Advertisment

As Big B steps into TV fiction, Sony goes big on marketing for 'Yudh'

Starting July 14, it will replace the popular soap 'Bade Acche Lagte Ho' and will take the primetime slot of 10:30 PM for five weeks over 20 episodes

author-image
BestMediaInfo Bureau
New Update
As Big B steps into TV fiction, Sony goes big on marketing for 'Yudh'

As Big B steps into TV fiction, Sony goes big on marketing for 'Yudh'

Starting July 14, it will replace the popular soap 'Bade Acche Lagte Hain' and will take the primetime slot of 10:30 PM for five weeks over 20 episodes

Sarmistha Neogy | Mumbai | July 14, 2014

yudh

Amitabh Bachchan aka Big B is set to make his entry in the television fiction genre with the serial 'Yudh' on Sony. Starting July 14, it will be replacing the popular soap 'Bade Acche Lagte Hain' and will take the channel's primetime slot of 10:30 PM.

Yudh is the story of Yudhisthir Sikhawar, an elite real estate businessman who has a neuropsychological disorder. It is a story of how he deals with himself, his complicated family situation and also his business rivals.

Gaurav Seth, SVP & Head – Marketing at Sony Entertainment Television (SET), said, “Yudh is a finite series and the 20 episodes will be aired from Monday to Thursday. The best part of any finite series is the initial pull, which Yudh has managed to draw because of Amitabh Bachchan and the ensemble cast. The audience in this case knows that it is coming, it will hit them and will also go away, so they need to make their appointments.”

Looking at the trailers of Yudh, one gets a feel that it is a new movie on the block. “In fact, Mr Bachchan wanted to pitch this as a movie on television. Like every movie which has a trailer, music and poster launch before its final release, Yudh also followed the same formula. The initial buzz started when we first launched the trailer of Yudh during the IPL finals. The rumour then was Sony is coming with a new movie. Therefore, we later changed and mentioned that Sony is coming with its new serial soon. Then a 50-feet poster was unveiled in New Delhi from the Statesman House which revealed the first look of the show. It was followed by Yudhisthir Sikhawar, the character which Big B plays in Yudh, listing his company Shanti Construction on the Bombay Stock Exchange. All these marketing activities helped us to arouse the curiosity and make everyone eagerly wait for its premiere,” said Seth.

Marketing blitz

The promo of Yudh is seen across channels reaching genres like news, music, Bollywood movies and regional. Sony has also secured over 10,000 spots which are outside the MSM network. Radio listeners in Hindi Speaking Markets (HSM) will also be hearing spots of the promo. A high-octane promo will be shown in multiplexes, and huge outdoor hoardings of Yudh have been placed all across HSM.

The channel has launched a 360-degree marketing initiative with innovations in the digital space to engage with fans. It goes without saying that the man who himself is so digitally active and understands the importance of this medium to engage with his fans, will use this platform when he is marking his debut into the television fiction genre. In fact, the channel has launched many of Yudh's promo on Big B's Twitter handle and they have all received phenomenal responses.

On Twitter, Sony has launched 'Curtain raiser' which will give an opportunity to the person with maximum number of tweets to watch around 10 minutes from the first episode a day prior to the launch of the show. Throughout the season of the show, after every episode, a series of questions would be displayed and viewers who get the correct answers will stand a chance to exclusively preview the following day's episode. 'Yudh Nama', another application which is scheduled to launch with the show, will reveal what similarities a person has with the character traits of Yudhisthir.

There are many stories told on television, but Yudh is tight, gripping and a high drama show. As Seth points out, the USP of this show is that it has Amitabh Bachchan for the first time playing a character on television. Created by Anurag Kashyap along with Shoojit Sircar, and directed by Ribhu Dasgupta, it is co-produced by Bachchan's production company, Saraswati Creations, in collaboration with Endemol India.

Other than Big B himself, Yudh stars Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Sarika, Kay Kay Menon and a host of other fantastic theatre artistes.

The channel admitted that the advantage of having such a strong cast helped in getting good sponsors. Yudh will have Cadbury Dairy Milk as the title sponsor, OLX as the 'powered-by' sponsor, and Honda, Maruti Suzuki, Nutrela, Syska LED, Ultratech and Goibibo.com as associate sponsors. Seth stated, “It is all about creating content in which you believe in, Brands associate with Senior Bachchan not because he is an affinity driver, but because of his strong mass appeal. Somewhere down the line, it is all about advertisers believing in the show and in him.”

Male Skewed Vs Mass show

Seth clarified, “Looking at the trailers of Yudh, one might get an impression that it is a male skewed show. But I would like to say that we are not looking to target only male audiences – it is a mass show. The popularity and appeal of Big B transcends to everyone, irrespective of male and female. The content may not appear as a typical saas-bahu drama which women love, but our belief is that women, once they get inside a plot, get attached to it easily. And the finite nature of Yudh will also help in doing that.”

SET claims that Yudh is being launched not with the aim of competing with any other shows on their channel or usurp the TRPs from their competitors. But it goes without saying that having Big B on the small screen is sure to give competing GEC channels a tough  time.

Info@BestMediaInfo.com

Info@BestMediaInfo.com

Advertisment