You saw that song!!?

The networked digital space offers multiple access points and sharing opportunities. The proliferation of media, affordable mobile technology, and interlinking of internet and mobile, has changed the way we consume news, entertainment, views, literature, music... Almost all media are replaceable, or at least interchangeable and the good thing is most content creators have risen to the opportunity and have made their products available. 

No doubt this has changed and shaped the way we think, the way we live. One might find this experience extremely overwhelming. Imagine the utter confusion of a person who went in a coma in the early 90s and woke up in this day and age!!

We read news on mobile over newspaper, sample opinions on Twitter over editorials, watch the latest soap online. This consumer shift has happened in the first decade of this century... Any guesses whats to come!? 

The most noticeable change that i see on a daily basis (by the virtue of being in the music playing industry), is the way we consume music. Radio is a audio visual medium. We play popular music. Listeners sing along. We play familiar music. People Hum... whistle. Whatever music we play - listeners visualise.

Yes, you got that right. We WATCH music. 

Be it the serene vales of Europe or dames in sarees - music in the last decade has moved from an aural medium to a more audio-VISUAL media. The purists might argue otherwise, but i am convinced that when music is packaged visually, it has a wider recall. The powers-be of Hindi movies have understood this really well - and now the visuals are packaged so properly and bombarded so much, that one cannot escape the perfect world created to put that song in your mind...

You listen to any song for the first time - and you make an image of it in your head. You visualise what the singer so soulfully is trying to put across. You see the video of that song, and then listen to the song on radio - and all you will remember is the visuals 'they' want you to see.

Next time, when you are tuned to the radio, block the images and focus only on the song - the singers voice, the words, the composition, the instrumentation. Let me know if you feel the difference.

Why can't Datta Snacks have a queue?

It's that time of the year, just like the remaining 365 days, when i travel to Mumbai very often. One of the things i like to do during these journeys is to eat at Datta Snacks, which is right after the ghat section. Its a must-stop for most Marathi speaking people. They have excellent Maharashtrian snacks and i recommend sabudana khichadi, kothimbir wadi, and their thaalipeeth. The taste is almost home-cooked - with lot of ghee! As you enter, there is a cash counter where you pay and get food / tea coupons. Further inside is the service counter where 4-5 boys plate and serve food as quickly as possible. The kitchen is right behind through a door. 

Its getting the food that always puts me off. Since they dont have table service, one has to wait agonisingly at the over-the-counter set up, with a crowd of hungry, tired travelers - arm outstretched, the food coupon in your fingertips trying to get attention of one of the boys behind the counter; the other arm holding on to something or someone, hoping you dont get shoved around, lose your balance; and praying desperately that you get your entire order in one go, so that you dont have to go through this nightmare again...

The picture alongside is 20% of the rush crowd. And trust me when i say that the crowd is unruly. The same people who stand in a queue at the cash counter, suddenly mob the service counter like the food is going to get over in the next 10 seconds!!

This blog is not about Datta. Its about globalisation and how businesses - local and international - are "supposed" to be learning and adapting in an ever increasing market, where along with the product and service, a lot of emphasis is given to consumer experience. 

Due to monopolistic situation and location advantage, a certain complacency is seen / expected. But in the long run, some new practices need to be brought in to please the more demanding customer, and pull the business out from the comfort zone. There is no option but to bring best practices to the table. One just has to go to the food court in a popular mall to know how much Indians love to eat. It will be truly unfortunate (for local businesses) if international chains employ the best talent, pick the fast moving products, and bring international touch to the overall experience. 

How long will the Indian businesses operate in isolation? I have gone to food joints that have token system like they had in banks! I have been to thali place where the owner was screaming at patrons to maintain silence!! There is a burger joint in Pune where they proudly have written, "If you want your burger in 2 mins, you have come to the wrong place."

And on the other hand, I have eaten at ice-cream stalls where they have insisted that i sample each one of their flavours. There are local / desi thali chains that have mastered the art of hospitality so well, that you eat two more chappatis just because they are nice to you! There is wada-pao handcart who is a pro at delivering in the car, and keeps the place spic n span after his closing time. There are restaurants that have seasonal menus with their standard one. The list is endless...

Few weeks back i interacted with a process firm (audit agency) that has brought some international learning to their projects in India. Just a fortnight back, i went to Starbucks and discovered Kothimbir wadi with Wasabi sauce!! Right next door to Datta is McDonalds which has adapted its product line with consumer insight and is serving aloo tikki burger (the ubiquitous wada-pao), which is already one of their highest grossing item, and is opening its first all-veg outlet at Katra.

Restaurant business have started practices, set trends, and enjoy huge loyalty. I had no concept that 2 idlis make one plate till i ate at a restaurant! The food joints from my college days, still occupy value-for-money positioning in my mind... But thats not enough. 

The challenge for local businesses is to add value with their popular offering. With growing customer expectations, along with core-competency they need to provide pleasant atmosphere and overall experience. And i am not talking only about food here...

The food at Datta is excellent. All i am asking is, Why cant someone from Datta walk over to McDonalds and see how the zigzag queue avoids mad rush at the service counter, and install one? 

Or start a drive through!??

How will we see glocalisation if we dont adopt global practices?

Resolution - 2014

I decided last week in the last week of December that i will try to blog as frequently as possible. Tonight is the first time i have got little mind space!!

Despite living in multitudes, my romance with emptiness continues. I am going to face my fears and discover more, learn more, share more.
More importantly, i am going to "make" time. I don't remember my last blog and that's just terrible. 

So many things are happening. These indeed are interesting times. There is going to be a lot of things to write about - elections, movies, project at work, health, music, experiences, anecdotes, learning, interactions with wise people, trends, people, culture, philosophy, parents guilt tripping, neighbours, boring housing society meetings, travel, performance of my car, media, food, criminal cases, Supreme court interventions, cab drivers, vocabulary of my niece, the PhD program, meet ups, my point of view on facial hair, conspiracy theories, intolerance, and of course, insipid boring blogs.

Couple of weeks back i had an interesting chat with some close friends about change. I was missing who i was 10 years back. The intensity and the suddenness of the longing took me by surprise. What did i start out as? Who have i become? Am i scared to accept who i have become? Well, that's what i am going to figure out! 

Have a wonderful 2014 everyone... And i hope your journey is as interesting as what you set out to discover!!

Marathi Movies - an overview

April 19, 2013 is not just another Friday. For most of us the weekend will begin, party plans will be made, throw in a movie, dinner, and finally, brace for the new week. However, for those associated with the Marathi movie business - directly or indirectly, tomorrow is a monumental day!! In a first of sorts, SIX Marathi movies are releasing tomorrow! Yes, you read it right - SIX Marathi movies are releasing together.

I do not say it with pride. Not at all. In fact, i want to draw your attention to the sorry state of our movies.

Before i do that, I just want to list down names of some of the people associated with these six movies, so you know these movies are not just some random efforts: Mohan Agashe, Smita Talwalkar, Suhas Joshi, Mahesh Manjrekar, Pallavi Joshi, Satish Alekar, Yashwant Dev, Sachin Khedekar, Mrunal Kulkarni, Reema Lagoo, Pratiksha Lonkar, Mohan Joshi, Milind Gunaji, Vijay Kuvalekar, Sharad Ponkshe, Shirirang Godbole, Guru Thakur, Gajendra Ahire, Subodh Bhave, Trupti Bhoir, Kishore Kadam, Subodh Bhave, Suhas Palshikar, Satish Pulekar, Kishori Shahane, Sunil Barve, Milind Lele, Vibhawari Deshpande, Shubhankar Atre, Harshad Rajpathak, Neha Joshi, Siddharth Chandekar, Kishore Belekar, Umesh Kamat, Priyanka Yadav, Swapnil Rajshekhar, Supriya Karnik, Ashalata Vabagavkar, Suhasini Deshpande and also marks the Marathi debut of Ashutosh Rana.

As you can imagine, for the last couple of weeks there is a fierce competition among these films for viewer attention, availability of screens to project their work, and of course, to get actual patrons who will come and pay to watch the movie. I like competition; i have nothing against it. I have a problem with unfair competition.

Maharashtra has the unique problem where regional movies have been marginalised due to Hindi movies. They share the same production studios, editing set up, mixing studios, censor certification queues, marketing space, screen availability and then fight to get people to watch the movies. It is safe to assume the economies of the Hindi movies are far larger than those of regional one. A Marathi movie cannot compete with the Hindi movie for outdoor costs, or marketing plans, or media plugs. In my estimate, a Marathi movie with good cast and top notch crew can be made, with just the marketing budget of a Hindi movie!

All this talk of "return of golden era" and "revival" of Marathi movies is nonsense. Just because few films win National awards and are screened in international film festivals, doesn't mean all our films are wonderful. We have gone on too long saying that "content" is hero in our films. Seriously, we have some really really bad movies. Bad enough to question why it was made and what did the producer achieve by putting in all that money. Barring couple of movies with a good content, and few with bearable content, we have to accept that largely, our content is poor. If the content is good, there is a lot of mouth-to-mouth publicity. Do you remember the last Marathi movie that created that kind of buzz??

From what i know, about 120 movies got censor certification in 2012, and approx 90 got commercial release. I am very sure that 90% movies lost money. Less than 5% would have been profitable. And i could be wrong, so lets do a simple experiment. Out of the approximately 90 movies that released from Jan-Dec 2012, i want you to name 15 of them. I doubt you can do that, even if your mother tongue is Marathi. And there is a reason for that - "lack of visibility". 

Our film business is unorganised. We have not been able to plan our schedules effectively. We have not learned from the Hindi movies which happen and release alongside ours. The simple model is to keep a tight production budget, follow marketing time line and have specially allocated funds for that, let the music play out happen for at least a couple of months, fix the release date and then do the final run. But how often does this happen?

Why don't we see posters of Marathi movies in cinema halls a week after the mahurat shot is taken? Let it release after one year, but every time i go to the cinema hall, i will see that poster. It will generate some curiosity in my mind. Or i will at least be aware that there is such a movie thats coming!!

I want offer my point of view to 3 concern areas: State, Stars, and Screens. 


State:
There is something intrinsically wrong with the Maharashtra State government Subsidy program to promote Marathi movies. I suggest you read http://www.filmfed.org/e-tax2.html and tell me how will it benefit the industry. The subsidy ranges from 5L to 30L, depending on various factors. Allegations keep flying on what producers have to do, to get their subsidy. I am not okay with this subsidy model as it is only making sure the producer doesn't lose money. It is a superficial bandage. The problem runs deep down. Marathi industry needs to deliver good movies, consistently, for at least 10-15 years, and create a brand of themselves. That way, not only Marathi speaking, but everyone who wants to watch quality movies will come to the cinema hall. This subsidy model is not addressing that, and hence is not meaningful.

First, our industry survives on first-time producers, who are ignorant about content and costs. And once they burn their fingers, they say good-bye for good. How does this subsidy help? Well, it only helps the people who are in the business of making money off the subsidy. These guys don't care about quality content. They just want to keep making movies in 15-20L budget and continue getting 30L subsidy. 

Secondly, The government has a million other things to do. Why will a cultural dept be bothered about Marathi movies? I am sure that is not the only cultural activity on their desk! Ok, may be i am being a little harsh, so let me get to my original question: How does this subsidy help to get viewers? 

Hence, in my opinion, the pressure is on the government to offer this subsidy in a more sensible manner. We all agree that if the content is good, audiences will come in. Every year, some of our movies are truly original, choose progressive topics and have an unique approach. All the government has to do, is give the push in the right direction. 

For example, let the subsidy come in form of advt space. Allow Marathi movie advertisements in the Marathi newspapers at DAVP rates. That way, people will at least know there is such a movie, and there is a chance that some more people will do watch it. Offer discounted rates for shooting; give subsidy on the cans; waive off costs at the editing and mixing studio. Do everything that will help the team to focus on making good content, instead of worrying about costs. Someone had even suggested that the govt should give movie passes to govt employees and their families, so there is assured viewership! 

Frankly, they should incentivise the subsidy. Give the subsidy money only to those movies that are running to packed houses!! Reward movies that are recognised at State and National levels.




Stars:
Do we really have them? Yes, we do. Refer to the list of people associated with the six movies releasing tomorrow. (Stars is an open term for those on-screen and those behind the camera.) We have stars in two extremes - those who are extremely inaccessible, and those who are seen shopping for vegetables in the bazaar! Most of our Marathi stars have scaled their way to where they are - from college plays, to amateur theatre, and their work can be sampled in theatre, TV and films, and they effortlessly rule all these mediums! Because they do a variety of work, it is difficult to "brand" them.

Let me give an example. Think of Akshay Kumar. Or Vidya Balan. Or Ranbir Kapoor. Even Marathi manoos, Ritiesh Deshmukh. They evoke certain imagery. They have a brand. I associate certain qualities with them. What do any 3 Marathi stars of your choice, make you think of? Again, we have two ends of the spectrum - either we have sultans of slapstick or we have actors who do serious stuff. 

Yes, as i write i am feeling that this is a difficult subject to tread, but it must be done.

Perhaps comparing to Hindi stars is a mistake. Let us take examples of regional cinema of north, south or east. Do we have a Marathi equivalent of Ravi Kishen and Manoj Tiwari? Can any of our stars outshine Mohan Lal, Mammoty, and Prithviraj or Chiranjeevi and Nagarjuna, or Dev and Jeet? Do people throng to watch anyones movies, like they do for Rajnikant, Kamal Hasann, Vikram and Suriya?

Trust me, i would love to be proven wrong. I am not even asking for the OTT love for matinee idols and temples. I simply seek fans who wait for weeks to watch the first-day-first-show of their favourite Marathi star - be it actor, director, music composer, singer.

I think its a two pronged issue with "projection" of an image and aversion to limelight. Some of our stars are so selective, and so media shy, that at times you doubt if they really are in the media business! Interacting with the media (even to make "just" an appearance), is part of their job description. Public figures cannot be reclusive hermits, who talk to media only when their movies are coming out. A continuous dialog with the audience is necessary for the viewer to "want" to go and watch the movie of their favourite star. Along with the entertainment value, an audience goes for an experience to see their matinee idol do silly stuff, romance, suffer, fight, come out victorious. They identify with the character, they aspire to be like the person on screen.  If as a viewer, i don't know the star, and i don't identify with that person, why will i spend money to go watch the movie?

Bottom line is, a person go to watch much more than a movie. Do our stars offer them that?

Screens:
It is unfortunate that six movies have to release together (in the middle of IPL) and every weekend from then, we will have Marathi movies jostling for space till end of monsoon. It is even more unfortunate that from Eid till New Year weekend the big banner Hindi movies release, and they block all the screens. Well, the State govt earns much more entertainment tax from the Hindi movie business. Why should it care if Marathi films don't get screens?

The Hindi movie business has shown us that "quality" is easily replaced with a "marketing blitzkrieg" and multiple screens. I don't think we should go down that way. There might be no room for us to make a come back from!

What we need to figure out is, how can we get more screens for our films. Our cities are early morning rising cities. Why don't we start 8 am show on Saturday and Sunday for Marathi films? There are so many drama theatres that go empty on weekdays. Perhaps, they can set up some satellite transmission system and project movies. Well, that may be an expensive enterprise...

The problem i think is not that much of screens, as it is of viewers. We miserly people will wait one or two months for the movie to come on TV, instead of going to watch it in a cinema hall. Especially Marathi films.

So, best case scenario, don't wait to get screens. Release the movie on television!! A television premiere will get far more audiences than the number of people in cinema halls. Imagine how many cinema halls you have to fill, when you can reach 30L viewers on TV in one go!! That requires certain amount of guts and huge risks from content acquisition teams, which seems little difficult as of now.

The whole thing just boils down to one thing. The Marathi movies are sandwiched between a cash rich Hindi industry and a disloyal audience. How the Marathi film industry evolves from here, will define the fate of regional cinema across the country. The fight is not with extraordinary content. It is with a carefully marketed product... And that's what we all need to remember.

Epilogue: In the past few months, i have had the privilege of interacting with some interesting people from the Marathi movie business, who have greatly helped in shaping my thoughts for this post. To all of them, i am very grateful.

PS: By the time i posted this blog, the 6th movie dropped out due to "technical problem" and is now postponed to 26 April, where another Marathi movie made by a well respected banner is releasing.

Make 2013 Year of Rape Convictions

Rape is not a new crime. Its gets reported consistently. Many never do. Some make it to the front page, some times in the crime pages, some times, just a footnote buried in the city pages. It happens across various parts of the country, socio-economic groups, age groups, day or night - irrespective of what the woman wore. The politicians take easy way (of being populist?) and hide behind the patriarchal set up and let things be. The Tehelka report on police stupidity and insensitivity is epic. Basically, better to pass the blame elsewhere. Worse, to the victim.

There is some discussion in the Parliament sparked by the Delhi Gang Rape. Keeping my fingers crossed with some effective, constructive, implementable solution to come out. 

We need to make 2013 Year of Rape Convictions.

The Home dept and Supreme court MUST pass an instruction to all the district courts in the country to have AT LEAST ONE JUDGEMENT per day per court in 2013. 

Of the 30 million pending cases, prioritise the rape cases and start a separate bench to clear the rape cases. We just need one judge per court to work 365 days to bring a huge social change. After a speedy and fair trial, 365 rape cases will be closed in one year in every district and high court in the country. So, in one swift move approximately over 2 lakh cases can be resolved. 

Once we have that amount of convictions in the country, the potential rapists will think hundred time before any mischief. And the media too has to give it adequate coverage, like it does to the crime. In all fairness, daily one picture of the convict and the punishment given to him should be splashed across all newspapers and audio visual media.

PS: There was a Phoolan who was gang raped. She got her vengeance by picking up arms. If this poor conviction rate prevails, i wont be surprised if more women choose arms over the legal system. There will be anarchy and situation will truly get out of control.

For the sporting spirit of the nation

The flavour of the season is the Independence day after the Olympic games, and this blog is for sports in India. Take a look around. We are not a sporting nation. I am going to list a few solutions to improve our sporting performance at the international games. Hope you can contribute too...

After school where it is mandatory to do some physical exercises, most of us drop sports in college. In my graduation batch of over 350 students, there was one long distance runner, two badminton players, few girls in the hockey team and two of us in the basketball team. While we toiled on the ground and court, the others were busy doing tuition for MBA exams, getting to know the other gender, or killing time at the cafe near college. By the time i finished my post graduation, i had stopped playing basketball completely and was running once in a blue moon. Once i started working, there was absolutely no room for sports! I am sure this is the case for most of us. We are active on the sports field till we are 18-20 yrs old and then life is 100% work. It was only a year back at work i started playing table tennis at work, and then football on few weekends and now swim regularly. Happy realisation, i must say!
(PS: Playing cricket on sunday morning doesnt count. Cricket isn't an Olympic sport.)

We don't watch sports. We don't support sports. For any performer, other than the rush from the performance, a solid high comes from the crowd support. The adulation. The fans. Those who cheer. Unfortunately, same story repeats with the annual sports day which has an packed audience. Once school is over, no one comes to cheer, no other sport meets are supported by spectators. There might be one odd wrestling meet that some politician will sponsor and get major footfalls. Or like the annual football tournament in Kolhapur. 

The pressure to grow up is another killer. I remember my grandfather asking me to stop playing and help in domestic chores - fill and ferry buckets of water. My father told me to act my age - and focus on studies, get a job, start working. There are hundreds of my friends who were good at sports in school. We even had a senior at school who ran 100mts under 13 secs. I can proudly say that each one of my batch mates has represented the school / state in west zone and national level in various team sports, track n field games. As of now, except for those in the Armed forces, i wonder if any of them even has a pair of running shoes! Expectation to be "grown up" and "act our age" unfortunately equals to giving up sports.

For a vast majority the urbanisation of the last decade has led to disappearance of playgrounds. There was a time when the grounds were walking distance from home. Now with buildings running for kilometers together, there are no open spaces. We once went to play at a ground nearby. If you are fielding at long on, you are next to the wicket keeper for some other chaps playing cricket. You don't know which direction the ball is going to hit you from! Our urban planners need to push for some policy change where open spaces, where people can play some sport, pursue some game.

There are several issues plaguing our sports, and a lot of them are non-sports related. They are cultural problems and hopefully we can address them holistically. And please take a break and be little objective before foolishly forwarding smses that talk about Olympic performance of 1.2 billion strong country. Criticism ever helps. Only those who are internationally accomplished have the right to comment on the performance of the athletes. 

Gold medals will follow. Let us start playing first! So we can understand the sport, appreciate the sport.

Diving in the pool

I have started swimming at a public pool near my house. Its a fairly popular pool, where a mix of people come to get exercise, learn swimming, or just to beat the summer heat. There are hourly batches, but since i am the way i am, i have managed to go across all time bands in the morning hours.
The way kids who are learning are treated stands out sorely and i said to myself, this isn't working, its not right. You will imagine that swimming coaches will have better people skills, especially while dealing with kids who will break into their worst crying sounds. I  realised we are years away from ways to train the trainers! And in my little hypothesis, i think our rote system of schooling is to blame. The teacher says, do this and you obediently do it. No thinking there. This goes on in most aspects of life too. Parents, elders, swimming coaches in this instance.
In each batch, there will be one kid who is learning how to dive in the water. There will be the coach in water, reassuring the kid to jump and there will be a parent who will be breathing down the kids neck to jump in. There are verbal instructions - keep the head between knees, fling yourself hands stretched out, bend this way, jump that way... The instructions don't stop despite the kid diving flat on the water and hurting his / her stomach.
The rote education system relies on the child capturing / retaining based on repeat. At the pool, i think the coach (and the unnecessary parent), hope the diver will learn thru trial and error. No one is thinking of actually teaching the kid how to dive.
There is an out of the box solution and i will try it this week. 
Everybody has a phone with video camera and enough memory space. Record the kid when he / she is jumping and show them what they are doing wrong when going thru video together. Give specific instructions. Compare videos on youtube. 
Yes, there will be some privacy issues. Of course, there will be people who will be uncomfortable. However, if a corner is kept for this mobile camera and those who don't want to get shot stay away, i don't think anyone else should have a problem. Alternatively, the pool representative can be trusted to shoot and delete the clips on daily basis.
Learning has to happen outside of conventional means. We are stuck with unimaginative education system, but we don't have to live with it all our lives.