list a couple of days back, for a minute, I thought it was a printing error. It was such a pleasant surprise. The list is all about taking ideas that are brave, courageous, innovative, fun and that have had a positive impact. That made me realise that a good idea will be recognised, like say that of Sex Chat with Pappu and Papa, a series that I directed.

 

Why do you think the work by Y-Films has found such resonance globally?

Besides the fact that the ideas have been very powerful, the timing has been just right. The theme of LGBTQ is so topical right now, with Caitlyn Jenner having made news all year long, same sex marriages having been legalised in a whole lot of states in the US, and the third gender being recognised in India as well. Also, a lot of content that we designed for the 6 Pack Band has not just been gender neutral but geographically neutral as well. So, the first song we did was a cover of Pharrell William’s Happy and that clocked over 1.4 million views. But the aim was not to get so many views, rather it was to bring about a change and get people to believe in my dream.

 
Now that Y-Films has completed a year, have you looked back at the journey?
 
Can you imagine  it’s been a year? Let’s take stock. We started with a team of three-plus people, unlike the army of 116 at other places. But it’s been a fun year. A lot of the growth has been organic. There has been no rocket science behind it, not like ‘let’s do consumer research’. We have tried to tell stories that have been relevant to the youth and that’s been the key differentiator. Man’s World was about gender equality, Ladies Room was about a single woman in the city, Love Shots looked at various kinds of love — between senior citizens, a blind couple, and more. There was a wide variety of genres on offer —drama, satire and now doing a thriller, Darr 2.0.

 
How have you gauged the impact of the content on viewers? Could you quantify that?
 
We started with 13,000 dormant subscribers. A lot of people end up buying views, but they can’t buy subscribers. That’s the true loyalty test. Most content creators have been around for 4.5 years to get to a million subscribers. We clocked 72 million-plus views. The watchtime average is 10 to 12 per cent worldwide, our channel’s watchtime is 75 per cent. Some individual episodes garner a watchtime of 84 to 90 per cent. But more than numbers, it’s about the change that Y-Films has brought about. One of the singers of the 6 Pack Band was asked, what’s changed for you? She said, “After 14 years, I got a call from home that ghar aaja, khaana khaate hain.” She had been thrown out of the house at the age of 11. This was a call made by her father. That’s the real trophy.