We at Bolt Media are proud storytellers - CEO Vaibhav Modi

CEO Vaibhav Modi

Vaibhav Modi’s Bolt Media Limited is a passionate bunch of creative minds who are proud ‘storytellers’. Bolt Media now looks forward to its two new concepts hitting the TV screens. While their offering for Channel V, Yeh Jawaani Ta Ra Ri Ri is the coming of age of three brothers, their upcoming show for Bindass Love by Chance will spread the message of being open to love.

In an exclusive conversation with Tellychakkar.com, Vaibhav Modi, CEO, Bolt Media talks of his company, its objectives and the kind of programming they are looking at. Excerpts:

Bolt Media Limited is a wholly owned subsidiary of Balaji Telefilms. So how does the functioning take place?

Bolt Media Limited completes the spectrum of the parent company by adding brand solutions, advertising, non-fiction and other kinds of differentiated content to its repertoire.

Take us through Bolt’s unique business model...

Bolt essentially works as an independent content power house within the Balaji group and is designed to bring in incremental business without eating into the creative or executional bandwidth of the parent company. It has a dedicated creative and execution team. The Balaji infrastructure comes in handy to deliver superior software and better value to the clients.

Bolt unlike other TV production houses has made a name in the commercial world too. Take us through the achievements in the ad world...

I won't really claim that we have made a name in the commercial world but our efforts to get into advertising projects have had a very encouraging outcome. We have produced TVCs for 3 brands already. We are very proud to have done a mainstream commercial (Vaseline Body Lotion with Shradha Kapoor) in the first 6 months of operations. It was a deliberate decision since inception to shift some of our weight on content based brand solutions. We strongly believe that is the future of advertising. In the last year and a half we have already produced an Advertiser Funded Property and will soon be looking at the second season of the property.

What are the goals of the young creative brains in Bolt Media?

The team at Bolt is a passionate lot. We don't work with an 'Executive' approach to the content we produce. Everyone in the team including me does at least one thing 'hands on' on every project. We have a very fluid team structure. Anyone irrespective of their designation gets to lead a project depending on their role in getting a project in. One of our unique strong points is our resident writing bandwidth which enables us to develop and execute differentiated content across genres. As clichéd as it may sound, we are proud storytellers and we just won't stop at a particular kind of stories. We want to grow from strength to strength, medium to medium and genre to genre.

What do you target to achieve as a production house in the years to come?

As the Chief Executive Officer (CEO), I obviously want to grow the top-line and bottom-line of the company. These are baby steps for us right now but we will soon be delivering results better than the industry benchmarks. In order to achieve the above, I am focusing on creating properties that can either promise volumes or become franchises. I believe it is very crucial in this business to be remembered. It could be either for what you specialise in or for a certain touch that you bring to your content. We are getting there and it will definitely take us closer to where we want to be. Also, as the entertainment landscape changes due to consumption patterns and technology; we want to be adequately on or ahead of the curve to harness the wave of business change.

We have heard Bolt has also worked on a documentary drama. Take us through that...

Too early to talk about it!! I can only share that it is a show shot across the country at historical monuments and it also has a fair amount of reconstruction of historic events. The channel (Epic) hasn't launched yet but we are expecting it to go on air soon enough.

You have two shows to launch on Epic Channel. Anything you can talk about that.

There are two shows. A 26 part 1 hour drama series and a 10 part docu-series. I will not be able to share more than that right now.

Your show on Channel V Yeh Jawaani Ta Ra Ri Ri launched on 16 May at the 6 PM slot. Take us through the concept and cast of the show.

YJTRR is a tongue in cheek coming of age story of three brothers aged 16, 18 and 21. There have been coming of age stories on the tube but I wanted to tell a story with a completely new lens. Their relationship as brothers proved to be that lens. The most unique thing about siblings is that while they are always in each others' hair and know each other inside out, there are still walls. There is still a food chain unlike friends. This just suddenly makes the outlook on experiences of 'Jawaani' more interesting on multiple levels. Chiraag, Anshuman and Mohit (who play Cheeku, Dodo and Sid respectively) have practically become like actual siblings. I often joke with them that they have suddenly started looking alike. With humour being one of the key elements of the show, the boys are having a fun time portraying their characters.

So what can the viewers look forward to through Yeh Jawaani?

In one of my story narrations, someone observed that this show sounds semi-autobiographical. We realised that we all have a little bit of our growing up years in this show. This is a coming of age show without any pretence and without any qualms. We have touched upon real issues with a fun and funny approach to love, career, sex, family, peer pressures etc.

What do you think about the new concept of presenting bi-weeklies on TV?

Trends in TV are cyclic. They go and then they come back. Within my career I have seen weekly shows turning into biweekly shows and then into dailies. Primetime has expanded and then shrunk back again and non-fiction has come and gone. What matters at the end of the day is if a show can build a habit irrespective of its frequency. There are some weekly shows doing very well in the youth entertainment space while some dailies are tanking and vice versa. Having said that, bi-weekly scheduling does come handy in telling short plot driven stories.

Your other show for Bindass, Love By Chance will present 26 delightful love stories. How did you work on this concept?

Like I said we are a bunch of proud storytellers. We were dying to tell love stories but probably we were too proud to tell 'just' love stories. My thought starter was that everyone has a funny story to how they started dating someone or fell in love. It was then when we stumbled upon the idea of doing episodic romantic comedies and pitched it to Bindass. The show goes on air in a few days and we are unapologetically excited about it.

Don’t you think there is an overdose of love stories on air in TV? How different will Love By Chance be?

How can there be an overdose of love ever? Love never goes out of fashion. To answer the second question, LBC is the story before the love story actually starts. It’s about love happening to unlikely people in unusual circumstances only because they give it a chance. The show oozes sunny optimism and gives hope to millions of viewers that there is someone out there for them also and all they need to do is to give love a chance.

Kavi Shastri as the ‘Sutradhaar’ of Love By Chance. Why did you choose him as your narrator?

Kavi has a unique mix of freshness, charisma, sense of humour and a certain believability. When I met him first, his unassuming demeanour and his ease helped me define the character of the narrator sharply. It’s so easy to listen to a person like that when he talks about the matters of the heart.

Tell us about the kind of love stories that you will be showing the audience?

Humour is an integral part of our stories. As much as it is of love stories that we see around ourselves. There is a lot of situational humour, local flavours and popular culture references.

What is the message that you will want to convey with a show like Love By Chance?

Be open to love… it can happen anywhere. Be open to changing for someone… it can give you immense happiness. Be open to giving someone a chance… it could be the best decision of your life.

What are the kind of genres that you will want to touch upon in your future projects?

Even the sky is not the limit. We want to go across all genres as long as we can create some uniqueness in the telling.

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