Dinosaur at work

Shows like Roadies and Splitsvilla have redefined MTV in India. Aabhas Sharma meets Ashish Patil, the oldest guy at the youthful channel, who has brought about this change

“Welcome to Jurassic Park.” That’s how Ashish Patil ushers me into his cabin when I meet him at the MTV office in Mumbai. For those of you who do not know him, Patil is head, creative and content, MTV India — the man behind such hugely popular shows as Roadies, Splitsvilla, and, more recently, Teen Diva and Fast and the Gorgeous. He’s been with the channel for 11 long years, seen its transition from being simply another music channel to one that has found its niche with the youth, and has, as such, earned the nickname of “dinosaur” at work.

At 36, Patil is among the oldest at MTV. Yet, he says, his love for the job has only grown over the years. In fact, after our two-hour, wacky interaction, it can be safely concluded that Patil eats, lives and breathes MTV. He has memorabilia from every event or show that he has been part of at the channel, and fishes out a piece every time we mention any of the popular shows: Be it the first Immies or the first edition of the Roadies.

Born into a typical middle- class family, Patil grew up being told to do the “sensible thing” in life — get a conventional job, “preferably in a bank”. He obviously had other ideas. Being of a more creative bent of mind, he started an ad agency called Fresh Lime Soda but soon shifted to Contract and worked with some of the best names in advertising. “I had great fun. The idea of working with clients as diverse as paints and pharma on a single day gave me a huge high,” he recalls. He spent four years in advertising before MTV came calling. Patil initially joined the channel’s marketing department, primarily to raise sponsorships for the various events that MTV undertook.

But, he says, he made a conscious effort to add responsibilities to his portfolio every year — something that he continues to do even today. “It keeps me on my toes… the idea of doing something new keeps me going,” he points out. He was also involved with the channel’s “digital division” and claims that there was not even a website when he joined. Now, the digital medium is one of the biggest revenue-drivers for the channel. “We had to change a lot of things to keep up with the pace,” he says. Today, of course, MTV is a completely different kettle of fish from when Patil joined it. The market dynamics have altered and so has the channel in terms of its programming, where it has become a trendsetter of sorts.

Patil has many interesting stories to tell about the change at MTV: From a channel which had to run to its parent company to pay the bills, it has now doubled its revenue earnings in the last couple of years. Patil says that one reason for the change has been his fantastic team which is always looking to innovate. “We change things every six months so that there is no scope for people getting bored,” he says — be it new shows or imagery. “My competition is everything from a mall to a rival music channel, so what we have created is a universe of youth,” is how Patil describes the channel today. Or, in other words, “We serve dal-roti packaged as pasta.”

Patil says that he loves the unpredictability at work and he thanks his target audience for that. “Their tastes change every two months. What’s a rage today will not even be remembered tomorrow.” So there is a constant need to innovate and think ahead. And if people say that the channel has changed a lot, it is for the good — “at least as far as finances are concerned”, he says with a glint in his eye.

Patil says that when he got into the C&C division, the idea was to rejig a couple of things to make the Indian youth identify with MTV as their channel. His thinking on this was very clear: “Be it movies, music, social networking, anything they desire, MTV should have it.” Out went shows like Fully Faltoo, MTV Most Wanted, and in came those like Roadies, Splitsvilla, Teen Diva and Fast and the Gorgeous. “The idea is to take MTV to every place where the target group is. Be it web, mobile, on-ground, merchandise.” It’s a circle of lead-reflect- affect — one thing leading to the next.

A huge movie buff, Patil says that most of his time is spent watching movies with his three-year old son. He loves reading and has a great collection of graphic novels. By the end of our conversation, I tell him that he is probably the only guy who, even after 11 years, loves his job and calls it “cool, fantastic and superb”— after every few sentences he speaks. There is a downside though: “I can’t watch a movie in peace or read a book as I am constantly thinking of how something from it can be integrated into our channel.” That shouldn’t matter if you love your work.