Well-meaning it may be, but superstar Aamir Khan’s Satyamev Jayate, telecast simultaneously on nine television channels including state-owned Doordarshan, hasn’t set the rating charts on fire. Its first episode, telecast on May 6, got a TV rating of 4 in the Hindi-speaking market, according to TAM. The TVR reflects the percentage of viewers watching a programme at a particular time. This is way below Amitabh Bachchan’s last edition of Kaun Banega Crorepati (TVR of 6.24) and Salman Khan’s Bigg Boss (4.83). Has Khan — great actor, greater businessman — lost his golden touch? Aamir Khan Productions, his production house, has made a five-fold return on investments of around Rs 100 crore in six films in the last 11 years. This could put to shame fund managers in Wall Street. Why not Satyamev Jayate? Does it lack the X factor?
“I will wait and see the response till the 13th episode. Then only I will decide whether or not I would like to do a Season 2. I have not made the show for TVRs,” says Khan, 47. He plays down the success of his films and says he was “plain lucky”. But Satyamev Jayate is a bold gamble. Celebrities stick to games and reality shows on television — shock and controversies fetch the eyeballs. Serious issues are a taboo on television, relegated to late-night shows on state-run stations. Three years ago, Star TV India CEO Uday Shankar met Khan with an offer to host a game show on one of the Star channels, which he refused flatly. But it started some sort of engagement between the two to leverage the power of television. After over one-and-a-half years Khan, who undertook extensive research with his creative team, hit upon the idea of Satyamev Jayate. While initially Synergy Communications was supposed to be the producer, Khan took up the mantle himself later on — he was obviously convinced of its success.
Will social activism work on television? Aren’t Indians already overburdened by it? Isn’t Khan projecting himself as the next messiah, a la Anna Hazare? Khan says he is simply communicating and highlighting social issues where changes need to be brought in. “In the US, you can know the sex of the child and it is not illegal. But in India female infanticide is common and we need to change our views. That is what I am trying to convey,” says he. That he is charging a hefty fee of Rs 3.5 crore per episode, which means Aamir Khan Productions will get Rs 45.5 crore for the 13 episodes planned, shows Satyamev Jayate is as much about business as it is about social awakening and national transformation.
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Primetime television happens in the evening, between 8:00 pm and 10:00 pm. That is when general entertainment channels show their best stuff. The mornings, on weekends too, are for repeats and lightweights. Khan has challenged extant media wisdom by going for the 11:00 am slot on Sunday — the time band that was once occupied by Ramayan and Mahabharat. So popular were these programmes that streets across India would be deserted when they were telecast. Shankar says the Sunday morning slot gives Satyamev Jayate a clear positioning: it is not an alternative for some other primetime programme. In other words, go for the kill when the rivals have put their guard down. The advertisers wouldn’t complain because there’s nothing else of significance on television at that time. Also, to ensure a larger audience Khan insisted that it should be telecast simultaneously across channels, including state-owned Doordarshan — again a first on Indian general-entertainment television. Media experts say this strategy makes sense;Khan was perhaps aware that such a serious programme would not be able to get viewers if shown on only one channel unlike, say, KBC. “I was not bothered about TVRs. I wanted the programme to be seen by the maximum number of people. So it was telecast across the Star channels as well as Doordarshan,” says Khan.
Maybe Khan knew that a serious programme like Satyamev Jayate may not get very high TV ratings. So he has supplemented that by ensuring, through skillful marketing, that the buzz on the programme remains alive well after telecast, unlike a game show. For advertisers, this buzz is important: it gives their brands a feel of social consciousness. “What the programme has done is to get disproportionate attention through offline conversations among people and social media. And that has a rub off on everyone including advertisers,” says Star’s Shankar. Thus, Satyamev Jayate became the most searched word in India on Google on May 6, the day the first episode was shown. Over 350,000 viewers watched the show on YouTube, and it was amongst the top 5 most tweeted programmes in India.
According to media agency Star-com Mediavest, 71 per cent of the people who saw the programme said it was good. Says Starcom MediaVest Group India Chairman CVL Srinivas: “I think Satyamev Jayate will kick off a wave of social media-friendly programming. The TVRs might not be huge, but the social media is beginning to change this obsession with ratings.”
Khan has, of course, worked out a strategy to sustain the buzz on the issues raised in Satyamev Jayate. He went on a radio blitzkrieg after the first episode to discuss further the issue of female foeticide and infanticide in as many as 230 stations across the country which includes 164 stations of All India Radio. He also wrote about the episode in newspapers in different languages. He even met Ashok Gehlot, the chief minister of Rajasthan, the state with the worst sex ratio, to start a fast-track court for female infanticide, which was conceded.
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If that is not enough, he has brought NGOs and his sponsors together to encourage audiences wanting to donate for a cause, increasing their engagement with the programme. So, audiences can pay to the NGOs directly through Airtel Money (mobile) or through Axis Bank. In the first episode itself, Rs 63.24 lakh was collected in donations. Of this, half was given by Reliance Foundation which had promised to match what was collected from others.
By creating a new level of engagement he has ensured that advertisers are happy despite the hefty premium that they have paid. For instance, according to industry sources, Airtel forked out almost Rs 18 crore to be the title sponsor for 13 episodes. Compare it with KBC season five where the title sponsor, Cadbury, paid Rs 25 crore for 56 episodes. Associate sponsors have paid Rs 8 crore to be a part of the Khan bandwagon, compared to Rs 14 crore in KBC 5. Yet they are not complaining. Bharti Airtel Director (brands) Bharat Bambawale says: “TVRs are important, but what is also important is the engagement of the consumer seeing the programme. As the engagement level with such a programme dealing with key social issues is high, their relationship with the brand which is associated with the programme also gets enhanced.” Adds Coca-Cola India Director (integrated marketing communications) Wasim Basir: “Those who look at TVRs alone are fooling themselves. The ratings only give you a measurement of how many people were watching your advertising not whether they understood your message. What this programme ensures is high level of involvement of the audience and the buzz that it creates around it.”
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Many of the business and creative techniques used in Satyamev Jayate have been honed by Khan in the movie business — his deep involvement in the content, his innovate marketing efforts, giving the programme a bigger canvas and his ability to make it a profitable venture.
His production house, unlike most others, works on two simple principals — he must play a key role in whatever is produced and he will never get into distribution. Khan admits he has no experience of distribution and that is why he is ready to bring in distributors as partners in his projects. “I run a boutique production house and will not do any movie in which I am not involved. I bring the creative part which could include acting in the film.” He also never sells his movie before it is made. “It’s risky, but I believe in what I make and don’t want others to lose money if it fails. Also if it does well I get the upside.”
Khan says that he always overshoots his budget, but those who know him say he is able to hire creative talent at much lower costs than others — so eager are people, actors as well as technical staff, to work with him because the likelihood of success is very high. He shrewdly does not repeat directors and prefers a new cast for each film. This too keeps costs low (and profits high). “He has the same charisma as Yash Raj Films under which actors, directors and other creative people are not bothered about their remuneration. They know the association with him will only add value,” says a senior executive of a production house which has worked with him.
What makes Khan different from other producers is his involvement: he is the chief marketing manager, the editor, as well as the creative head. Without his methodical marketing, the film’s chances of success at the box office fall sharply.
For instance, the release of his next film, Talash, in which he is one of the three producers, along with Big Pictures and Excel, has been postponed from June to November because Khan is busy with Satyamev Jayate and will not have the time to lead the marketing exercise, something he is very keen to do. When Delhi Belly, which he produced for nephew Imran Khan, was about to be released, Khan communicated ad nauseam that it was a film only for adults, because of abusive language and double entendre, and hence children should keep away. General curiosity was aroused, people thronged to the theatres for the shock, and a low-budget film became a runaway success!
Raj Kumar Hirani, the director of 3 Idiots and the Munnabhai films, says Khan is “marketing monster” and a perfectionist. “If, as a director, you are a perfectionist, you will understand where Khan is coming from. He always has his options for scenes, and he insists on doing proper, on-location rehearsals before the shoot. But he’s not an actor who disrespects his director if the director knows what he wants.”
Khan lets the success lie easy on his head and says he is not here to merely entertain people. But the one thing he promises is to “engage” the audiences. Will it work on TV?
(Viveat Susan Pinto contributed to this article)
