Volume 8 Final Chapter Chapter 1091 Actress Strategy
Nan Yi stood outside the restaurant for a while to sort out the thoughts in his mind, then returned to the restaurant and continued the previous topic about the media with Priyanka.
In the past few days, he has not only been worrying about the selection of the president of Labor Media, but also studying the history of the development of India's television industry.
Over the past few decades, India's television industry has developed very slowly. Since the first state-owned public television station DD1 was established in New Delhi in 1959 with the assistance of West Germany, it was not until 1972 that television signals were extended to the other two major cities of Mumbai and Amritsar. In 1975, the number of cities providing television services expanded to 7.
In general, the penetration rate of televisions in India was very low at that time, and there was only one TV station, which mainly broadcast news and agricultural programs.
In 1982, color televisions entered the Indian market, especially when the TV station broadcast Gandhi’s Independence Day speech live that year, which stimulated a rapid increase in color TV sales.
Of course, the most important reason is that some Indians finally have a little extra money in their pockets.
Also in that year, India's then Minister of Information and Broadcasting visited Mexico and inspected their most prestigious TV drama business. After watching a local TV drama "Follow Me" filmed in 1975, he was inspired and returned to the country to get people involved in TV drama creation in his own country.
[In the early days, Mexico's television industry was very developed, and it was the big brother among developing countries in the field of TV dramas.]
In 1984, the inspired series We the People was broadcast on DD1. It was also India's first Hindi TV series, telling the story of the daily life of a middle-class family.
However, what really promoted the booming development of Indian TV series was a mythological drama of the same name adapted from the Ramayana.
As we all know, India has two world-famous epic works, "Ramayana" and "Mahabharata", which not only record part of India's historical development, but also are the epitome of Indian mythology.
In India, where almost everyone has religious beliefs, even illiterate people are familiar with these mythological stories, and these stories naturally provide inexhaustible material for all kinds of literary and artistic creators.
For example, the first film in Indian history, King Harishchandra, was based on Indian mythology, and a film based on the Ramayana was also released in the 1920s.
Similarly, if you want to quickly make a name for yourself as a TV series, adapting an epic is a shortcut. This not only makes it easy for everyone to watch, but also ensures the largest audience base.
In 1985, DDL aired a mythological drama "Vikram O Betal", which started a trend of mythological story adaptations; but the real sensation was "Ramayana" two years later. Its pilot episode was aired on Sunday morning and unexpectedly became very popular.
In 1988, another epic work, the Mahabharata, was adapted into a TV series of the same name, which was also a great success. From 1988 to 1990, a total of 94 episodes were broadcast.
It was these two mythological dramas adapted from epics that drove the Indian TV drama industry a big step forward, and also laid the foundation for Indian mythological dramas, and even a certain style of Indian dramas as a whole thereafter .
First of all, no matter what the scene is, the set of the entire show must be gorgeous. For example, the cost of producing one episode of Ramayana is about 100,000 rupees, which was considered a high price in the past few years. As for mythological dramas, because of the fictional background of the times, most of them are shot in indoor studios, so whether it is gorgeous or not depends on the budget.
Secondly, the plot is full of twists and turns and is extremely imaginative, but some parts of the plot are always too dragged out. In the words of later generations, the plot is very watery.
This was done intentionally by the production company, with the aim of catering to the mainstream group of TV drama watchers, "housewives". In order to allow them to watch the show while doing housework, the director would slow down the story, thus forming a habit of using slow motion and close-up shots to convey the characters' emotions.
Especially when a major event happens, the director will inevitably give a close-up of every face, including the onlookers, and then quickly cut back and forth, over and over again, without getting tired of it.
All in all, Indian TV dramas are only suitable for binge-watching, not for renting tapes and watching them quickly. If you watch too much at one time, you will only come to one conclusion - rubbish.
Another point is that Indian TV dramas will be very long, especially the already large-scale mythological dramas. Fifty episodes at least, a hundred episodes is normal, and there is no need to be surprised if there are thousands of episodes in the future.
Nan Yi already has the idea of making a family soap opera in India, using the core of "Forrest Gump", starting from the 1960s or 1970s, and looking at the historical development of India through several generations of a family, and by the way, implanting advertisements for all Nan's products sold in India into the opera, repeating it over and over again, making each brand catchy , and the first word a baby says is not "Mom", but a certain brand of Nan's.
The series will start with 150 episodes, and as long as the number of viewers is acceptable, it will continue to be filmed and broadcast year after year, even if a generation of viewers is eliminated.
"Priyanka, go back to the office tomorrow and talk to Kochhar. I want you to approach Ekta Kapoor of Balaji Telefilms."
Ekta Kapoor, born in 1975, is a member of the Kapoor family. Her father is Jitandra Kapoor (also translated as Jitendra), the star of "Caravan". Last year, with the support of Jitandra, Ekta established Balaji Telefilms. The second generation is not afraid of tigers. Ekta was full of confidence at the beginning and produced two TV series as a producer, but the pilot episode was returned.
However, after two setbacks, Ekta became more pragmatic and made a different low-budget thriller "Ripple's Believe It or Not", which was a success. This gave her the motivation to continue. This year, she produced another drama "We Five Sisters", which received good response and is now being broadcast on ZeeTV.
"What's the purpose?" Priyanka asked.
“First, invest in Balaji and when the time is right in the future, turn it into a subsidiary of Labor Media.”
Nan Yi didn't want to have a president with too deep a background when Labor Media was just established, so he excluded people from the Kapoor family when screening the candidates for president. After all, he was worried about the Nan family's delicate identity in India, and he was also worried that Labor Media would fall into internal friction before it developed.
Of course, even without considering the background, his first choice is still Mansoor Khan.
Upon hearing this, Priyanka said, “The Kapoor family has great influence in the film and television industry. It will not be easy to swallow up their industry.”
"It should not be called a merger, but more accurately a strong alliance. Labor Media only focuses on the development of television. As for the film industry, we only need to dabble in it. If we come across a film that is worth investing in, we will invest a little, but we don't need to get involved too deeply."
Priyanka nodded and said, "Would it be better to approach Jitandra directly?"
"No, in the eyes of outsiders, Ekta is now just a member of the Kapoor family and Jitandra's daughter. She should want to prove her ability and change outsiders' views of her so that she is no longer Jitandra's daughter. On the contrary, Jitandra is Erta's father."
Nan Yi said, reaching out and caressing Priyanka's face, "Before you were called Priyanka Sharma, now you are Priyanka Smith. I believe you also want to prove that you are Priyanka and don't need the blessing of the surname."
"Yes, you are right." Priyanka gave Nan Yi an affirmative answer.
“So…” Nan Yi smiled and took back his hand, “Please do your best. The Labor Group can add a shareholder named Priyanka on the basis of the Sharma Family .”
"Thanks."
"You're welcome. This is what I should do." Nan Yi shrugged.
After this chat, Priyanka temporarily shifted her work focus to the establishment of Labor Media, while Nan Yi continued to stay in Peacock Villa, looking through the information of Bollywood actors obtained by Acha, the head of the intelligence team Bat in India.
It was mainly about looking at photos. Nan Yi knew very few Bollywood actors' names in his previous life. He could name a few well-known male actors, but knew very few beautiful female actors' names. Without looking at photos, he couldn't recognize who was who just by looking at their information.
Shah Rukh Khan is familiar. The movie "Killing the Heart" starring him is currently in theaters. Judging from his information, he does not come from an acting family. He can consider signing with Labor Media.
Kajol Devgn, the female lead of "The King's Woman", looks prettier in photos than in the movie. She is already well-known, so we can consider recruiting her, hmm...
Nan Yi looked at the series of relatives' names in Kajol's information. Counting back three generations, there was a producer and director for the man, a movie queen for the woman, and three cousins and one sister who were all actors. This was another family of performing arts.
After drawing a circle around Kajol's name and writing a question mark next to it, Nan Yi continued to flip through the information.
After reading all the information, Nan Yi initially shortlisted actresses who he thought were friendly, good-looking and worth signing: Madhuri Dixit, Juhi Chawla, Aishwarya Rai, Tinko Khanna, Manisha Koirala, Shilpa Shetty, and Preity Zinta.
In his previous life, Nan Yi liked watching Indian movies very much, but he couldn't say that he was a fan of Indian movies, nor did he have an in-depth understanding of the Indian entertainment industry. The movies he could see were the best ones that had been selected by others (mainly the subtitle groups), and any actress he was familiar with was generally not too bad.
However, he really couldn't match the photos with the movie titles. He just couldn't do it. I don't know which idiot came up with this translation style. Many of the Indian movie titles he could think of were "Bollywood Hitman", "3 Idiots" and "A Bollywood Love Affair". When they were translated from Chinese into Hindi, Indian industry insiders were definitely confused - forgive my lack of knowledge and never heard of this movie.
After Priyanka came back from get off work, Nan Yi gave her the list he had shortlisted and asked her to screen it from the perspective of an Indian TV viewer.
After all, Labor Media does not need to pay too much attention to the international influence of its artists. It only needs to focus on satisfying the preferences of domestic Indian audiences. Perhaps in the future it will focus on training an actor to win international awards, but the ultimate goal is still to please domestic Indian audiences.
This is Nan Yi's idea based on the Nan family's overall standpoint, and is based on the consideration of the Big Heroine Plan. As for how the labor media individuals themselves should develop, that is something that the direct person in charge should consider. He will only pay attention to the year-end financial statements and future development space, and he will not ask about the specific matters after things are on track.
Even during the current formation period, he will not participate in the specific work. He only needs to sit in Mumbai and watch Kochhar and Priyanka carry out the work.
While Priyanka was looking at the information, Nan Yi went up to his study on the second floor and pulled up the information about Nepal on the computer and started reading it.
Among the actresses he selected, Manisha Koirala's profile is very interesting. She is Nepalese and comes from the Koirala family in Kathmandu. Her grandfather Bishveshwar and two uncles Girija and Matrika have all served as prime ministers of Nepal. Girija, in particular, was forced to resign as prime minister last year.
