In an exclusive interaction, Nitin Jai Shukla, Founder and Managing Director at OMTV, speaks about how OMTV is catering to a spiritually inclined nation like India to meet its demand for cultural content. He outlines the insight behind the launch of OMTV and charts its journey. He also speaks about OMTV’s focus on the digital space and outlines the platform’s content strategy for 2022. Read on.

Give us an overview of OMTV and its journey so far?

Nothing is permanent but stories will remain forever. The right authentic storytelling of our culture is missing in the Indian OTT space. The tag line of our OTT platform is ‘Gyan bhi, Garv bhi. A default destination for stories of Sanatan culture for a spiritually inclined nation like India to meet its demand for the cultural content.

OMTV is a media-tech company and we are catering to the next generation who have a lot of questions about our culture and they are not getting the right answers. We aim to be relevant in today’s times and be rooted to our culture and beliefs.

OMTV is a freemium OTT platform. Initially for the first year it will be free and from second year the subscription fees will be 294/year. Some of the content will be available for free and the premium content will be available in the subscription model.

The journey so far has been very exciting from the idea of having a platform to seeing it finally happening is in itself a big dream come true. The idea germinated during the pandemic with only few people believing in it and then slowly the team grew and like-minded people came together.

We did our logo launch from Malakaal temple Ujjain and it was the first ever outdoor event to happen in the temple premise in the last 100 years. I guess it was the divine intervention of lord Mahadev which made it all possible. Then our app went live on android and IOS in Aug 2021 with a soft launch in Mumbai.

Now from understanding the tech aspect of the business along with content and also the marketing part which is equally important is a big learning experience and I guess I’m still learning.

Also, from research to the content production, the app crashes, event coverage, some set-backs, partnerships and finally closing the seed funding round, all of this has been a roller coaster ride. I think we have just started the ride and the journey has just begun.

https://mediabrief.com/exclusive-nitin-jai-shukla-omtv/

Give us an overview of OMTV and its journey so far?

Nothing is permanent but stories will remain forever. The right authentic storytelling of our culture is missing in the Indian OTT space. The tag line of our OTT platform is ‘Gyan bhi, Garv bhi. A default destination for stories of Sanatan culture for a spiritually inclined nation like India to meet its demand for the cultural content.

OMTV is a media-tech company and we are catering to the next generation who have a lot of questions about our culture and they are not getting the right answers. We aim to be relevant in today’s times and be rooted to our culture and beliefs.

OMTV is a freemium OTT platform. Initially for the first year it will be free and from second year the subscription fees will be 294/year. Some of the content will be available for free and the premium content will be available in the subscription model.

The journey so far has been very exciting from the idea of having a platform to seeing it finally happening is in itself a big dream come true. The idea germinated during the pandemic with only few people believing in it and then slowly the team grew and like-minded people came together.

We did our logo launch from Malakaal temple Ujjain and it was the first ever outdoor event to happen in the temple premise in the last 100 years. I guess it was the divine intervention of lord Mahadev which made it all possible. Then our app went live on android and IOS in Aug 2021 with a soft launch in Mumbai.

Now from understanding the tech aspect of the business along with content and also the marketing part which is equally important is a big learning experience and I guess I’m still learning.

Also, from research to the content production, the app crashes, event coverage, some set-backs, partnerships and finally closing the seed funding round, all of this has been a roller coaster ride. I think we have just started the ride and the journey has just begun.

What was the insight behind the launch of OMTV? How has the company grown since its launch?

There is no default destination for a religiously inclined nation like India to meet its demand for the cultural content. Be it mythology, history, family values or culture, everything is scattered and we fill the need gap. There are many “bhakti”, “religious” platforms but they are all into pravachan, darshan, bhajan etc space but none in the story telling space. We want to tell stories of Indian heroes and its cultural glory in a contemporary manner.

We are nearing 10K subscribers since the launch. We have associations with animation studios and film studios for their content library. We are amongst the top viewed pages on short video apps, like Josh and Chingari.

We have a strong social media presence from Instagram to Facebook to Youtube. We have just closed our seed funding round and are looking forward to the next round of funding. We are ready with our big ticket show with a production value of 15cr+(season 1), which will be the flagship show for our relaunch. We intend to come with 2000 hrs of acquired content library along with original shows.

With a crowded OTT space, how has OMTV distinguished itself from its competitors?

Well, it’s a cliché but OMTV is one of its kind and first in the genre. If I say I don’t have any direct competition so it will not be completely untrue. But yes, we have similar content available on a lot of platforms, like YouTube has all kinds of content and other OTT as well have some shows in this space but a default destination for this genre is not there so as of now, I can say there is no competition.

If we broaden the horizon and include all content providing an OTT platform then the content genre is what makes us unique and what we offer exclusively is something which makes us stand apart from the crowd.

Spending 1 hour on OMTV for any kid or any person, watching anything on this platform will either give him/her some gyan (knowledge) or garv(pride) about this culture. This is something which is unique as compared to other international OTT where most of the content is only for entertainment and not fit for family viewing.

What are/were the viewership trends you witnessed in this category in 2021-22?

This genre doesn’t need a proof of concept and it has always been relevant in India since the time immemorial. We are a very spiritually inclined nation and whenever such films or shows come on any platform it has always worked.

A satellite channel will always launch with a historical or mythological show to attract the masses and same with films like Bahubali or RRR in recent times. Also, Ramayan re-telecast broke all records of viewership during the pandemic. So, the trends have always been in the favor of this genre, it’s just that we have to make the right content and reach out to the audience with the right technology.

What are OMTV’s criteria for picking up content that resonates with the audiences?

The only filter that we have is Gyan bhi, garv bhi which is our tagline. Any content which gives you gyan or garv is fit for OMTV. It can be contemporary content like Gita stories series on our platform where the most liked story is of Dr. Abdul Kalam Azad he was the 11th president of India and most loved person in India with zero haters and he came from a very humble background and used to say “what you think is what you become” and that is also chapter 17 verse 3 of Gita.

So subconsciously his life philosophy was also resonating with Gita ka gyan. We took an incident from his life and made a short film on it and it resonated with our viewers. So being Indian, having some good knowledge, some entertainment is what we offer and time and again we have seen proof of concept for this kind of content, hopefully it will work with us as well.

What have been some of OMTV’s best properties, titles that did exceptionally well?

Gita stories is our prime property but puppet stories and animation shows are the most loved and watched. These are all moral values stories from Hitopdesh, Panchatantra and Jatak stories which are like bed time stories. I guess young parents would want to tell these stories to their kids and that is the reason it has done exceptionally well.

The chair is another property which has done well for us mostly because Rajesh Kumar (Roshesh) the famous actor from Sarabhai vs Sarabhai has anchored the show and it has given simple knowledge which is imparted by elders to the next generation. The sheer concept is very unique and people have loved seeing elders talk in a candid manner with Rajesh.

Also, the right analysis would be our presence on short video app josh and chingari where we have put 1 min informative video on the rituals or festivals or music or any quotes and that has been picked up by the youth. Apart from the regular entertainment that they see on these short video apps we have a huge traction on our neat clean content. Josh and Chingari both very big platforms approached us for the collaboration and in a few days we were in their top performing pages.

Tell us about OMTV’s marketing and communication approach? Which channels do you choose for marketing? What is your marketing and media mix?

Right now, we are focusing only on social media, all our marketing spends are divided mostly on the Facebook, Instagram, Google ads and then we are on other short video apps.

Soon when we will re-launch with our flag shop show we will have a 360-degree media plan with outdoor, print, TV ad spots and ooh and social media. OTT audience is on social media and we will be focusing on digital marketing as we think our main target audience base is on digital but yes, our collaborations with telecoms are also in the pipeline in near future.

What is OMTV’s content strategy for 2022? Any new properties in the pipeline?

We have planned two big ticket shows for the first year and out of which one is ready with a production value of 15cr+,6-episode series for the first season. On the second show we have taken rights of the book of this famous personality and the preproduction is in process and we will be launching the second one after 3 months of the first show.

The regular free content will be available along with syndicated content. We will also be tying up with a lot of mandirs for live darshan and also with satellite channels.

Our unique proposition of generating UGC (user generated content) is also into testing and we are going ahead with it in the next phase of launch, so a lot of things are in the pipeline.

What are your plans going forward… Top priorities for 2022?

We aim to achieve the right numbers in terms of viewership and subscriptions. We want to achieve our target of becoming the default destination in this genre.

We want to bring a positive change in society by creating good quality content which resonates with kids and youth of this country. We also aim to get the next level of funding for our expansion plans.

Anything else you would like to add?

Discussing religion or spirituality is not very popular and can go in a direction which has been very old school but it is the need of the hour. Spirituality has been pushed as an older generation thing but it’s actually the need of kids and youth, the right kind of society will only be developed when we implement our Vedic knowledge into our everyday life. That doesn’t mean you leave modernity as that is also very important.

One needs to accept modernity and yet have your roots intact. We should not try to ape the west completely; we should embrace it in a balanced manner. Our ancient culture has been very scientific and we need to be proud about it, under the sanatan umbrella we have for Hinduism, Jainism Buddhism and Sikhism and there are enough stories of these sanatan cultures from which we can benefit ourselves and get our future secured.

OMTV will be the default destination for any kind of temple darshan, yatras, religious travel events and also well researched story telling content. The web series on OMTV will be at par with any other top OTT platforms.

Exclusive | Nitin Jai Shukla, OMTV: We want to tell stories of Indian heroes and cultural glory in a contemporary manner

ये मैं हूं:संजय दत्त, जूही चावला, रानी मुखर्जी के ड्रेस डिजाइन किए, जो पापा को कहते थे बेटियां सिर पर नाचेंगी, उन्हें भी गर्व

‘मारवाड़ी परिवार जहां लड़कियां उतनी ही पढ़ाई जाती हैं जिससे कि वे शादी के बाद अपने बच्चों को पढ़ा सकें। इन परिवारों में बहुएं या तो भाई दूज या रक्षाबंधन पर बाहर निकलती हैं, लेकिन मैंने सारे नियम तोड़ दिए और अपने मन का किया।’

इकलौती लड़की जिसने पीजी किया

मुंबई में पली-बढ़ी श्रुति जैन वुमन भास्कर से खास बातचीत में कहती हैं, ‘मैं अपने परिवार की इकलौती लड़की हूं जिसने पोस्ट ग्रेजुएशन किया। ऊपर से ऐसी फील्ड में नौकरी कर रही जिसमें न दिन का पता है, न रात का। हम चार बहनें हैं और जाहिर कि माता-पिता को इस वजह से सुनाया भी बहुत गया।

पापा ने बेटियों के मन की बात सुनी

कभी किसी रिश्तेदार ने कहा कि इतना पढ़ा रहे हो बेटियां सिर पर नाचेंगी, देख लेना घर में नहीं टिकेंगी, रवाना हो जाएंगी…पर पापा ने किसी की नहीं सुनी और हम चारों बहनों को अच्छी एजुकेशन दिलाई। आज दो बहनें विदेश में हैं।

फैशन डिजाइनिंग का भी कोर्स किया

मैं एक बिजनेस फैमिली से थी, इस वजह से नंबरों से प्यार शुरू से रहा। इसलिए बीएमएस इन फाइनेंस किया और सीएफए अल्फा लेवल पास किया। फाइनेंस में पढ़ाई करने के बाद फैशन डिजाइनिंग का कोर्स सिर्फ इस वजह से किया कि अगर शादी के बाद नौकरी नहीं करने दी गई तो घर में काम शुरू कर दूंगी और घर बैठे कमाऊंगी।

मेहनत रंग लाई और फैशन स्टाइलिस्ट बन गई

आखिरकार, मेहनत रंग लाई और साल 2006 में मुझे एंटरटेनमेंट सेक्टर का बड़ा नाम ‘सोनी टीवी शो’ में एसिस्टेंट फैशन स्टाइलिस्ट के तौर पर काम मिल गया।

बूगी-वूगी शो ने बड़ा ब्रेक दिया

मेरे यह इंडस्ट्री एलियन नहीं थी क्योंकि मेरे पिता पहले ही यहां बतौर प्रोड्यूसर काम कर कर चुके थे। तीन महीने के भीतर मुझे ‘बूगी-वूगी’ शो में स्टाइलिस्ट का काम मिला। यह शो सुपर सक्सेसफुल रहा। यही वो वक्त था जब मुझे मेरा लाइफ पार्टनर मिला। शादी के बाद जिंदगी बिल्कुल बदल गई। मुझे कई टीवी शोज मिले जहां बतौर स्टाइलिस्ट काम किया।

बड़े सितारों के साथ किया काम

मैंने मिस्टर प्रदीप सरकार, संजय दत्त, रानी मुखर्जी औऱ जूही चावला जैसे सितारों के लिए ड्रेस डिजाइन की। अब मैं एक कदम आगे और कॉस्ट्यूम डिजाइनर के तौर पर आगे बढ़ गई। राज कुमार हिरानी के साथ भी काम किया। इसके बाद खुद का काम करने की सोची और ‘श्वेत डिजाइन वियर’ नाम से कंपनी बनाई। इसी के साथ मेरी आंत्रप्रेन्योर की जर्नी शुरू हो गई।

कोविड के दौरान काम ठप रहा

आठ साल बिजनेस संभालने के बाद कोविड आ गया और काम ठप पड़ गया। एक काम बंद हुआ तो दूसरा शुरू कर दिया। मैंने पिछले साल ही ओटीटी प्लेटफॉर्म ‘ओमटीवी’ की शुरुआत की। यह ऐसा प्लेटफॉर्म है जो इंडियन कल्चर को बढ़ावा देता है। मैं स्क्रिप्ट, कॉन्सेप्ट्स और फिल्म मेकिंग के अन्य प्रोफेशनल अनुभवों से भी गुजर चुकी थी।

शुरू किया अपना काम

अब ओमटीवी की को-फाउंडर के साथ-साथ प्रोडक्शन डिजाइनर, ऑपरेशन हेड और फाइनेंशियल मैनेजर भी हूं। पद चाहे जितने मिल गए हों लेकिन सीखना बंद नहीं हुआ है। अब खुद की कंपनी में काम करती हूं और बिजनेस वुमन बनने का बचपन का सपना सामने पूरा होते देख रही हूं।

घूमने का बचपन से ही रहा है शौक

ऐसा नहीं है कि मैं सिर्फ काम ही करती हूं बल्कि मस्ती भी खूब करती हूं। मुझे घूमने का इतना शौक है कि मेरे घर वाले मुझे ‘गूगल मैप’ कहते हैं। हा हा हा… अपने खाली समय में लिखने-पढ़ने का काम चालू रहता है। मैं चलती-फिरती कैलकुलेटर हूं। नंबर मेरी उंगलियों पर धरे रहते हैं।

बड़े सपने देखें और पूरे करें

इंड्स्ट्री में पैर जमाने के लिए मुझे बहुत मेहनत करनी पड़ी लेकिन हार नहीं मानी। अब मैं हर लड़की को कहती हूं कि आपका जो सपना है, उसे जरूर पूरा करें। परिवारों को समझाने में वक्त लगता है लेकिन समझ जाते हैं। सपने बड़े देखें और उन्हें पूरा करें।

25 Jun, 2022 – 10:32 AM IST | By Nitin Jai Shukla
Mumbai: The OTT space in India is exploding. There are a plethora of options available for people to watch online. Be it any genre, one will find something interesting to watch and enjoy. There are new titles dropping every week, all trying to catch the eye of viewers. The number of users that are warming up to the OTT bandwagon too is increasing. With the internet penetration getting better and smartphone adoption improving, more people now have access to OTT services.

OTT players are also looking to expand their market share and vying to get the maximum time spent and visibility. All this is ensuring that viewers have a lot of options to binge. While that might be the case, the space is still getting warmed up to the idea of storytelling.

OTT and the art of storytelling

Storytelling is akin to painting a picture albeit with videos. It is an art that requires a lot of extensive observation and weaving into an etched story that viewers can connect and resonate with. The current explosion in the OTT space has enabled many to tap into this world and create beautiful, well-thought stories that are entertaining, educating and enlightening the audiences. However, the process is still at a very nascent stage. A very few OTT players have been able to crack this space and use storytelling to its full potential.

As the competition in the space continues to heat up, storytelling will become even more important. Platforms that are able to master this art will be the ones that will be able to leave a lasting impression on the minds of the viewers.

Growing popularity of regional content

In the last couple of years, regional content has started gaining popularity amongst the masses. Earlier the regional content was only limited to the audience of that geographic area. However, with the advent of OTT platforms, this content is now widely available. Moreover, most OTT platforms are offering dubbed versions of the content that is enabling users to enjoy the same in the language of their preference. The recent success of titles such as Dark, Money Heist, Lupin, Squid Games, Crash Landing on You, “Pushpa”, “Beast”, and “KGF” are glowing examples of how content from any language and geography is able to connect with the audience.

The content viewing behaviour has become more personalised and everyone wants to watch what they like best. Television was more about watching it with family and OTT has changed that drastically. To cater to the evolving tastes and preferences, OTT players are revamping their strategy and getting regional and local flavours to reach out to a wider audience base. Content is truly the king and if they can come up with an interesting story then they will find suitable takers for the same.

Data-backed decisions

OTT platforms heavily rely on the data of consumers. There are two sides to data, the good and bad. On a positive note, the platforms have a complete picture of what content is getting consumed and the demographics of their users. They even get to know details such as which device the content is being consumed, how much time the viewers are spending on their app, at what hour of the day they are getting maximum traffic, and the drop-out point. It also provides information on what type of content keeps the users engrossed and what they are searching for. This is the bad side of the data as it impacts their social behaviour and how their personality is getting moulded. A lot of companies use this data to push their products and services.

While data is helping OTT players in finding the most engaging content but it is also typecasting them into making the same things. Serving similar content over time may result in fatigue and viewers switching over to other platforms. Therefore, one needs to be mindful of how they are using the data and make intelligent decisions.

Emergence of short video app

The attention span of people is reducing. OTT players now have a very short time to hook the audience to the content. There is also increased competition that OTT content is facing from the new age short video format apps. Tik-Tok, Instagram Reels, Moj and Chingari have managed to create a space for themselves. These short video apps deliver a variety of content and have become immensely popular. These apps are now forcing the OTT players to rethink and rejig their strategy. Some OTT players are now thinking of reducing the time per episode to 25 mins from 45 minutes. Netflix is also planning to come out with a short video format to take on these apps head-on.

In nutshell, there is no dearth of content available online. From different genres to platforms to video lengths, there is space for everyone. Viewers are also exposed to quality content from across the globe. While there are global titles and K-Dramas that are ruling the roost, even the regional content is making a big impact. In the end, it is powerful stories and engaging content that is gaining the maximum attention. There is also a wider segmentation. Not everyone will be open to consuming content about spirituality and religion. The older audiences are more likely to connect with bhakti and pravanchans but to connect with the younger lot, the platforms will need to have a fresh approach. In the past, mythology shows that are well presented and made keeping in mind the sensibilities of today’s audience have worked wonders for the OTT platform. Legend of Hanuman on Hotstar was one such show.

Presentation is an important aspect in today’s time. Great presentation and storytelling can go a long way in winning over the audiences and garnering viewership from across age groups.

The author is OMTV (India’s first sanatan storytelling platform) founder and MD Nitin Jai Shukla.

https://indiantelevision.com/iworld/over-the-top-services/guest-column-ott-platforms-are-revamping-the-art-of-storytelling-220625

Sahil Kiran Vaidya will add to the expansion of the corporate along with his huge expertise within the media business, Nitin Jai Shukla, founder and MD, OMTV, mentioned. “We’ve got formidable development plans to broaden and monetise the content material as we’re prepared with our first unique huge ticket present. Proper now, we’re a free app and shortly with OMTV originals and library of our acquired content material we will probably be coming out there in a giant manner. Vaidya has expertise in syndicating the content material and along with his experience I’m positive OMTV is sure to develop leaps and bounds,” he added.

With over 20 years of expertise as a enterprise skilled, Vaidya has labored within the advertising and digital business. He was beforehand with VSERV as DGM operator alliances. Vaidya has expertise throughout enterprise technique, enterprise operations administration, buyer lifecycle administration, cell purposes, B2B and D2C account administration. He has labored in numerous industries together with telecom, media, BFSI and SME sector and performed a major position in onboarding buyers, elevating capital, and evaluating funding and M&A offers. “I’ve a agency perception that very quickly OMTV goes to be competing with the highest most OTT platforms in India. It shall quickly unfold its huge wings throughout the globe. Going ahead there will probably be challenges however nothing can stand up to the power of OMTV,” Sahil Kiran Vaidya said.

Learn Additionally: Amazon Prime Video companions with AMC Networks to launch AMC+ and Acorn TV on Prime Video Channels in India

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The challenges of being a woman executive in a top role?

This is something which will always be there even if you are in the topmost position. Being in a start-up, it’s a very interesting ecosystem, you have to deal with everyone directly, like an office boy or a junior level role or an outside vendor, they all have different conditioning. The upbringing that Indians have till now has been very patriarchal, thankfully it’s changing now and I see a lot of kids and youngsters who see women as their contemporaries and not someone down or inefficient.

Sometimes you have to be very firm with the decision which makes some of the Senior members a little offensive but later when proven right they come around. The initial resistance is always there ..thankfully in our organisation this number is very less and we make sure that equal opportunities and voices are heard. We have almost 50% women in the workforce and that makes a huge difference. Some casual sexism exists when you are dealing in finance and its something which is not a women’s domain typically, so the other person might ask for joining another co-founder in a meeting which is finance-related, who they think would make a decision but as we go along when they see that I am handling it pretty decently then it’s an all smile situation.

I don’t see these instances/situations as something which is disturbing or alarming because you have to think in a solution-oriented manner…I have to do things which are in my control and not what others are thinking. The change will also not come immediately, it will come in due time it’s a long journey and I think we have also come a long way ahead. I guess till then people like me will have to be at it and more women need to share space and give opportunities to everyone and move ahead.

Educational Background

While I was always inclined to numbers and the credit for this goes to my father. He use to sit with pencil and paper and used to be anal about the “hisaab” till the last paise… he will erase his balance sheet if it was not matching and used to take the pain of doing it all over again when I used to see a satisfactory expression on his face I used to think why is it such a “big deal” but slowly I understood the value of it. It was a great education school for me and a life lesson of “being patient and being right”. Maybe that was the reason I scored 146 out of 150 in mathematics in my board exams in 10th. later I chose to take a bachelor of management studies as my graduation and then I completed my M.Com in finance.

This obsession grew further when my father encouraged me to study further as amongst 4 sisters I was the one who was interested in studies more rather than other activities. Then I cleared the CFA alpha level from ICFAI Hyderabad but after that marriage talks began and I discontinued studying further, but my love for numbers was always there.

stepping out to work and doing a job outside was never allowed in our orthodox Marwari families, it was always believed that a women steps out to work only when the male members don’t earn enough to support the family and u are poor, but for me, working was being independent and not because of lack of money. So I was determined to work even after marriage hence I chose a field where I could work from home if not allowed to step out.

I pursued a Diploma in Fashion and Jewellery Designs thinking I can be self-dependent even after marriage and can work from home or will have a small enterprise as this field doesn’t need an outdoor workspace attendance. After working in the media industry for a few years, I grew into having my own label called “Shvet Designer Wear”.

Family Background

I was born and brought up in Mumbai. I belong to a middle-class conservative Marwari Business family, have three sisters, father was a businessman in the textile industry and have produced 2 films also in the year 1990. First female child in the family who opted for post-graduation. I Have seen businesses grow and shut in my family all my life. Have a big extended family in Mumbai with cousins all over Mumbai from South Mumbai to Virar…

Working in the Male-dominated field of IT.  Does a Glass ceiling exist?

Well to some extent yes. I am not the right person here, although we are a media-tech company my forte lies in finance and execution and not hardcore coding and our organisation is more into content creation so don’t know about the details in it but yes have seen more men in this field than women.

Hobbies

Lately, my hobbies have changed from what they used to be … earlier I was more into drawing, reading, sketching and designing .. doing some indoor stuff…but now from the past 5-6 years, I have become more adventurous.. thanks to my husband who is more of an outdoor guy. I love adventure. it’s funny because generally it’s the other way round, as in when you grow older you tend to do some indoor stuff but with me, I am the opposite .. don’t know where it came from but I love driving…long drives and cross country road trips are very common for both of us.. we are so passionate about road trips that when we went to the USA for our vacation we actually drove there for 25 days and covered the entire west coast. It was a left-hand drive and we literally used to argue about who is driving next..:) There is another weird hobby that I have got and that’s packing stuff. I am obsessed with my bag packing or some gift packing or When you have to adjust 20 kgs stuff in a 7kg bag, I take this as a challenge and manage to fit in… whenever someone is doing some packing I have this urge of helping them out and sometimes I become so aggressive if someone is not listening(mostly it is my husband) that I will redo-it from scratch and he takes a lot of advantages from me on this one…he will happily hand over his stuff for me to pack.. but office stuff or another other family things I love packing and make it perfect and convenient.

Future plans

Personally -With so many things I have seen in life, recently my father passed away in 2020 and one of my best friend the next year. I have stopped making any plans personally. I am taking life as it comes. I know I have done some good stuff and I am a god-fearing child, I love my family so “sab Kuch acha hi Hoga” so taking life as it comes is my mantra.

Professionally – I aim to make Sri Bahubali Media Pvt Ltd a success story, we have great plans for expansion and we passionately believe in the idea.  I am sure with the right kind of effort, we will make it happen and take this company to new heights. We have just closed our seed funding round and now looking for series funding for the next level of expansion. We are speaking to a lot of potential investors, let’s see when the next milestone is achieved.

High-Five:
1. Your Fitness Mantra: walking and yoga
2. Your De-stressing Mantra: 3M’s i.e. Meditation Massage and Music
3. Where do you like to shop?: street shopping is what I enjoy, being a costume stylist have always got a limited budget, so smart street shopping was the need of the hour then and then I started enjoying street shopping because it gives u the liberty to mix n match and create a unique style in low budgets.
4. Your favourite holiday destination: Bhutan
5. Five things you cannot live without: TEA, driving, phone games, family and aloo paratha -amras combo.

Workday:
1. Morning activities: Luke warm water intake, Walk and yoga, breakfast and long phone scrolling spree in toilet J.
2. 1st half in office: Checking emails, follow-up on things from previous day-end activities, planning the day ahead.

3. Post Lunch: team meetings and some creative work.
4. How you spend your evenings: I enjoy watching web series/movies which are less time commitment else I will be reading novels on my phone. There are these Chinese stories which are available online. It takes me to a different world of romance and human relationships. I love them and have finished quite a lot of them actually. Then before sleeping I will write my diary with some affirmations and have a good night’s sleep.

https://www.dqchannels.com/we-have-great-plans-for-expansion-shruti-jain-co-founder-and-director-omtv/

1.  What was your inspiration behind starting OM TV?

After working for more than a decade in the content creation space of historical and mythological shows, I realised that there is no default destination for content and information on Sanatan Dharma. If I want to watch something on spirituality/religion then I will have to search on different platforms and the right authentic story telling is missing. In the current OTT space, they have glorified scamsters and criminals, but the real heroes of India have been side-lined. The kids are unaware of the great legends and they are practically unknown to everyone. It disturbed me to see that Sanatan Dharma is being minimised to the religious border of Hinduism, which is just one part of it and it’s been highjacked by certain custodians who know very little about the culture themselves.. More than the benefit they are harming the culture. I see a big need gap for the content related to Sanatan Dharma. We always had a very scientific approach on everything and should get the right recognition. So I aspire to showcase the right authentic story telling for Sanatan Dharma via a single mobile app.

2.  What is the mission and vision of OM TV?

Sanatan Dharma is a way of life. It’s not religion as Dharma described in Gita means-the right way to conduct your duties and Sanatan means eternal. Similarly, OM TV too aspires to be the way of life that aims to capture imagination through its stories in fiction or non-fiction format. It is still evolving and with each passing month, it shall continue to find its ground and let its roots spread around to be able to make every Indian proud of their rich heritage through the knowledge that lies in Vedas, Puranas, Upanishads, Guru Granth Sahib, Shabads, Kirtan, Jatak Stories and so on. It’s not Hinduism, Sikhism, Buddhism or Jainism separately, it’s the Sanatan in entirety and that brings all under one umbrella because each one of these are philosophies that have remained and survived through the ages and shall remain forever. It’s just humans who go, not the wisdom, and Om TV is just that. It is a philosophy that has just begun its journey but that shall grow and remain forever because its roots are deep in the wisdom that is never going to fade. In its evolving process, it aims to conduct quiz programmes, bring the age-old yoga for different learners, animated stories of Puranas, Jatak Katha, and nuggets of wisdom from the revered Vedas and Guru Granth Sahib. OMTV will be the aggregator of the content which deals with Indian Sanatan culture. So be it mythology , history or education and many more similar contents.

We will be producing a lot of original content, which will solve the need of serving people the right values through entertainment. Story-telling is the best medium to communicate any kind of knowledge, and our shows will reflect the rich Indian stories which are in abundance and infinite.

Like bisleri is synonymous to mineral water drinking industry, OMTV should become the bisleri of Indian cultural content viewing space.

Due to modern needs and global exposure, parents are not able to give time to the kids, and this will be a one-stop destination for anything and everything about Indian Sanatan culture. The kids will know about our culture and learn something which they could have never learnt otherwise. The language of communication is very important, a kid will probably not watch a TV show but will watch an animation show. We will tell moral stories in animation format, for youth we will have inspirational stories of our real historic heroes, like Bhagat Singh, Chandra Shekhar Azad, Swami Vivekanand, Atalji or  Bappa Rawal, Guru Gobind Singh, etc .A socially aware society will create a better future for our kids and for our nation.

3.  In spiritually and culturally rich India, how does OM Tv find its place?

The question in itself has the answer. There is no default destination for a spiritually inclined nation like India to meet its demand for cultural content. Be it mythology, history, values or culture, everything is scattered and wherever Indians find it, they want to know more about it .. OMTV is the default destination for stories of Sanatan culture. OMTV is not just an OTT platform, it’s a thought that forced the team to embark on a journey of gaining knowledge while traversing through the various aspects of cultural roots that lay hidden in sculptures, temple carvings or structures, food habits, rituals and above all, the people of the nation called Bharat. OM, as the word encapsulates the entire vibration of the universe in one word, and OM TV is just a humble attempt to showcase the diversity and deep-rooted philosophy present in the traditions of the nation that has left the world mesmerized time and again. Wealth was only one part of India’s rich cultural heritage, there were several other dimensions attached and in the core remained one binding factor that still enlightens the world- the spiritualism. It’s just a way how Indians are conditioned. The more deep we go, the more we are instilled with a sense of pride. And, the platform’s philosophy reflects that

“GARV BHI,GYAAN BHI “.

OMTV is one place that has endeavoured to capture all the dimensions of Sanatan Dharma possible, through the team’s core strength of storytelling as stories are the integral part of our cultural roots. It’s an attempt to make the citizens of this country aware of the scientific knowledge, the science behind rituals and customs, and the deep philosophy embedded in every action through various programmes. If there are mythological films and shows that captured viewers imagination at one point of time, there are wisdom nuggets disseminated by the elderly in their talks, whose experience itself commands respect, in a show named aptly-The Chair. On one hand, if there is a programme debating on Aastha or Andhvishwaas, there are small nuggets of information in GyaanYaan. While there is an attempt to enthrall audience through music and bhajans, there is also an attempt to bring in the everlasting philosophy of Gita through simple stories of day to day life.

4.  Entrepreneurial journey is not easy. What have you learned so far from being a business explorer?

The journey so far has been very exciting from the idea of having a platform to seeing it finally happening is in itself a big dream come true. The idea was germinated during the pandemic with only a few people believing in it, and then slowly the team grew and like-minded people came together..

We launched the platform at mahakal temple in Ujjain and it was the first event is the history of mahakal temple (Ujjain) that any outside event happened in the temple premise in the last 100 years.. the logo was launched with the unique proposition as one of its kind and first in the genre OTT platform. We got good media coverage for the same in the HSM market.

Another event in Mumbai launched the app on android and ios..and we had 10 M+ swipe ups on a single day. Although the app crashed many times as it was not able to handle so much traffic… we have more than 200M+ views on our two association with short video apps ,josh and chingari ..and more than a lakh followers on these apps…we have a brand tie up with Magic Box Animation Studios, which is one of the biggest animation content providers in India.

So getting involved in all aspects of building the app, from curating the idea, assembling the team to execute the content, then getting into technical understanding of app building, and then marketing and promotion of the content and the app. After locking the seed funding round, we are now looking for pre-revenue funding to expand the business… All this has been very overwhelming. I have put all my expertise into this and am just moving ahead with a mission. People are joining hands and some people are leaving the hand, but we have a strong core team that believes in the idea and the future looks bright. One small thing I want to mention is that, whenever I am done, or have lost a little hope, or there is a setback, I see some good news coming in and it looks as if Mahadev is looking after me and holding my hands and guiding me towards the destination.

5.  Could you explain more about Sanatan dharma?

Sanatana means eternal and dharma means duty. So in Sanatan Dharma, there is no origin of this religion, or there is no founder of the dharma, nor there is any particular book which needs to be followed. In normal colloquial usage, dharma is mistakenly known as religion, but the real meaning of the word dharma is duty. Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, and Sikhism come under the Sanatan umbrella and they follow similar kinds of teachings at the core level. There has been many scholars, gods, and messengers of God in Sanatan Dharma, like Buddha, Parshavnath Bhagwan, or Guru Nanak Dev. All have propagated the same knowledge of the Vedas. The Vedas are the backbone of Sanatan Dharma. Adi Guru Shankrahrya, who was a 7th century philosopher, propagated Advait philosophy. Advait is the existance of non duality which is the basis of sanatan dharma. To simply put, how I define advait is “to see yourself in everything and feel everything is in you” is advait.

6.   Who is your inspiration?

I have two inspirations, one is spiritual and the other is professional. My spiritual inspiration is Krishna. He is always happy, or the right word is “satt-chit-anand”. However, when it comes to establishing the dharma, he takes the aggressive form. A balance is needed in life and we need to accept things the way they are and leave everything to Krishna. My ultimate inspiration comes from the popular verse of Gita “karm kero phal ki iccha mat kero.”

The professional inspiration is Ronni Screwvala. I haven’t met him, but since the time I have stepped into this industry I have admired him. He has built his empire on shear persistance and grit. With no backup, he built everything from scratch and eventually ventured into diverse businesses apart from media.. From being a producer to building a channel to becoming one of the biggest Bollywood houses, he has done it all. I’m the Eklavya of this Dharonachrya.

7.  What was the turning point of your life?

There are many I can’t name one as I have had lots of ups and downs. I have changed my career a couple of times and made some good and bad decisions. From wanting to become a sportsman to being a pilot to shifting into engineering and then joining finance to moving to IT and then eventually joining the film industry, there have been many changes, but I think the biggest turning point of my career was when Mahadev chose me to be part of this show called Devonke Dev Maahdev. I was doing romantic shows and youth love stories and then I was offered to do a mythological show, for which I had no idea nor any inclination to do such a show. But finally I joined the show and it became a cult classic show and a super successful show. My contribution was recognised and since then I have never looked back. I have been making content in this genre and ultimately that is the reason the idea of opening a platform of this genre came to my mind.

8. You have previously worked with a lot of media outlets, how was that journey?

Yes, I have worked in many media houses, but I would like to talk about my stint with Star India Private Ltd., where I spent five glorious years of my professional career. It has been very rewarding, and Star India knows how to value its employees. It was one of the best times that I had and I made a lot of friends and professional associations that are helping me now in my career. Star would leave no stone unturned to take care of its employees and eventually, employees would perform to the fullest of their capacity. An organisation is successful not because it has a lot of money, but because its employees are performing to the best of their abilities. I try and implement the same culture in my organization and give exposure to the people and give them independence so that they become responsible for the job. They will only do good if they have a healthy environment and they will perform on their own.

9.  What is so different about Om Tv that viewers must watch it?

It’s the first in the genre and one of its kind OTT platform. One stop shop for anything and everything about Indian sanatan culture .to be honest, Would you want your future generation to have Indian values or have western values …I think it should be Indian while adapting western culture, then 1 hr OMTV is necessary as whatever you consume on OMTV will either get you some knowledge (gyan) or you will feel proud (garv) about your culture…Hence reinforcing the Indian value system.

10.  What’s your success mantra?

Believe in yourself and whatever happens, happens for good

https://english.sakshi.com/news/tv/entrepreneurial-talk-mr-nitin-jai-shukla-founder-omtv-156922

Local is the new global. The current geopolitical situation in India has an impact on all industries. The ‘Atma Nirbhar Bharat’ and ‘Make in India’ push introduced by the Indian government has created a lot of awareness in realising the power of the local market.

Over-the-top (OTT) is no different. Regional television content that is very much hyperlocal was always popular. Hence, there are many regional satellite channels of all major media companies.Now Netflix has announced that they will be producing more regional content apart from Hindi to reach out to a bigger audience base. The behaviour pattern is now shifting. And one needs to understand the psychology behind this change.

The current content viewing trend is narrowing down to single viewership. It’s no longer a household viewership. The youth no longer sits with the family and watches content. However, India is still a nation of single TV set households. The content viewership is shifting base from TV to mobile phones. The women of the house with working men would prefer to watch content of their choice on the phone.

As a result, viewers want to watch what they like and have grown up watching. Remember, OTT is a paid and free content viewing. So, a certain age and decision-making power are vital factors to be considered. When viewers have the decision-making power and want to watch it alone, they prefer to watch content in their language and the environment they can relate to.

Essentially, all these consumers have not travelled away from their states. The only access that they have to other cultures is via content viewing. While one would want to explore different cultures and languages, we are more comfortable with our language. So ultimately, it comes to the convenience which we all want. Content viewing is no different. Hence there is an impact of regional content on the OTT segment.

When Hoichoi started their OTT in Bengali, they wanted to create the Netflix of Bengali. We can say that they were the ‘OG Risk Takers’. In my opinion, they knew the market well. A base for Bengali content is present and world-class content that a Bengali-speaking consumer can be proud of. If he has seen content in Spanish dubbed or subtitled, then the expectation is ‘Why can’t I see the same content in my language’. Hoichoi did that for them.

The success story of many other regional OTT platforms is noticeable from every corner of the country. One can see many regional OTT players coming into the market. The rise of these OTT platforms is giving a run for the money to the big OTT platforms with generic content. An Amazon India executive has said that Hindi is just another language for them on the platform. They (Amazon India) have content in major Indian languages. They are also spending the same amount of time and effort on the Tamil and Telugu content the way they are doing for the Hindi web series. A year later, we can now see that they have a better reach in the regional market.

AHA Telugu is growing fast, while AHA Tamil is their new offering. They plan to grow in other south Indian markets as well. Oho Gujarati and Shemaroo Gujarati are other OTT platforms competing in the Gujarati market. Planet Marathi is another platform that has captured the imagination of the Marathi-speaking market. There are two more Marathi OTT which are about to be launched. The market size is so huge that even if one OTT platform captures its language audience, it can be successful. The pie is so huge that it will have space for a couple of regional players in the OTT universe.

Ultimately, everything will come down to the content strategy and the kind of content offered. Creating more relatable content and understanding the market’s pulse is not a big task compared to PAN India or the international approach. As there is a history of viewership and data available, platforms know what their audience likes and has a taste for. One can figure out content with less risk of experimenting with the genre.

Regional content is here to stay and will have an impact in the coming years on the OTT market. The shift in consumer behaviour and regional waves will hit all OTT platforms. Everyone is gearing up for the same. Going local will be going global.

The author is founder and MD of OMTV. Views expressed are personal.

https://www.financialexpress.com/brandwagon/how-regional-language-content-is-impacting-ott/2557586/lite/