Rachit Gupta
UTV's new youth targeted channel Bindass offers a refreshing approach to the world of entertainment
indass is UTV's latest offering on television and this refreshing channel for the youth justifies its name in every sense of the word. Although it does not verbally claim to be a youth channel, Bindass' programming, content and even the promos suggest the channel targets young minds. Let's say that it's a channel of the youth, by the youth and for the youth. Primarily the content of Bindass can be broadly classified into two, original content and acquired content. The original content consists of four unique shows. Firstly there is a sitcom titled Sun Yaar Chill Maar (SYCM), then there's a talk show full of spoofs and gags called Lagegi, an action and superhero soap called Shakira and Ugesh Sarcar's 3rd Degree, a street magic show. Shows like The Benny Hill Show, Japanese Pro Wrestling, Gotcha, Motorrad Cops, Whacked Out Sports, Challengers Of Fire and English and international films dubbed in Hindi make up the channel's acquired content. Bindass' original shows are completely based on subjects that are easily identifiable with contemporary youth. Bindass looks like a meticulously thought-out, well-planned and very well-executed brand that lives up to its target audience's expectations. It seems the think-tanks at UTV must have done an exhaustive ad-hoc analysis before they launched their youth channel. Zarina Mehta, CEO of Bindass, agrees and reveals details about the exhaustive research programme that UTV undertook before launching Bindass. "We conducted three large in-depth studies with more than 2500 youth across the country over a three and a half month period. The name was arrived at after an in-depth quantitative Brand Name Test conducted by a research agency named Synovate India. The target group for their study was aged between 15 to 24 years. Their research included a qualitative ethnographic study (including peer FGD and reconvened groups) with PQR-IMRB methods to cull out an exhaustive amount of data that studied our target groups useage and attitudes," revealed Mehta. SYCM is about the misadventures of five Delhi varsity students, the girl chasing Omi, the puny, rapping and obscenity-hurling Piddhi, jhol-er Manoj, aspiring beauty queen Gia and the food-gobbling Radhika. The show is cute thanks to its blend of greatly thought-out and well developed characters and hilarious thanks to Omi's double-meaning remarks and Piddhi's endless obscenities. Lagegi on the other hand, has two young and entertaining hosts named Anirudh and Mantra pulling out the laughs as they kick, jump, rap and interview celebs. The duo is really good at stand-up comedy and their quirky and sleazy humour adds an inimitable charm to their wacky talk show. Shakira is India's first female superhero, ready to kick some evil and bad guy butt all day long. Ugesh Sarcar creeps in with the magical touch as he freaks out youngsters on the roads with his mind boggling tricks. All the shows on Bindass have a lively spark of youth culture and at the same time have a tremendous amount of entertainment value. It doesn't end there, Mehta reveals that they have a huge show planned for April next year as well as two other smaller but very innovative shows one of which is set to kick off in January 2008. Although acquired content does have a sizeable airtime on Bindass' telecast, it isn't all that bad. Sure, the content is seen before and on its own does not draw much attention, but that's where UTV's channel excels and takes home some worthy praise. Amongst others, the dubbed versions of international movies and Japanese Wrestling just steal the show. The reason behind it is the kind of lingo used in dubbing these programmes. Its slick, it's smart, its street and it is hilarious. Imagine, Jackie Chan in a martial arts film talking to a girl as if he's your peeche wali gali ka dada. "Eh item, kya bak bak kar re li hai", "Arre mandavli kar lete hain na" and "Apun ki sanak reli hai" are good examples of the kind of language used in most dubbed films on Bindass. And if that doesn't raise laughter, watching Japanese wrestlers talk like our favourite Bollywood stars is sure to have some rolling on the floor. Speaking on how UTV got the idea of using street lingo in dubbing their programmes, Mehta said "Our Head of Acquisition Manasi and our UTV Dubbing Head Rahul and their teams have a done a brilliant job of dubbing these programmes using local lingo and touch wood, its doing very well." | | < = src="http://banners.expressindia.com/banner/screen/si_story300x250.js"> < = src="http://banners.expressindia.com/adsnew/adjs.php?para=no&n=914780923&what=zone:574&target=_blank&exclude=," =text/> | Apart from all that mayhem, UTV has played its ace with the Go To Space contest. Participants only need to answer simple questions related to the channel and they stand a chance to win an actual space trip. In more ways than one, the contest has helped the channel's visibility in a great way and paved the way for audiences to tune into it. "The idea behind the Bingo Bindass Go to Space contest was to create curiosity among the viewers and help us stand out from the clutter. Bindass has partnered with the Rocket Plane company to offer young Indians their first-ever opportunity to experience space" says Mehta as she goes on to elaborate on the fact that space trips are still a rarity and very expensive deals. She believes that the Go To Space contest offers Bindass' target audience an 'out-of-the-world' experience and helps the channel connect and re-establish the brand's values of being fun, frank, free and fearless. Nonetheless, UTV's efforts have reaped a sweet fruit as Bindass has turned out to be a hit amongst the younger lot. |
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