 That, ladies and gentlemen, we come to the end of the E4M Play streaming media conference and we are moving towards metal announcements. But before we do that, I would like to invite on screen for a quick chat with our jury chair, that is Mr. Arbal, the leading filmmaker, screenwriter and former group chairman, Lowlyntas, with Dr. Raghbatra, Chairman, Editor-in-Chief exchange for media group and BW business world. I welcome you gentlemen on screen and Dr. Bhattra would like you to take over the proceedings. Thank you so much. Balki, how are you doing? Good evening. First of all, Balki, thank you for being the jury chair for E4M Play. These are our OTP awards. They couldn't have been a better jury chair than you. You understand consumer behavior. You understand content creation. You understand making movies. So somebody who's straddled every genre of content to understand the consumer side knows about technology. So first of all, let me start by asking you, I know the mood is somber. There is a lot of anxiety all around. There is pain. There is loss of lives. But how does one cheer up oneself in these very, very tough times? I have no other words. They are very, very tough. So how do you keep grounded? How do you make sure that you look forward to the next day? You need to be on time. Yes, I can. I don't think we can share. Okay. So I think what we can do is just distract ourselves, just give our brains and hearts a bit of a break. I mean, on then that's what, and thanks to a lot of the, you know, wonderful shows that we have at home, disaster gate. And I think we've been all kind of dodging on things created. And I think we owe it. We owe a big thanks to everybody who's created something for us to watch as so-called entertainment in our homes. Thank you so much. I think you said what some of us are practicing. We're distracting ourselves through work. Work used to be a way to, you know, create something, create impact. It still is. But these days, sometimes you have to drag ourselves to work so that it can be distraction from, you know, the news that's sometimes coming and also be able to use our times to do Seva, to volunteer, to be able to help even one person if we can. Now let me shift gears to what we met for. I was hearing the previous conversation and we were talking about what kind of content is needed today on OTT platforms. Since all of us are spending more time at home, OTT and content consumption through OTT platforms has become an order of the day. And the last panel was talking about how Indian language content is the next wave. People in Tamil Nadu want to watch content in Tamil. Of course, Hindi cinema has an appeal that goes beyond Bollywood. You know, it goes across the world and across the country. There are heroes and teams that cut across genre. But in general, how do you see the content experiments in OTT? Do you think the OTT content marketplace is yet fully discovered and is mature and there is a playbook to capture the OTT? No, it's not mature at all. I mean, there's a very, very long way to kind of go just begun. And there have just been a few wonderful shows which are kind of, which actually is a bit fantastic writing, some great originality which sometimes is missing on film. But I think the language, I think the kind of content that works on OTT is very different from the kind of content that works on film. And that's becoming clearer and clearer because I think you watch various things in different mind states. It's like I keep saying, why is a person able to absorb a message in 30 seconds in an ad and if the same kind of message has been given 30 seconds in a film, I think you just find it a little uncomfortable. You don't quite get the thing. So I think we are all tuned to certain kinds of watching behavior. We program our heads to actually in OTT, you kind of start living with characters, you start building, you start having a relationship with the characters involved in each episode, you go on. So there are a lot of other things involved and it's funny in an era where we say attention span is so short. We're watching more and more and more. We're watching longer and longer formats. Sometimes we binge for 8 hours, binge for 9 hours. I mean, never get tired because we are in love with certain characters, but it just needs to be engaging. And I don't think this is a particular formula and I don't think we should form a formula about what OTT works and what kind of stock works because everybody tends to follow if one gangster kind of thing works or one you know, rural underworld kind of a thing works, cops are underworld thing works, anybody starts following the same thing. Or if one kind of a progressive expression of relationship works, everybody kind of starts kind of going on that thing. So I think this is something that you can, this is a platform that is waiting for originality to happen, waiting for great writing to happen. And if you see all across the world, some of the best writing is on the platforms. Some of the greatest writers have done a lot of work on the platform. So I think this, I feel that this is the time of writers. Absolutely, script and writers. And we know that in Hollywood, movie script writers are a top drawer in terms of the money they get, the short series being done on OTT platforms that now started to get the attention of those script writers and they are again getting top drawer in terms of money, it was top drawer talent. Now let me ask you a question which possibly from a personal standpoint, you can address even more sharply. Malki, at the end of the day, these OTT platforms have a huge reach. They have audiences and when the traditional cinema is out of bounds for the reasons that are happening, do you think OTT releases do justice to the content that filmmakers like you create? And do you buy the argument that in some cases, they're able to scale up the audiences because in physical distribution there are challenges? Or are you a romantic who believes the kind of content that you have created in the past needs to get that traditional big screen? No, no, it's not like that. I think today we're extremely comfortable in creating content for any screen. It's not the screen. It's the kind of story that you want to tell. So it's not as if scale is reserved for the big screen. I don't believe in that myth because the biggest scale stuff a Game of Thrones was done for OTT and not for big screen. So I don't think that is a barrier or I also don't believe it's a small intimate kind of a story. It's actually best for OTT and not so much on the on the screen. And I also don't believe that the screen will only be for event films and things like that. I think there is going to be a lot of coexistence that is going to happen. We have one more screen to create for and I'd like to just be happy with that. I don't have any romantic notions about this. I'm here to write a script. I really don't care about which screen it's coming on. So it's about the world being washed and the story being appreciated and it's an impact that you intend to do as a filmmaker and a script writer. Now let me ask you this last question. The budgets for OTT content are getting bigger and bigger. How are there challenges in the current times? How do you shoot fresh content? I know as an advertising filmmaker also if you had to do it, I know stars are shooting in their home, they're improvising and so on and so forth. So in an era where you are not being able to create fresh content, not because you don't have budgets, but because of corona, because of lockdown, because of physical limitation. Are there ways around it? And you see a lot of reruns. You see a lot of old content being brought in again. What is your commentary on that? I really think in the first wave when we were first hit with the virus, I think people found little innovative ways to do a few things here and there. I don't think a lot of people are doing that the second wave. I think it's a lot more, it's a lot scarier. I would just think pause. I don't think you should find, I don't think it's, this is the time to really pause, take a break. Let's kind of look at the large issue of life. I think we'll all be able to shoot soon, but if you are a little patient and are not desperate about this, I think we'll be able to shoot soon. So I don't think it's about another way. Yes, I think there's so much to watch. Even if we start watching today, I don't think you'll be able to cover all the great shows of the world in your lifetime. So I don't think it's that much of a desperation. I just think these are a month or so or something just to wait and kind of not rush through this. And Balti, what have you been watching in the last few days or so? I know, give us your list and recommend some good series to our viewers and to the industry. Maybe we can watch some of them. I must tell you, the Indian ones, I've watched last one, I've watched was this anthology of Ajit Dastal and I really liked the third one. I watched it too and I found all the four stories and the social themes really brought out very well. I particularly liked the third one, which is with Konkanan, I think, which is done by Meeraj of Pujit Masan. I think it's one of the most beautifully done stories and one of the greatest performances that I've seen and I wish it was a full film, I could watch it for two hours, so it's that beautiful. Otherwise, I'm actually on the Sopranos binge. I hadn't watched Sopranos, I just left it. That's from my sixth season. That's what I spent the last 78 hours watching television on. It's so fantastic. It's possibly one of the greatest shows that have ever been made. So I'm on that binge right now. Okay and Balti, are you working on a new script? You can't not be working on a new script. If you'd like to tell our viewers in the industry, what are you working on without giving too much details, but some sneak peek into what you're working on? I'm actually not working on. I had worked on a new script. It's a thriller that I'm doing, which hopefully whenever we open up and start shooting, I will be able to shoot. But I've not been able to write in these a couple of things which I had developed before all this, before the lockdown, before this tragedy which is hitting us. I'm finding it impossible to write anything newer right now because I am just in this frame of mind of the insignificance of everything that I do right now. So I'm not even going to create anything new right now. It is about what I've already created with whatever faculties I had that point of time. Absolutely. Thank you, Balti and I understand that we all have a feeling of what Adam Grant calls languishing. We are not able to focus. We are not alive and cheerful as we used to be. So I understand that and you use the fantastic term to describe the insignificance of what we do. We can't save other lives. We are always worried about what will happen to our loved ones. I think it is a telling commentary on where we've got us and how we've got us here. And I hope at some stage this end then we are able to rebuild and for people who've lost their loved ones, it would be tougher. But I hope we learn our lesson and we are able to, at least for the next generation, create the right health infrastructure, elect the right people and as individuals have the right discipline and the right, if I may say models, to be able to do the right things for the right things. Absolutely. I also believe that the programs also are kind of helping us stay at home, which is a very important thing. People underestimate, you can't keep telling people stay at home, don't step out. I mean, you have something to watch, you do stay at home. And I think that was the biggest job of cricket to make people stay at home and people who understand the value of that. I mean, any amount of any politician coming in kind of preaching or any member of ads won't do this trick of wanting to be at home to watch something. I think that's the biggest service OTT has done in the last few years. I would say right, content has kept us engaged. It has kept us busy. It has kept our minds engaged and our hearts still hopeful about the future. So I think sometimes you underestimate the value of art, content, movies, books, but those are things that give you solace in these times. So thank you, Balki, for creating some of the best content that I have consumed and making impact whatever you do. And my takeaway is that clearly there is what we do, I mean, maybe relevant from a, I wanted to use the right word, but I was not sure. But it's what we do is relevant from a point of view of our industry for our colleagues. But it is not significant in terms of saving lives. I think that's the only thing that matters right now. So thank you for bringing that out and we wish you luck and we look forward to this thriller. I hope we settle down soon and we're able to go back to some semblance or not. Thank you for chairing the jury of the exchange for media play in these somber times. And we wish you luck in your endeavors. Can I say just a few words about the jury? The jury, why not? We would have asked you to say it a little later, Chati would, but why not? Go ahead, Balki. I just want to say something because it's the early stages of this award, early years of this award. I think people hadn't entered since we were also passionate about this platform, about the shows that we all love. But the entries, the way people had entered various categories were a little bit thoughtless, but I can't blame anybody doing anything in these times because I think this is the furthest thing from people's minds. But a little more care for the people who really worked, for the performers who really put in so much to enter them in the right categories because we as a jury have to pull it from so that shows got a better chance to win here, performers got a better chance to win there. We actually went and created more awards so that these things, these fantastic bits of creativity could be kind of recognized, shown to people. So we actually kind of overreached ourselves. I mean, we really did a lot more things than what we should have as a jury by awarding a lot more, by creating more categories, by awarding people that were not even in the award list, by actually pulling in something which people hadn't even entered so that it got a chance to kind of win. So it's all from the pool that everybody entered, but it's just, it was a mess in terms of how people had entered. So it was quite wrong. So I would request a lot of people to kind of just take a little more care because it is, you're actually recognizing some great talent here. So let's take a little more care with that. We take that very seriously. We'll do our bit to be able to organize well and categorize well and also kind of hand hold and educate this new ecosystem. Some of them are new entrants and they are not as adept in entering awards and spending time, but I think it's our job as exchange media and as organizers to be able to do that. We're able to do that for most of the things that we do, that we take your feedback absolutely seriously and you'll see when you're involved next year, we would have made that difference. Thank you so much. This is the early years of the award. So clearly in the first year, in the second year, it is very tough, but beyond that, I think some of the things fall into place automatically, but with your awards, I'm sure the people watching and the people who entered will take it even more seriously. So thank you for bringing that out, Balki. Thank you. God bless you and back to you, Chathi. Thank you so much, Dr. Bhattra and thank you so much, Sir, our Balki for your time and especially for chairing that jury or very vigorous process and all the time and insights that you've put into it. Thank you so very much. We thank our jury members as well here. Thank you, gentlemen.