Mumbai: First of its kind biking OTT show from the country, Cruising Legends: Dawn Patrol goes live on MX Player today. Cruising Legends is a cult, adventure, travel docu-series that explores the motorbiking lifestyle of long-distance commuters who explore the road and its many trappings. The show has raked in association with top botch brands like BMW – (Make Life a Ride), Gopro (Be a Hero) & Castrol 1 Ultimate.
Ever since the lockdown, travel has been restricted and ‘normal’ has changed for all. Cruising Legends and the brands have come together to create a unique opportunity for 4 ultimate riders, who have clocked the miles and earned their stripes. They ride together after a long time; to rediscover the road and unravel experiences along their journey, while making it to the breaking of dawn – to the easternmost sunrise in the country (Dong, Arunachal Pradesh) where the first light is seen as a symbol of hope and inspiration, to hold dear their passion for riding and exploring amidst these pandemic times.
The riders who are the pillars of the show come with their own unique stories which bring diverse flavors to the episodes, seen through the lens of these champion riders. 59-years-old Harsh Man Rai rides through on the most difficult motorable passes in the country to pay respect to the memory of his late father, who served during the Indo-China War through the bitter winter of 1962. Harsh is the co-founder of the well-known adventure travel company, Helmet Stories which organizes biking expeditions for long-distance commuters. Candida on the other hand is on a mission to educate the world about the importance of travel. The 28-year-old Bengaluru-based rider went on a solo motorcycle expedition to Sydney in 2018 and has crossed over 10 countries to date. What started as a desire to explore new cultures has now become a symbol of women’s rights.
The third rider is Vir Nakai who takes the show to its third episode. The 49-years-old rider takes his companions to experience a few days in the unknown – to go down untraveled paths, to camp/ live with indigenous people groups, and to understand their way of life. He believes that this would truly challenge the rest to step out of their comfort zone and gain a new perspective/ appreciation for the region. The final episode features the 39-years-old Ouseph Chacko who leads his companions to raw adventure in the last leg of the journey, as they approach Dong village where they witness the first light at the break of dawn. Be it a dirt track with vintage jeeps or rafting down a river, Ouseph takes everything head-on and convinces his fellow riders to partake in the adventures. Chacko’s episode being the most action-packed alongside a moving climax with the country’s first sunrise that makes everyone look at the world with new hope & inspiration.
Speaking about the show, Creator, Showrunner and Founder at TheVibe, Asad Abid said, “The core essence of the series are the tales of the road via a motorbiking lifestyle as the means to explore and understand the world, while encountering the legends along the journey in the most organic and authentic manner. This is to create a truly global franchise for responsible and conscious motorcycling with India being a destination for motorbike enthusiasts from across the globe. At TheVibe, we have always celebrated experiential travel and explored stories through lifestyle-led narratives via world-class aesthetics and rich visuals that come of age on video.”.
Speaking about the concept, Kartik Rao, Co-Founder, TheVibe, “In 2020, TheVibe had embarked on expanding its original IP catalog which was AVOD-based into an SVOD play, and with this an interesting opportunity presented itself from MXPlayer to reboot Cruising Legends, a branded content series produced in 2017 under TheVibe Originals for AVOD, to be converted into a long-format episodic narrative as an MX Original Series. Cruising legends had won the Bronze for The Best Branded Content Series at the Lighthouse Insights Digital Marketing Awards 2018. We had reached 29 million people and garnered 11 million views. We felt that the property could grow. MX Player’s intervention has scaled up the project and turned it around as a multi proposition. At TheVibe, we are trying to create content that is true to life and as authentic as possible, marketers are looking for hooks but those that seem more genuine these days. Advertising is taking care of their vanilla communication, but content like ours creates the real connection with audiences”.
Shot with a skeletal crew and while maintaining Covid- 19 protocols throughout, Cruising Legends: Dawn Patrol is slated to cater to 10 million people globally and puts India on the map as a biking destination. The show is directed by Asad Abid & Nishanth Pio,
Catch the show on
