 Now, moving on to the next panel discussion, the topic and focus is Bollywood and PR. How entertainment PR influence the brands and the society. And amongst your loud applause, let's welcome our panelist Paula Maglin, actor and CEO, Bhartiya Digital Bharti. Can we have a round of applause for the lady? Let's welcome Anurag Chauhan, founder of Humans for Humanity. A very warm welcome to our panelists. Thank you very much for joining in. And with the same let's welcome the moderator Mr. Rohail Amin, exchange for media BW business. The stage is all yours. So rather interesting topic, post lunch, I think we needed this kind of a topic. Thanks Paula. Thank you Anurag for joining us. Before you stepped in me and Paula had a brief discussion about a few things and I'm just going to straight away ask my question. So since morning, we heard conversation around brands and PR, diversity and PR. So we are in the industry we're talking about that doesn't need traditionally a PR because everyone thinks that poster boys are poster girls. Paula to you first. Do you think film PR has evolved to an extent that it has become as important relevant as brand PR, traditional brand PR? Yes, I definitely think that film PR is important. You can see. So first of all, let me just set a little bit of context. I am not in Bollywood. So I, I have come from Canada, 10 years ago to India, and I've been working for the last eight years, mostly in the Marathi digital entertainment industry. So we make Marathi web series I write direct produce and occasionally act, but you could say that my point of view is very much from an outside of Bollywood POV, where you probably like many people in this room, you see what's happening in the news you see what you know when the next Bollywood movie is releasing. There's some boycott or there's something which is coming out attached to it almost as if it's been planned in advance of the film. As the film's PR strategy is being rolled out so is the anti film PR going out from the other side. Sometimes it's stronger right the anti film PR. Sometimes it can be and it's all about building up your narrative and I think that something that a lot of films have attempted to do in the last few years is anticipate what that bad PR could possibly be and try and build a narrative preemptively around it so that your film is protected, or you're able to ensure that at least you will be getting some kind of an audience, alongside your release. So as a digital producer, we've recently done a web series called be a rose guard, which is on our YouTube channel, and the show is about unemployed youth in Maharashtra, and it was very much a plan that alongside of this series releasing and having you know, a list of actors from the Marathi industry, we really wanted to get out the message as to why is this series going to be relatable for the maximum amount of people, and that is connecting on, you know, these, you know, unemployment among youth topics and, you know, especially with engineers, how do you sort of target your that that's like the first core audience, and then that expands beyond that into how relatable it can be. And you can see like a lot of other films like Padman and others have social issues attached to them, going out as part of the success strategy and of course sometimes it's core to the story, but not every project has that and not every project has the ability to lean on that. But it's definitely extremely important and I think most big budget films now wouldn't release without having a very clear PR strategy. Absolutely. Anurag, your opening thoughts, one I must compliment on your style, I'm really wonderful, it feels great to have a panelist who is all stylish and has these elements, but give me a sense of do you think PR has come to become at par with the brand PR, you know, over the years because you know earlier, you used to have a manager that will bundle up into many roles you know he'll be your makeup person he'll be your go to person, he'll be your PR also. You think there's a certain evolution that has taken place in the film domain. Of course it's a big industry all together if you see the PR is from the industry. Well, there are people I know who have more than one PR. And sometimes they're not even actors, directors, or producers, they have two or three PR people who are managing their PR because it's a very, very important part I mean what are the what is PR doing. It's spreading awareness about whatever the product is and the product is film. And at the same time, it's also making people curious. But as a personal belief I still think what is very, very strong and which still exists is word of mouth. There's so many films even without and with the PR, it won't work. I mean correct me if I'm wrong there's so many films with huge budgets of PR and their activities goes for months before the films come out. Yet they're not able to make an impact on the society yet they're not able to be so called successful on the box office. So I wonder to myself if it always works. It might work in many scenarios also the thing is that how good your film is at the end of the day what matters is the content of the film PR is very important but at the end of the day, according to me what matters is the content. Well, a lot of people might be intrigued about your journey into, of course the Indian film industry and then that too into Marathi film industry. I can read their intrigue. If you could give us a little bit of the backstory of your journey before I ask you my other question. Sure. So I studied filmmaking in Canada and 10 years ago I had an opportunity from the government of Canada to come to India and study the Indian film industry. And I'd come in completely blank with no expectations, only an old preconceived image of Bollywood as people singing and dancing in the Swiss Alps. And my expectations were, or whatever I thought it was going to be was completely blown out of the water. When I learned about, you know, the new age cinema that had been coming out filmmakers like under a kush up and many others. I ended up coming to Chennai first, and then went to Mumbai, Pune and Hyderabad and so immediately got exposure to regional exchanges and learned that the Indian film industry is not one industry but many industries. And after the first trip, I was very much inspired and excited by the idea of what was happening in India. I could see so much potential as to where things may go. And you have to remember that 10 years ago there was no Netflix in India there was no Amazon Prime there was. You can even use your American or Canadian Netflix subscription in the in India as a country so I could see from my perspective that there was going to be a lot of amazing growth and there was a chance for me to kind of try and tell my story and I met some fantastic people who I ended up partnering with eight years ago. We started a production company and very quickly got into making digital ads and then realizing that digital was a place where we felt we had a lot of edge. We then started the first ever Marathi language digital entertainment channel on YouTube, and then it expanded into a full fledged company with three channels we have Bharatiya digital party party pop because in Marathi. So over there you say over here you would maybe say for Bharatiya Janta party you would say BJP, but in Maharashtra you would say bhajpa. So when we came up with the name we wanted to do a play on the idea of community and bringing people together under a name so the banner was Bharatiya digital party. So we expanded into travel and food and infotainment social issues so we have three channels we do stand up comedy live events. We do talent management for writers and comedians. And we also produce for OTT and for our own YouTube channel where we do a lot of content marketing for brands as well as our one of our main revenue streams. I can I can understand Marathi very well and I can speak okay. I can speak also. But coming on a serious term, I mean it's just the longest question. Then to you, you know, celebrities used to be in the Bollywood camp for the longest, you know, whenever you needed one you would look at Bollywood and then you would look to sporting icons, you know. Now with the rise of influencers, you know, there's a thin divide between the celeb and who's the big icon. Does a PR's job in Bollywood in a celebrity management become more complex with so many celebs popping out from your Instagram from your sporting channels from your Bollywood from your OTT platforms. Yeah, I think that's one of the things which can differentiate an influencer and a celebrity is the use of PR, where an influencer comes out of the box saying this is who I am. A celebrity generally becomes famous for their work in some particular field usually in this case it's acting and or modeling or a combination of all of that. So, when a celebrity starts to make their name in the industry, it becomes really important for them to start building out the narrative, how do you explain to the world who you are what you stand for where you come from. That partly comes from interviews but it can come from events it can come from how you manage your social media to the kind of brand campaigns that you sign on for. It's really important. I think for a lot of celebrities, especially actors who have a future plan of diversifying beyond acting and maybe wanting to own a business or promote businesses. Get involved into social activism, or anything like that and having a having a PR consultant or somebody who helps you with your PR is really important, so that you can explain to the world what do you stand for. For example, personally, I love to drink whiskey. So I would definitely make a point of posting every once in a while about who here's the new whiskey I've tried these the tasting notes. Because I want people to know that that's a part of who I am and something that I enjoy. And so that you could call like a personal PR. Because probably I wouldn't normally share it on social media unless I wanted people to know that. So for future if in case any whiskey brand wants an endorsement. I'm they know that they can look at me for that. So, part of it's also anticipating future opportunities future career choices that you may want to go into, and building your image in that way. So that's that's why I think it's really important for celebrities to have PR. Anurag, your thoughts on the complexity of a PR's role when it comes to handling celebrities. Well, it's very complex to do. I mean, I have seen so many of my friends who I mean I'll speak I'll be the devil's advocate and not just say that it's very difficult to handle celebrities, but it is very difficult to manage them because as she said that it's the pressure on the PR is not just portraying or doing what the celebrity is doing but also what his future plans is what a future plans are. And the whole pressure is to create an image, which has to be politically correct which has to be right in all ways. So, but what reminded me of a small instance from my own life when she was talking about whiskey was was about my clothing. I remember I used to walk into offices of ministers and politicians at the age of 14 and 15 and they'll show me out of their offices. Only because I'll dress up in a casual, you know, dress code and I'll go with my files and I'm whatever project I was working in that particular time it was waste management, and they'll just shoot me away from their offices. And one day I had someone tell me that why don't you try wearing a kurta pajama. This was when I was 15. And just wearing that one kurta pajama I walked into the secretary in Uttarakhand for for a meeting with the chief minister without an appointment. I just had a file in my hand of a report that I wanted to submit. Not only I got, I got permission to enter the secretary but I also went to the chief minister and submitted that report. So, one suggestion coming from someone who is in the field of PR can actually change a lot of things about how things go in your life. This worked out for me. And this is how this is the role of a PR to show you the right direction because they pay. And for a lot of people, they might think PR is just, you know, getting media coverage is or promoting something. It's way beyond that. It's how you look what you speak what you eat whom are you meeting, where are you going what kind of ad films you're doing. It represents everything that you do, and that is the role of a PR. I think every brand touch point wherever, you know you are seen, I think you know it has to match with your persona with your brand overall. I was a former entertainment journalist, I mean I was a former entertainment journalist and, and when I look back, and I look at the entire coverage that PR is used to invite us to. And now I see that on Instagram that Malika has gone to the gym. She's just arrived at the airport. I mean the content that PR suggests. Not working out. It's not really great content. It just photo op. How can we bring in actual great content in the PR, you know, how can PRs have something great to offer to the media, you know, as far as seller PR is concerned. Okay, I'll start with you. I say that it's it's not just the PR to be blamed for this. It's the audience who wants this. You know, we have we've heard amazing songs that bulls are sad as written, but he has also written some some songs that you would not imagine the bulls are sad as written. And when I went to him and said, Why have you written this song. He said because it's you. It's the audience who wants this kind of songs it's not me I still am same bulls are who wants to write the old songs but the audience today wants something new. So the audience today wants to see what Malika is wearing while she's coming out of the airport. They want to see what is she wearing when she's going to the gym. And this is one reason why PRs. They follow this this and you know, the content is bizarre but it is like. You see the maximum likes on those, you know, deals and all, by the way. But do you think we need to also offer something bigger and more, you know, what you call a healthier wholesome kind of a content beyond that you know, those moments alone. It's very difficult. It is very difficult to do it as I said because audience is looking for that cringe moment or the glamour moment, whatever it is that's fun it's takes a weight off of your back for a second right you don't have to think about your problems. And so if you want to get that message out. I think it's very important to try and couch that message and something else. For example, a very crude example of this is. I don't know how many of you are aware that Jackie Shroff is a huge promoter of tree planting. Are any of you aware of this. So I'll tell you how I found out about this. There was a video where it had gone completely viral he was at his farm on my Russia. And there were reporters around him asking him about what he was doing there. And he gave a galley. And people were sharing the video because of that, not because he was promoting tree planting. All right, if it was just promoting tree planting people said haha whatever they wouldn't even care but it's Jackie Shroff giving galley of course we're going to watch it. So, this is one very crude example and other could be say something where we have to do this all the time with advertising on our YouTube channel. We have to say promote a brand, and we have to get it. So how we take money from a brand so that we can integrate it in our content which then the audience has subscribed to watch so the audience is already coming to us to watch something they know that they like could be a funny sketch could be a web series. We have to hide the brand message within that in a natural way. And when it comes to social messages or something more wholesome as you say something that is for the good of society. It's also important to provide it in a packaging that is easy to consume. I feel that. One more example and then I'll be quiet is we did a program called Kaibolte, which is like, what are you. Yeah. We worked with communities underrepresented communities from across Maharashtra, sex workers at the buses farmers. And we brought them to Mumbai for four days and we taught them stand up comedy as a form. And what we were doing is working with an NGO called Mara based in Bangalore to teach stand up comedy as a way for people to advocate for themselves to tell their own story and connect with an audience through humor, rather than through sympathy. And humor is a great way to generate empathy rather than sympathy. And it was an amazing project where we then went on a roadshow people were telling stories about how they had child marriages how they got into the sex trade, and this regular college going audiences were watching this and laughing and we're shocked at the fact that they could connect with people who they thought would only ever be presented in a, you know, donate now kind of a context. So these kinds of things are really important but packaging is everything and that's part of PR's job I think. All right the time is up but I want to ask a quick last question. I want to add to that. You know, the film Padman when it came out everyone it was it was a buzz everyone was talking about it, but I felt that the PR was only on the surface was only very superficial, because I've been working in that field for last 10 years and actually people do not even know about it. And how many people living in the villages who can't even afford eating food, worry about what Akshay Kumar is doing on the screen. And I'll give you a very small example from Rajasthan, which was not many years ago right after the film came I was in Rajasthan in a very small village called Chomu which was 30 kilometers away from Jaipur. A woman who was 52 years of age asked me a question if I meant to it and that is the answer to what happens when films like that come out. Not that I'm against those films it's great because it is trying to spread awareness about sensitive topics it's trying to talk about various things but we have to understand if that topic or if the content of that topic reaches to the bottom of this society or not. Final quick question one minute answers you know, so you're talking about you give an example of how you got the right advice and things change turn around right now for that you need quality people you know to be part of this profession, right. However, the barrier is low to enter a film PR you know anyone everyone can do it and start their company. How do we address that anyone. Okay I'll start with you then you. Is there a way to address it I mean what is I mean how do we address this gap, what is the best way that quality people become part of film PR and not everyone and anyone. I think the, the industry needs to change as an outsider to Bollywood or even the Marathi film industry, there's a lot of rot. It's quite corrupt. There's a lot of people in charge who you know our gatekeepers and till that changes to those people exit. There has to be a cultural shift within the industry you're trying to say that. There needs to be a cultural shift and that's why I think there's a lot of hope in the new digital space because there's opportunities for all sorts of people to come up and become something agree with what she said and that's my final. Alright, okay, maybe round of applause for the panelists here. Thank you for joining us on this question.