EXCLUSIVE: JioStar is so bullish about its unscripted slate that last month it released a coffee table book dedicated to its top shows. JioStar – Home of Unscripted: The Billion Emotions Engine was packed with eye-catching stats – one billion viewers and over 460 billion minutes of watch time in 12 months prior to its publication, with two-thirds of viewers under the age of 30.
For Alok Jain, who oversees unscripted at JioStar as part of his role as head of the Hindi & English entertainment business for streaming, TV and studios, the “massive numbers” represent a a half-decade of building out an Indian content proposition capable of holding off newer unscripted challengers such as Netflix and Prime Video. “We’re the largest platform for unscripted entertainment in India,” he says bullishly.
In an exclusive interview with Deadline, Jain addressed how the JioHotstar streaming platform has performed in an increasingly competitive Indian market, whether Indian formats can become international hits and the ending of JioStar’s Koffee With Karan, which is among its best-known unscripted titles.
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The starting point for the slate has been focusing on returners such as dating shows Splitsvilla, which is now in its sixteenth season, and Bigg Boss, the Indian version of Big Brother that’s now into its 20th local run – and expanding further with multiple language versions. Last year, Bigg Boss recorded 9.32 billion votes and 43 million live chats, and six out of viewers watched the live feed on JioHotstar.
Talkshow Koffee With Karan, in which Indian entertainment personality and actor Karan Johar spills the tea with India celebrities and Bollywood stars, is headed for a 22nd year and a final ninth season, having begun life in 2004 on the Star World network.
“You never want to end something that’s doing well,” admits Jain. “With Koffee with Karan, this is about choosing to close a remarkable chapter while it is still being loved by audiences. After 22 years, eight seasons and 161 episodes, the show continues to receive immense love from audiences and that is exactly why we want to end it on our own terms, while it is still at the top of its game.
“Very few shows get to have the kind of run Koffee With Karan has had. It has become part of popular culture, a show people quote, debate and keep coming back to, while also delivering consistently for our advertising partners. We would rather leave audiences wanting more than continue a show beyond the moment that feels right.”
JioHotstar remains in business with Johar, with Student of the Year, a TV spin-off of the 2012 film set within modern youth culture, launches this month.
‘Healthy mix’ in development pipeline
Jain’s role is expansive, overseeing entertainment for the general entertainment channels Colors & Colors Rishtey, JioStar’s Hindi movie, youth, kids and family, and infotainment businesses, studios, and Hindi specials. This spans linear, streaming and theatrical, and means he is at the coalface of development on a wide range of projects.
For unscripted, this manifests in the likes of locally-developed shows such as Laughter Chefs, Hustle and Dhamaal with Pati Patni Aur Panga, along with international formats such as Big Brother and Fear Factor redeveloped for the Indian audience, as Bigg Boss and Khatron Ke Khiladi, respectively.
“We’re looking at a large pipeline of new formats,” says Jain. “We want a healthy mix of international and homegrown formats. It’s roughly 70% homegrown originals and 30% global IP, so we’re investing in both kinds of formats, while also reinventing existing franchises.”
Indian formats created locally have historically been developed and produced at low price points that have discouraged international distributors from shopping them overseas. “A format fee can therefore look small when measured against the cost of a production,” says Jain. “Someone has to take a longer-term, strategic view.”
Now, as higher-end unscripted underpins JioStar’s linear and streaming business, and shows such as Lock Upp and Alliance draw big audiences on rival services, there’s a sense the market has permanently shifted, and that places more pressure on new shows to perform.
“It takes a village to raise a baby, and it takes a similar level of energy to bring a new show to life,” says Jain. “Ideas can fall away at any stage between conception and launch – sometimes the talent doesn’t understand the show or isn’t excited by it. A new show is a risk, and not everyone is a risk-taker. It’s encouraging that some of our competitors have become more interested in unscripted. That helps expand the ecosystem, with more people working to grow it.”
Jain has been with JioStar before the merger of Reliance Industry’s media assets, including free streamer JioCinema and channels group Viacom18, and Disney Star, which housed the influential Disney+ Hotstar subscription streamer. At Disney India, he was Executive Vice President and Head of Disney Star’s regional clusters, and played a key role in shaping the regional content landscape and establishing Disney+ Hotstar.
Jain says the merged streaming proposition, which is India’s most-widely distributed, has created synergies. “JioCinema was very strong in the Hindi market and in unscripted, while Hotstar was not as strong in that area. Since the platforms came together, we’ve been able to bring Hotstar audiences to our unscripted portfolio, and our shows have become larger because Hotstar was a bigger platform.”
Splitsvilla, for example, delivered “three times as many viewers on JioHotstar as it had on JioCinema the previous year,” he says. “We’ve also tried to make our content more appealing to a wider audience where we can, without changing the core of a show. Khatron Ke Khiladi had a massive season this year, growing almost twofold from the previous season. The platform helped, and so did our effort to make the show exciting for a broader audience.”
In September, Bigg Boss launched six different language versions simulataneously to cater for India’s sprawling and often disparate population. “The Hindi version has very little viewership in some southern markets, for example,” says Jain. “Launching these shows together helps us build our presence in the country and create synergies for advertisers.”
Expanded distribution
JioHotstar replaced the existing Hotstar platform in the UK, Canada and Singapore in September, and already has wider distribution in parts of the Middle East and Southeast Asia, and this could help Jain and his team better seed and exploit their shows.
“One part of our strategy is to make shows that appeal to those viewers and distribute them to reach Indian audiences around the world,” says Jain. “The next step is to take our locally created formats to international markets. We’ve developed many formats in India, and we’ve made some progress in other content areas such as film. Taking our unscripted shows overseas is a larger agenda, but we’re at an early stage.”
He expects countries with similar cultures such as Vietnam, Thailand and Indonesia to bite fastest. “Western markets may require more evaluation, but we see stronger affinity for our shows in some territories than in others, adds Jain.
The emergence of the independent production sector in India is also another reason for optimism. Jain explains that popular local shows such as Laughter Chefs and Roadies began as in-house ideas, with a producer attached at a later stage and the resulting show wholly owned by JioStar or predecessor Disney Star. That is now changing, he says.
“As the ecosystem grows, people are bringing us ideas they’ve tested on a smaller scale, with some success, and asking whether we can help scale them up. We’re open to discussing the commercial structure. In those cases, it may make sense to share value, or to consider a joint-IP arrangement.”
The launch of a creator-focused Sparks initiative came soon after JioHotstar’s launch and the streamer has since greenlit shows from likes of YouTuber Abhishek Malhan (aka Fukra Insaan), on high-stakes game show Game of Greed; Uorfi Javed and Harsh Gujral, on relationship compatibility series Engaged: Roka ya Dhoka; Elvish Yadav on gaming formats Rizz Master and Indian Game Adda; and Zakir Khan on talk show Love Life Lafde. Several
“The production and creative ecosystems are playing a major role in testing ideas and bringing them to us,” says Jain. “People have ideas, and India is growing in terms of the range of new concepts being developed.”
By some estimates, JioHotstar has more than 440 million monthly active users across its subscription and free tiers, but Prime Video, which now houses free streamer MX Player, and Netflix have both grown very solid roots in India. Over recent months, several production sources have enthusiastically talked to Deadline about how the plethora of services has improved the unscripted sector, so what does Jain think of his rivals?
“It’s exciting because it pushes you to think harder and do a better job,” he responds. “Consumers have more options. We’re glad that others have started trying unscripted. When you’re the only one doing it, you can sometimes wonder whether the category is right for you. If more people are entering the space, it validates what you’ve been doing and your belief in your own capabilities.”
What JioHotstar has in its corner is a very mature and developed ecosystem for monetizing its shows. Beyond the subscription and advertising fees, efforts are being made to develop consumer products businesses around long-lasting shows, with lucrative brand deals in place for the likes of Bigg Boss and Khatron Ke Khiladi. Hustle has a major new agreement in place with clothing brand Bonkers Corner.
“Unscripted gives us the opportunity to develop multiple revenue streams, which helps us make the economics work,” says Jain.
Looking ahead, Jain says the unscripted slate of around 15 programs will be around 75% returning shows. “The remaining 25% gives us room to experiment,” he adds. ‘Celebrity follow’ reality series Bhojpuri Bawaal was recently launched in August, a month before Bigg Boss, to “activate a different cohort and attract an exciting group of viewers.”
Ultimately, Jain uses the numbers to indicate he’s on the right track. He notes that JioStar shows generated close to 10 billion social views in 12 months, indicating he can have “confidence in continuing along the path” of the “ecosystem” that the company has designed for young Indians – remember, two-thirds of unscripted views came from audiences under 30. “But not everything works, and that keeps us humble. Some shows don’t succeed, so we have to keep working at it.”
JioStar might have published one coffee table book, but it sounds like there’s plenty of story left to tell.
