Viacom18: Small is the way to go

A 600 pound gorilla which can run like a cheetah -- that sounds like the main character of a Bollywood potboiler. But Vikram Malhotra is dead serious. He wants Viacom 18 Motion Pictures to be a bit of both.

“We need to be this rare hybrid and pick the best of both worlds. We need to be cost conscious, yet won’t cut corners on innovativeness,” says the chief operating officer of Viacom Motion Pictures.

In September-October last year, Studio 18, part of Viacom 18 Media, an equal joint venture between Network 18 and Viacom, was restructured and branded as Viacom 18 Motion pictures.

 

He company launched Tipping Points in February this year for producing films catering to the 15-25 year age group.

Malhotra says it helps to bring diverse projects within the same production house through different brands. “We need to create the bandwidth and thinking flexibility, and encourage novel plots and newer talent.,” says Malhotra.

So far the company has released four movies in diverse genres — Tanu weds Manu, Pyaar ka Punchnama, Shaitan and Bbudha Hoga Tera Baap — and has lined up five others.

Malhotra attributes the success to Viacom 18’s proactive approach even during the slowdown years of 2008-10 when several overpriced films sank without a trace and availability of credit dried up.

So the company is looking to invest heavily in developing talent and building capabilities across the value chain. The company has created a pool of writers to ideate for concepts internally. These are supervised by mentors and creative supervisors. Plus, there are tieups with established directors such as Anurag Kashyap.

Malhotra says his brief is clear: the audience must be at the centre of the business model. For example, Shaitan was targeted at the urban youth, while Bbudha Hoga Tera Baap was made for hardcore Bachchan fans. “All these movies look like risks, but they aren’t. We map them to see if there is an audience snd market the story for that select audience,” he adds.

The company has also initiated consumer research for this purpose. “The idea is to find out what inspires people to keep everything aside and watch movies, or choose one movie over the other,” says Rudrarup Dutta, Head - Marketing and Audience Strategy.

Dutta says since most of the movies do not have lavish budgets or big star casts, stress has to be on innovative marketing plans. For Tanu Weds Manu, the lead stars gatecrashed into a wedding.

But Viacom 18 has tough competition. UTV has launched UTV Spot Boy to encourage upcoming talent and new formats of film-making. Under the UTV Spot Boy banner, the production house has had releases like DevD, No One Killed Jessica and Udaan. In March, Yash Raj films raised the curtain on Y-films to cater to the urban youth.

Malhotra says the company is prepared for this. “This is after all an ideas business,” he says.