Mahuaa TV, a Bhojpuri general entertainment channel (GEC) and incidentally the first dialect channel of the country, launched earlier this month plans to go global in six months.
Mahuaa Media Private Ltd (MMPL), an associate company of the media house Century Communication Ltd with interests in television, film, radio, visual effects (VFX) and animation, is in advanced talks with distributors across USA, Maritius, Surinam, West Indies and the Netherlands to take Mahuaa TV to around 6 million Bhojpuris settled in these countries. Mahuaa’s dialect bouquet in Bhojpuri will go on air in three to six months’ time.
The managing director of MMPL P K Tewari, said, “We will launch a news channel, film and music channel in Bhojpuri simultaneously within three to six months’ time. If a 66 million Tamil population in the country can command 16 language channels, a 150 million Bhojpuri population obviously deserves its own set of channels. From our research and understanding, we have learnt that there is a strong demand for Bhojpuri content.”
According to unofficial figures, an estimated 70 million people in Uttar Pradesh and 80 million in Bihar speak Bhojpuri as their first or second language. However, according to census 2001 statistics, Bhojpuri population in the country stands at 33 million.
MMPL will invest a total of Rs 150 million in its venture. Of this, around Rs 75 crore has already been spent and the rest will be invested within the next six months. According to Tewari, FII investors based out of the UK, the US and Singapore have shown interest in investing in the venture. Tewari said that the interest on part of advertisers has been tremendous. Speaking about the distribution of ad space, he said, “Of the total ad space booked, 75% are national advertisers, like Tata motors and Idea, while 25% are regional advertisers”.
The regional market accounts for approximately a little over 24% of the total television advertising pie but is growing at a rate of 22% annually. An established and organized Bhojpuri film industry (estimated size of over Rs 100 crore) could act as a ready content churner for Mahuaa, which has already bagged the satellite rights of around 200 Bhojpuri films.