Vishnu Mohta, 34 years old, joined SVF (formerly Shree Venkatesh Films) in 2007, as the head of the Digital Cinema business. After making it the largest player in West Bengal and fourth largest network in India within a year of operations, Vishnu now heads the New Media division of SVF Entertainment. He recently launched its first venture, hoichoi, the one stop destination for Bengali entertainment – movies, originals and songs (coming soon) – under his aegis, targeting 250 million Bengalis globally.
Vishnu has worked with KPMG in Risk Advisory and Lloyds TSB in Corporate Strategy in their London offices, in the past. He has a Bachelor of Commerce degree from Bond University Australia and MSc in International Business from Aston University Birmingham, UK.
Vishnu is a member of prestigious organizations including Entrepreneurs Organization (EO) and The Indus Entrepreneurs (TiE). He is also a member of Beta Gamma Sigma (BGS), a society of top 10% students from the best B schools of the world. It is the highest recognition a business student, anywhere in the world, can receive in a business program accredited by AACSB International.
Experienced in Corporate Finance and Strategy, with strong analytical and interpersonal skills, Vishnu has an in-depth understanding of the Media and Entertainment industry.
I have always enjoyed creating businesses, enjoyed working with people who are extremely talented because one gets to learn a lot from them. Doing something that changes the eco-system, and changes the level playing field and building an organisation has always excited me and that brought me to hoichoi. Outside of work, I like reading and watching movies.
Excerpts:
1) Idea behind SVF to venture into the Bengali OTT platform?
SVF is one of Eastern India’s largest entertainment companies, having business interests in Film Production, Film Distribution, Television content Production, Digital Cinema, Music, New Media, Cinemas and Equipment Rental. We own a huge catalogue of Bengali movies, and Music rights as well as produce thousands of hours of TV content, so that combination of strengths is why we wanted to get into the third form of content production which is web content after films and television. We looked at the market and we felt that there was nobody doing anything focused with a longer term approach that would have regional content in mind from an original content point of view. hoichoi, which is the largest Bengali entertainment app, was a natural and logical extension – a forward integration, if you will – of our offerings in the field of entertainment
Also we felt that in general one of the biggest problems in an OTT platform is ‘discovery’ and that there is so much content out there that people find it difficult to discover content and we felt that there is a niche to go after a specific language, cater to that language and create content specifically for that particular language. That’s when hoichoi was conceived as the go-to destination for Bengali entertainment.
2) What is the scope of digital OTT platforms in Bengali…?
As you are aware, the digital ecosystem has grown thanks to the proliferation of smartphones and the growing availability and affordability of internet – 3G, 4G and broadband etc. We saw the potential for a digital content platform and the opportunity to serve the untapped audience of 250 million plus Bengalis who, at that number, are the world’s third largest ethnic group. So we feel there is immense scope for a Bengali OTT platform and with the quality and extent of content that we offer – the best of Original series, over 500 Movies and 1000 songs (coming soon), we are confident that hoichoi will attract and resonate with millions of lovers of Bengali entertainment in India and across the world.
3) What is the content strategy for hoichoi..?
Our objective is to become the one-stop Entertainment destination for Bengalis in India and the Bengali diaspora. We want to offer 360 degrees of entertainment to our audience – so we have a combination of old and new movies (including Hoichoi Exclusives and World Premieres) and 2 Original Web Series every month. Along with these we are looking at Short Films and Documentaries and we are also launching our Music streaming platform during the 1st quarter of 2018. In our opinion Movies, Originals and Music are the three pillars of entertainment and we want to build a vast library for each of them.
4) Given the scenario where most of the OTT platforms running in investment mode, what are the revenue models available for hoichoi…
Currently the Revenue Stream for hoichoi is through Subscriptions, and there are no advertisements on the platform. We have three competitively priced subscription plans – 3 Months (Rs. 149), 6 Months (Rs. 249) and 12 Months (Rs. 399). For another year at least we only want to focus on subscription revenues.
5) Would you be able to survive as a single language player while most others are multilingual operators…?
There are 250 million Bengalis worldwide and we see that as a huge market to go after and will keep us busy. There are no immediate plans to diversify to other languages.
6) s the Advertiser in WB open to investing in an OTT platform
As I mentioned earlier, hoichoi, currently offers an AD-free seamless viewing experience. We want our audience to enjoy uninterrupted entertainment anytime, anywhere. We have consciously decided to focus on the SVOD model in Year 1.
7) What according to you are the challenges that OTT operators facing in today’s scenario…?
More than a challenge there is a need to educate the consumer about how an OTT platform makes it possible to view all the entertainment content they want to see, in a non-linear on-demand format on their mobile phones, on their big screen devices. That’s the behavioural change, that’s the education every new industry or product that comes out in the world has to strive to achieve.
8) There is so much data available, how do you plan to get all that data together to keep your consumer on your platform?
We have been lucky to be the market leader for so many years, been in the content production business for 20 years and been the market leaders for the past 10 years. We have been focussed on one language i.e. Bengali. While it’s a constant challenge to create original content that is going to be appreciated by the user, that they are going to love and binge-watch, but this comes naturally to us as it’s in the DNA of the company to create good content in movies and television that people want to watch.
9) hoichoi is a subscription platform, are consumers happy and is there an advantage of being Ad-free?
We are delighted with the response since launch, the results have been extremely encouraging in terms of App Downloads and overall Subscriptions. In fact, the Conversion % for Downloads to Subscribers have been above the industry average.
I feel that people are more than willing to pay for the opportunity to enjoy great original premium content in excellent viewing quality, with a great user experience, on the go and at their own convenience. Also if you consider the price we are asking for, it works to less than Rs 1.10 a day (@ Rs399 per year) to enjoy India’s (and perhaps the world’s) biggest and best Bengali content offering. As a company which has premium content on the platform, our consumers are happy to pay and get value for money.
10) Will hoichoi also look into producing content?
hoichoi is not a production company it’s a Network, almost like a commissioning company. There are talented producers in the market, hoichoi plays the role of a Creative producer does not do Line Production and we are happy to work with as many partners as possible to execute the stories and ideas we come up with or they come up with.
11) Are you open for content syndication deals with other multilingual operators on non-exclusive basis…?
No
12) Way Forward for hoichoi?
More and more of the same… We want to add music streaming early next year, increase the pace of our original content and acquire more movies and add more devices which will be available early next year. A lot of reach and content depth is to be added and we are only 3 months in this business. We have a lot to do and achieve more in the next 3 months starting 2018. We are launching at least 2 new original shows every month which is the fastest pace by any player in this market and we wish to scale it up soon.
