Exclusive | 'Mele Ka BIG Star' entertainment for real India: BIG Rural's Mittal

BIG MAGIC, India’s first variety entertainment channel for the core Hindi heartland from the Reliance Broadcast Network stable, has created some extremely successful local and highly engaging properties like BIG Memsaab, Bal Kalakaar and Mele Ka BIG Star. After the tremendous response from their audiences and its resounding success in the first season, Mele Ka Big Star have announced a second season of their show. To be launched across Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand and Bihar, the platform presents a unique opportunity to regional talent to go beyond the local mela and showcase their skills which include singing, dancing, stunts, mimicry, acrobatics and more, to the entire country. This offering comes at the back of extensive research and understanding of how melas work and the audiences they garner, especially in the semi urban and rural masses, offering marketers an excellent platform to ride on to ensure reach for their brands. 

 

Mela is an integral source of recreation in rural India and holds a significant position among the masses. The incredible talent housed in the oft unnoticed rural parts of Central India comes to the forefront during the mela. The platform provided by BIG MAGIC, encourages them to receive national recognition. Mele Ka BIG Star is a unique reality show which covers the biggest melas of the Hindi heartland and identifies talent from these places for a special television series. The program is an innovative mix of on ground activation and media integration which offers dual value to brands. In addition to this the high decibel marketing approach towards the show facilitates an extensive forum for marketers to connect with their consumers directly. The show will reach out to approximately 70 lakh viewers every week on BIG MAGIC, and 25 lakh listeners per week on 92.7 BIG FM and will be promoted extensively through print, television and radio.

 

The program is well received by marketers owing to its uniqueness of concept and leading brands from top companies are associated with the program to ride on the on ground as well as media offering. The first season of the show witnessed an overwhelming response from both – the audiences and advertisers. Given the unique nature of the show it is seen that television channels too are cashing in on this offering.

 

Commenting on the upcoming show a Company spokesperson says, “Mela is the most basic form of entertainment which congregates the local inhabitants of a region. Melas put on display the true social fabric of a village. Through our show, we intend to take this talent from the grass root level and nurture it to present it to the country at large. It is sure to excite not only the respective regional consumer but also the regional talent which has long sought its due recognition. We are not only encouraging local talent which is fast diminishing in the face of other forms of urban entertainment, but we are also connecting with local tastes and sensibilities.”  

 

Adgully spoke with Vineet Mittal, Business Head, BIG Rural, to learn more about the launch of the second season, the promise the show holds, how it encourages the rural population of the country to emerge and showcase their hidden talents and much more. Following are excerpts from the conversation:

 

Keeping the fact in mind that Mele Ka BIG Star is an integral source of recreation in rural India, when asked if a local and highly engaging reality show of this kind is looking at encashing on their sentiments Vineet Mittal agreed and said, “A Mela is an integral source of recreation in rural India.” He went on to say, “Whatever may be the form of the mela, entertainment forms the core and many artists entertain the audiences by showcasing their unique talent. Mele Ka BIG Star is a platform where this local talent can get a chance to be recognized and showcased on television. Through a reality show like Mele Ka BIG Star, we want to build a strong local connect with the audiences residing in the vicinity of those melas.”  

 

Given the fact that this event caters to the local people with regard to their response towards the mela and how  it helps them build mass appeal he shared his view saying that the melas that they cover for the show are the bigger melas of the Hindi heartland that have evolved over a period of time. The mass appeal of these melas is very strong as every year people visit them in large numbers. “Through Mele Ka BIG Star, we want these loyal mela visitors to feel a sense of pride and happiness about the recognition bestowed on the talent from their local melas as they get a chance to perform on a television show,” he said.

 

With the launch of the second show on the anvil how is Mele Ka BIG Star looking to build up attraction and buzz around the whole show. Shedding light on this Mr.Mittal said, “There are two legs to the building buzz around Mele Ka BIG Star. One is the on-ground part wherein we promote the concept of the show to attract different types of talent for the auditions through a van campaign to build awareness for the show. Leaflets and posters will also be used for driving talent to the mela auditions. In addition to this, our radio and television network will also be used extensively as a medium to drive traffic to the auditions. The second leg of the campaign will be on-air promotion of the show. At this juncture, we will extensively use the collective strength of BIG FM and BIG MAGIC to expand the reach of the show. In addition we will release advertisements across regional dialers along with outdoor support to create and sustain buzz around the show.” 

 

Updating us about the marketing initiatives undertaken to promote the show he said they would use multiple platforms to reach out to their audiences.

 

Commenting on how marketers are receiving the programme in view of its unique concept and the value  the show offers to brands eyeing larger India Mr.Mittal went on to explain that marketers are looking at this program from both on-ground and on-air perspective. Any brand coming on-board gets the entire on-ground value by participation in these melas and on-air value during the telecast of the show.

 

Another equally important aspect of a show are their sponsors.  When asked about their sponsors and how they are looking at building value for their clients shedding light on this he said, “Brands participate in melas for local association but often end up having disconnected visibility and brand stalls in the melas which does not serve their objective. Mele Ka BIG Star, on the other hand, provides brands with an opportunity to create a direct connect and association with their target audiences. The first season of the show got an extremely positive feedback from marketers. Horlicks was the presenting sponsor with Nutrene and Mortein as powered by and associate sponsors. Even now, we are just in the announcement stage of the second season and the initial response from the brands is very encouraging.”  

 

The first season of the show was a huge success. The most important learning which came from the first season he said  was an insight into the amount of incredible talent that is housed in rural India that looks forward to the platforms available to them to showcase their best in front of the entire nation. With regard to incorporating ideas from it he said, “We have realized that promotion of the on-ground phase of the show is very critical to attract a large number of talent and to build on it, this season will see a massive promotion across the RBNL network – radio and channels - to bring together an even larger group of talent.”

 

With the launch of the second season Vineet Mittal is very optimistic about their new offering and says it is likely to supercede the first season owing to increase in number of shows and audience. On an end note he shares his expectations and  says,“  We are expecting the second season of Mele Ka BIG Star to be much grander than the first season, especially because the melas that we are looking at covering this time round will be some of the largest melas in the country that reach out to a larger audience base.”