After one of the most successful season of Bigg Boss, COLORS is back to entertain us with the popular reality show KhatronKeKhiladi – Darr Ki University, hosted by action-man, super hit Bollywood director Rohit Shetty.
Shot in Bulgaria, the show has popular celebrities such as Ada Khan, KarishmaTanna, Karan Patel, ShivinNarang, TejashwiPrakash, BalrajSyal, AmrutaKhanvilkar, Rani Chatterjee, RJ Malishka and DharmeshYelande.
KhatronKeKhiladi is set to replace Bigg Boss Weekend ka War on weekends from 22nd February at 9 pm on COLORS.
On the sidelines of the mega-press launch of the show, Medianews4u caught up with Nina ElaviaJaipuria – Head, Hindi Mass Entertainment and Kids TV Network, Viacom18, for a brief chat about the show and more.
Read on
Rohit Shetty has been hosting the show for 5 years now… What makes Rohit Shetty the perfect host for KhatronKeKhiladi?
Rohit is very special.
There is only one synonym for him, ‘stunts’ and that’s the biggest thing that draws us to him because that is the DNA of the show.
Then, of course, the embellishments that go around the show, as to where you are going and Bulgaria will get its own newness, as you saw in the promos it is different and it didn’t look like the last season because of the fact that it is a new country and of course there is a mix of contestants and these are the three very important things that make the show, the fact that the stunts are the DNA and the stuntman is Rohit Shetty, the place and the contestants and these three things define the success of the show last year and these three things, you have seen the trailer and I believe that it will shatter all records all over again
Is the scheduling of KhatronkeKhiladi right after Bigg Boss a strategic move? Do you think the audience will move from Salman Khan to Rohit Shetty?
Yes. I think this is a great baton holding up from one end to the other, we believe we are handing the baton from one big show to the next big show because these are big-ticket items even from a P&L perspective and hence are tentpole investments as well. These investments need their rightful ROI from a viewership perspective and from a P&L business perspective. That is why we couldn’t have actually had a better transition because when Bigg Boss happens on the channel, the platform becomes very fertile, and the fertility of the channel brings new eyeballs, the new eyeballs will be then taken from one big tentpole to the next big tentpole, from Salman Khan to a Rohit Shetty, which is equally big.
In the promos there are some unseen stunts, does Rohit Shetty himself also create a few stunts? What is the additional entertainment quotient the viewers can expect from this season of KhatronKeKhiladi?
Yes while there is a team, some of the stunts have been particularly designed by Rohit Shetty himself, there are some of the stunts which have never been done before on KhatronKeKhiladi and the two that I’m actually talking about which are also in the promos such as a moving train we have never done before and the second is the aerial stunt with a chopper been designed by Rohit Shetty, the aerial stunt has been done many years ago with Akshay Kumar and some things are very very big
We have Bharti and Harsh peppering the show, they will be coming and going as they are not contestants, so keeping them there throughout would not add value to the show but we have used them much as we could in upping the entertainment quotient because the show is so heavy on adventure, thrill, and adrenaline that you need a lighter side and for those lighter moments we have both of them. There is also a romance between Karishma Tanna and an ape, with which we are trying to bring the temperature down to make sure that you are not on the edge of your seat all the time and there are different tracks in the show.
What is the marketing plan and How are you promoting the show? How big is the show going on digital?
The marketing campaign is actually going to rely on Bigg Boss and it has relied on Bigg Boss, the way we have promoted KKK, it started long back and we have really used those eyeballs to make sure that we sample the show, people see the flavor of the show and what to expect, how Rohit Shetty will perform.
The biggest thing for us from a marketing perspective was, of course, the fact that it is on a fertile platform and we have used Bigg Boss and we have used our biggest fiction shows, which are the top 3 shows in the country today among the top 10 Naagin, ChhotiSardarni, and Shakti all three are in the top 10 fiction shows. We have extensively used these shows as eyeball samplers to make sure that people know about the next big tentpole after Big Boss is KKK.
From an integration perspective, we integrated KhatronkeKhiladi in Bigg Boss where Rohit Shetty went into the Bigg Boss house. We also did a big integration of KhatronkeKhiladi at the Filmfare Awards where we talked about the show and for me, these are the two big marketing ideas that got integrated as a part of the campaign, as usual, there will be a spectacular outdoor campaign and Rohit Shetty demands that we put him on outdoor and so he will be on the hoardings and then we have radio as Malishka is one of the contestants.
We have a lovely digital strategy this time, which of course will cross all social media platforms, we are doing Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok. We are not leaving any stone unturned and we are actually doing a daring challenge across platforms, a digital daring challenge we will start with the contestants first and then we will roll it out to viewers. Tell us what it is and show us something that you have done which is a daring act and participate in the challenge
We have taken clips of the stunts and we have also done two sides of the personalities of the contestants, one side which is telling them to take the Khatra and the other side which is trying to stop them. We have done a lot of such things on the digital platform which brings in newness in the digital content.
How difficult is it to get viewers to on TV with the boom of OTT platforms?
TV is going to remain the medium of the future. Whatever it is worth, and I am asked this repeatedly and my answer doesn’t change. OTT is here and TV is here and they will co-exist, no matter how much you try; there will always be two platforms.
Even after NTO because, According to me, TV in India is a family viewing conversation, it is about having one TV in the household where the family comes together to watch and that’s not going away. What you do on OTT and what you do on your private screen is very private; it’s very individual and has its own space and while TV has its own space. It is the only largest medium today which advertisers can use to reach out to their consumers. To be honest, the penetration of TV is only at 66%, we still have so much more to go. TV is here to stay for sure and the fact that TV gives you longetivity, advertiser integration which is clutter-breaking, I believe the content shelf-life for time for TV is months whereas on digital it’s for a few days.
What has been the advertiser’s response to the show?
A lot of talks are on and we have got three sponsors already. A lot of them normally join once they see the show, they want to see how Bulgaria is looking and how is the show going to do but we have a very positive response from the sponsors. The thing about it is in an environment which is sluggish I strongly believe in the fact that when your property and your brand is a winner, then there are takers for sure, so whether it’s a KhatronKeKhiladi or whether it’s a Bigg Boss, or whether it’s an IPL, these are all well-known and tried and tested brands. So even in a slowdown, brands ensure that they keep aside monies for these events. No matter how sluggish the economy is, I’m sure this quarter is going to be good for us as we had Bigg Boss and now have KhatronKeKhiladi and MujhseShaadiKaroge.
How much does this show give to a brand beyond ROI?
Many of our brands and advertisers know and understand the strength that our platform offers to them and that is why we have Maruti Suzuki that has continued from the last season of KhatronKeKhiladi to this season. Obviously, they saw merit and realized that it was the number one non-fiction show last year, also the fact that there is Rohit Shetty and there is Bulgaria along with these 10 contestants which are some strong reasons that have convinced them to come on the show.
We have Mountain Dew, which to me is all about taking the risk. There can be no better brand fit and hence they are on board, we also have Balaji wafers as snack partners. The more you notice that there are brands who are seeing value; one is in terms of the ROI that they get and the fact that when the show becomes popular, there are emotions and are conversations. For Bigg Boss, there were 5000 posts already and that’s the kind of growth and ROI that a brand is looking for. We have given them a lot more than what it means, the pure vanilla FCT 30/40 seconder you play.
This year on Big Boss we did a lot of integration like Quacker Oats, a lot of passive and active innovations, there is so much that which is not measurable, how you take your advertising message in a non- advertising manner to your viewer.
