Mumbai : UDigital, the recently announced digital media venture founded by Ronnie Screwvala, B.Saikumar and Ajay Chacko, announced its brand name as Arre. The venture plans to go live with Arre later this calendar year.
Arre is an original content destination that will be a unique storytelling platform across genres and formats.
Arre is one of the most commonly spoken words across India – a friendly, Indian colloquial term that is popularly understood as ‘Hey’. While its origins are in Hindi, it is an expression that’s not only understood throughout the length and breadth of the country but has also been included in the Oxford dictionary of the English language, as an ‘all purpose Indian-English interjection’.
Arre portrays a range of emotions; from the ‘surprised and the questioning’ to the ‘friendly thumbs-up affirmative’ to ‘disagreement and protest’ to ‘Arre yaar!’ It crosses boundaries of language, audience groups and geographies.
Arre is Indian, young, cool, bold, opinionated, fearless and entertaining. It’s the wow moment of digital content.
Arre will express itself across mediums, from text to graphic art to podcasts and video in multiple genres such as reality and fiction, factual and opinionated as well as pure entertainment. Arre is working with collaborators across the spectrum in developing original content; from writers, artists, journalists and storytellers to independent filmmakers, established production houses as well as upcoming talent in fiction, reality and non-fiction genres.
B.Saikumar, Founder and Managing Director, UDigital, said “Arre was born out of the need to create a truly disruptive digital product. Our philosophy is to continuously challenge the ‘moulds’ of format, media and structure to create content that is reflective of good storytelling in a digital environment. Much like the name, we hope to make Arre, the brand, a part of daily conversation in India and globally!”
The Accent on the e in Arre is reflective of the varied expressions and emotions that the brand will straddle, as well as its international outlook.
The logo and visual identity of Arre is being designed and developed by AREA 17, an interactive agency based in Paris and New York. AREA 17 has an acclaimed body of work on international brands in media such as Vice, Quartz, The Atlantic, Style.com, Facebook, Pinterest and more.
