The Bournvita Books of Knowledge (it contains all the questions asked in the last six months and comes out in three issues in two years) hardly sold. In 1992 we did tests for TV, live shows in five cities. Then we went full blast on TV.
In the same way I think what Anant Pai and his team are trying to do - taking it off one medium where I dont think it is working for them anymore (it used to work very well), and trying to convert it to a today medium, or what seems to me apparently as a today medium - makes great sense.
The interesting point is that I believe the two can work (the comic as well as the TV show) together very well. Again, going back to the Bournvita Quiz Contest. Now that we have come back with the TV programme, we are bringing out these Bournvita Books of knowledge again for the last 4-5 years and they sell in hundreds of thousands. If you add up Arundhati Roy, Shobha De, Salman Rushdie, Khushwant Singh and what they sell, multiplied by two, even that will also not be equal to the kinds of books the Bournvita Book sells.
When we started out, we were selling 20,000 books; now we are on to two lakhs. And they are priced at Rs 90, which is not really cheap. In another two months time, we are coming out with CD-ROMs.
So television is creating the interest for the child/parent. Thats why they are really buying the book. So when I look at this revival of Pais Amar Chitra Katha, I believe that television now will create the demand again for these books. Provided, of course, the television product can compete or is as good or exciting as a South Africa-Sri Lanka cricket match or a Cartoon Network programme. This is where the competition is when you are trying to seek the viewers mindset.
In all these things we are trying to develop that excitement, that competitiveness, mighty quick. My quizzes cannot carry on for six-seven days. Everyone wants quick results these days. This is the way the child has been brought up today.
It might be a good idea if IBH and UTV do a lot of research before they get into it. When we did research at the end of 1995, we found out that there was a huge audience of adults who had grown with Bournvita Quiz in their younger days. Today they are young parents. They have children who are anywhere between 5 and 15 years of age. They feel this is a good thing, so they are watching.
Research proved that there were adults watching the programme, as many as children. Amar Chitra Katha has that brand equity going for it. Its nice. I even remember going to the Calcutta Book Fair and my father buying Amar Chitra Katha for me. So now when my daughter will be four years old, I will say, Hey hold on, I cant put a book in her lap. But if I bring my laptop, she can hit that mouse. Shes the kind of person I can say, okay, here is something you can watch.
Amar Chitra Katha has to appeal to those who know the goodness of the product. Its very much like the goodness of neem which has to be given in a modern delivery system. That is the basic strategy. Mr Anant Pai and his Amar Chitra Katha have to package this neem in such a way, that without losing the goodness of neem taste, if he can give it that minty kind of flavour (comparing it to a modern neem toothpaste), then the child will accept. You will ask me why do I bring Aamir Khan or Juhi Chawla on the show. Its your equivalent of that delivery system. I need to add that little flavour of mint. Because the media demands it. Today Amar Chitra Katha has to be fun. Children want edutainment.
Obviously the language has to be Hindi. If I was putting my money on the project, I would put 99.99 per cent on Hindi or the regional languages. I would not spend one buck on English, because there the childs mind structure is closer to the 1970s than to our other friends from the Delhi Public Schools, or the Moderns who are already surfing the Net, who are already on to CD-ROMs.
Also, they need to define who their target audience amongst the wide segment of children is. I would say it is between two to seven years, on pure gutfeel. We can divide children into three categories. One, two to seven years. They can be safely called kids. Seven to twelve these are students. Thirteen onwards, these love to be referred to as fifteen. Fifteen plus and you need to advertise Marlboro and all. For me, it is the student segment that the Bournvita Quiz Contest targets.
There is a huge market of NRIs who are in Southall, and in the Gulf. They are much more India-conscious, They want their children to know more of India. I know this because I do quizzes there.
Seven to eight years ago, I remember, there were teleprinters. Siemens came out with a teleprinter which was electronic. Fantastic, feather-touch, noiseless and they were trying to hawk it. It was seemingly modern but totally outdated. Because there were fax machines to compete with. That is a danger for Amar Chitra Katha. There cannot be an upgraded teleprinter when people are using the fax.
Amar Chitra Katha is being turned on its head. And when you turn something on its head, you have to be a little unemotional about it. This is where Anant Pai will find it a bit more difficult than I. Because I was not involved in the Bournvita Radio Quiz of the 1970s. But Pai was always there.n
Derek OBrien is director, Big Ideas and eminent television personality.
