Where's the big idea?

FREEZE FRAME

At a recent conclave on media and entertainment organised by a TV channel, the question posed to the participants was "Where is the Big Idea?"

While several eminent professionals from the film, television and advertising industries spoke eloquently, I think all of them missed the trees for the woods.

One well-known writer waxed eloquent about how the ills of society were responsible for the lack of creativity in films. Most talked about how good content and artistry were essential prerequisites for the big idea.

How does one define a 'big idea'? Well anything that changes a paradigm should qualify, or any idea that redefines the contours of human expression. Obviously media and entertainment take a lot of the waking time of our lives and hence any change in their form or context impacts society at large.

In the last 100 years a heady combination of creativity and technology altered not only what we did with our leisure but with our lives.

There is no doubt that we have progressed a lot more in the last few decades than we have in the preceding few centuries. This evolution was speeded up by technology.

If we look at entertainment, most of what is perceived as popular was actually developed in the last 100 years. The turn of the twentieth century brought forth motion pictures. Then every decade brought some new medium or its deviant "� the phonograph, radio, television, magnetic tape/cassette, video, cable & satellite TV, internet, DVD, MP3 and so on.

Each invention not only created a new medium of expression but also created its own language, grammar, syntax and idiom. While the basic story has virtually remained constant for centuries, its narration and transcreation through different media not only give it a new context but also challenges the human mind and spirit to excel. This change is what the 'big idea' is all about.

It is the socio-economic environment "� the entire eco system of our times "� which is the trigger; individual genius is the sharp shooter.

As the new millennium hits its stride, the race to give birth to the next "big idea" shows no signs of slowing, with tens of thousands of would-be Edisons pushing themselves mercilessly to get their product or idea before the public, the ultimate arbiter of an invention's utility.

Almost certainly, experts say, somewhere in the coursing thought stream are ideas that will alter our lives and society, just as the cellular phone and personal computer have in recent decades."

This is an extraordinarily inventive age," said Arthur Molella, director of the Lemelson Center for the Study of Invention and Innovation in Washington DC.

"I think we're feeling changes such as people felt at the beginning of the last century, when they suddenly had the ability to travel all around the world." There is a lot of serendipity in a great invention."

However there it is very difficult to predict where and when the breakthrough will come. Explaining the futility of attempting such forecasts, Molella said: "You can go systematically from here to there, but you also have to be one of these people who are ready to see opportunity when it presents itself."

In the last 10 years the emergence of the worldwide web is arguably the most significant event in mass communication in a long time. Not since the invention of the printing press has any medium empowered so many people with information and knowledge as the internet is doing.

As bandwidth prices keep falling and access devices become cheaper, ubiquitous connectivity will exist. We have seen that the internet and more recently blogging have become a powerful tool of socio-economic transformation. The internet is a big idea. Blogging is a big idea, as were cinema and radio.

In recent months Steve Job's 'I-Pod' a product, which leverages the strength of the internet, has rewritten the very rules of the music business, as it has been known for the past 100 years. This kind of breakthrough in other media will start happening in the coming few years.

Broadband as it evolves will unleash huge video potential. Linear Broadcast TV is already being challenged by the personal video recorder (TiVo). Internet protocol TV will change it completely. Many experts feel that the internet is already allowing virtually anyone to create and distribute video content.

In fact, the web is doing to multichannel video what it has already done to music and information. The spread of broadband will further democratise the video business even as it empowers the consumer to exercise his or her choice in home entertainment.

Obviously Digital Rights Management (DRM) and a proper business model are essential. We have seen what I-Tunes and I-Pod have done to change the dynamics of the music industry. At one time when illegal downloads were threatening its existence, the emergence of cost-effective, consumer-friendly technology has suddenly opened up new opportunities .This is a big idea.

New formats and newer devices ,new technology and newer audiences will all fuel the onward march of media. While it is almost certain that entertainment will become more interactive and participatory (reality TV is just the beginning), there will also be a sharper segmentation of the market.

In a matter of years digitalisation will change the rules of film making and distribution. As regards the 'big idea' in creativity, story telling will always be the tour-de-force in entertainment.

Inventive narratives, relevant to our life and times, will depend upon individual genius. Obviously this does not come from aping past successes but from talent and the courage to think laterally and out-of the box. That's where all big ideas live-on the fringes of our imagination.

Amit Khanna is chairman of Reliance Entertainment. The views expressed here are his own