How Ekta Kapoor Mints Millions
With Awfully Mediocre Content
The Indian television media space has been ruled over by Ekta Kapoor, the owner of Balaji Telefilms for more than two decades now. The daughter of the successful actor Jeetendra and the sister of the not-so-successful actor Tushar Kapoor chose direction and production as a career rather than acting. Her TV serial ‘Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi’ set many records. But all of these records have been about the length of the serial being on-air and not about the storyline or the acting or the direction. The content quality is awfully mediocre but people never understood that in the ‘TV Age’ as we did not have access to various different types of content/media. Ekta Kapoor was able to fool the entire country then and get them hooked to her saas-bahu serials.
Ekta is a Smarty
One might think that would not happen now with the vast majority of the population having access to the internet and with the existence of streaming platforms like Netflix and Amazon Prime Video. But the queen is always one step ahead of the subjects. Ekta Kapoor started her own streaming platform called ‘Alt Balaji’. The app targets the audience from the third tier of the society or the ‘lower middle class’. She was smart enough to understand that no one is going to waste their mobile data to watch her saas-bahu serial on their smartphone. Statistics show that 70 percent of content on the internet is sexual or related to pornography. Ekta Kapoor just decided to cash in on that.
Let's Talk Money Honey
The Alt Balaji app, contrary to its name, is completely filled with series and movies who’s content type can be classified as ‘soft porn’ (Ekta might call it ‘erotica’) such as ‘XXX’ and ‘Gandi Baat’ with multiple seasons of each. But guess what, it works! By the end of 2019 Alt Balaji had more than 25 million subscribers and a full-year revenue of 41.9 crore. The 2020 graph is only increasing.
Morality Who?
When a budding nation like India is giving so much importance to the education of its youth, the type of media being created should be that which entertains and elevates at the same time. India is in the dire need of content that makes the viewers think and push the boundaries of their imagination. Ekta Kapoor is making shallow minds consume shallow content and that is indirectly affecting the creative, productive, and economic progress of the nation. The shallow minds can't be blamed for their consumption as they don’t know better. They don’t know better because the excess availability of shallow content is stopping them from seeing beyond. Sadly we live in a world that prioritizes short term gains. Everyone knows healthy food is the better option yet businesses like McDonalds and KFC are excelling. Basically, Ekta Kapoor Content is for the brain what a Big Mac is for body health. The morality behind the creation of such type of media can be criticized but not questioned, because we already know the answer: morality doesn’t pay for penthouses.
written by Atharva Sangle