The Romantics

Enjoyed watching ‘The Romantics’ on Netflix.

It has four episodes and tries to demystify the process of filmmaking of the Hindi film industry, focusing particularly on one production house - Yash Raj Films.

It is as much a tribute to Aditya Chopra as it is to Yash Chopra whose popularity in Switzerland 🇨🇭 is well known. Something I have seen first-hand. Right from the bronze statue of Yash Chopra in Interlaken, his name on Jungfrau Railways, a deluxe suite named after him at the Victoria-Jungfrau Grand Hotel & Spa, to Lake Lauenen often unofficially being referred to as Lake Chopra by tour buses.

But romance is more than just elegant shooting locations, chiffon sarees and demure, doe-eyed beauties. It is the filmmaker’s heart that chooses to fade into a bouquet of flowers even when the hero has picked up a revolver for revenge. 

Juxtaposed in the background is the Indian political and economic evolution, explaining the necessity for an angry, young man; the poet hero; the anti-hero; and the rise of the privileged class. 

A few months ago, I was telling SG that I’d like to write about how romance has changed over the years in Bollywood. How openly stalkerish behavior has changed to that of consent and of treating your partner as equals. Gone are the days of Nirupa Roy, the mothers who suffered in silence and 80% of their roles included shedding tears of happiness or suffering. Today, the movie moms are more like friends and have equally glamorous jobs as the fathers or have a say in matters of running the household or which schools the kids should attend.

A superstar is someone who can play the roles of a brother, a son, and a lover with equal ease. And a successful production house is that which can produce a variety of entertainment for a diverse class of audience. We need masala entertainers like Dhoom, as much as we need feel good movies like Chak De! India and Dum Laga Ke Haisha.

Aditya Chopra’s genius is probably in the fact that he understands - to scale up, you have to trust the creative instincts of other folks and give them the freedom to create microcosms of their own.

Downton Abbey

My expectations from Season 5.

Mr. Bates will be innocent of the murder of Mr. Green. He might have gone to London, but Green's death was an accident. That vile creature met poetic justice finally.
Anna Bates (née Smith) will have left the horrors of that night behind. Hopefully, she will be expecting a kid with Mr. Bates, not because I think it is important but because it was a sign of a happy marriage in those days.
Mary Crawley will become more down-to-earth and choose Blake over the others, not just for his impending baronetcy but his expertise in practical and theoretical farming which can help the estate become profitable. Also, she needs a strong-willed man like him, not a feeble one.
Tom Branson has been mourning longer than Mary. It seems unfair that Mary has a desire of suitable suitors while he gets approached by the most unlikely ones. However, Miss Bunting might provide fuel for his ascent in a political career. She speaks her mind and he needs to be a little more assertive instead of feeling grateful to the Crawleys all the time .
Violet Crawley, the Dowager Countess I like her the way she is. Acerbic. I think she is Julian's favorite. She gets the best lines in the show and was in Gosford Park (for which Julian won an Oscar for Best Original Screenplay). I wish she were kinder to Mathew's mother though.
Daisy Though I want her to stay till the end of the series, I hope she takes Mr. Mason's advice and looks after his farm, starts her own business of jam, jellies etc. and grows into an independent woman.
Mr. Carson and Mrs. Hughes. It is about time those two were together.
Robert Crawley, Earl of Grantham should be less of a pompous ass and become a pragmatist. He gets on my nerves sometimes. I was happy when he was away in America and Mary had an unimpeded say on the way things were run.
Isis should have puppies. Lots of them. And they should race each other on the green lawns and sprawl in the summer sun.

Interactive TV ads

This is a comment I made on my brother's blog post:

TiVo and other recording devices have made Marketing executives rethink their TV advertising strategies. Fewer people watch commercials and the number of impacts per ad will decrease in the coming years. Personally, I prefer watching my favorite shows online or on Video-on-demand where ads are relatively low. Most TV ads generate negative ROI, then why won’t advertisers spend on relatively more cost-effective advertising channels like Magazines? Because the audio and visual stimulus facilitates better brand recall in consumers and can influence brand perceptions.

I have  come across Interactive TV advertising, where I was asked if I wanted to view the trailer of an upcoming film- all I had to do was click a button on my remote, and I’d be directed to it. Instead of making a directive, they were giving me an option, which as a consumer means respect. And as a marketeer means more accurate calculation of ROI ,I will know more precisely how many viewers actually saw the ad.

Primetime and World cups sell a 30-sec slot for millions of dollars, and yet there is ad clutter. The TV ads have a primary objective: to drive demand, and the intent of purchase is best stirred in the target market. Think: an ad for an online design course is wasted on a regular PhD student, almost as much as the ad for life insurance would be for a dead man. Interactive tv ads will make lives easier for all.