Which team wins the 2023 TATA IPL (Indian Premier League) will be known only on May 28, but we already have another winner — Bhojpuri commentary. What’s not to love when the action on the field is matched by cracking lines from the commentary box. Like, when a beamer elicits an “Ee kaa ho…muhva fodbe ka?” (What was that? It could have broken the batter’s face?”) from the commentator, or “Phir umpire Shahrukh Khan waale pose mein” for a wide ball.
And, the viewers are lapping it up. A scroll through social media and users’ reactions is enough to reflect that this new addition to the IPL has been a hit among fans. “Watching cricket since the mid-1980s, why have the broadcasters not thought of Bhojpuri commentary before? I feel cheated,” wrote author and cricket historian Abhishek Mukherjee. “Bhojpuri IPL commentary on Jio Cinema is a vibe,” wrote another Twitter user. “English and Hindi can fight for 2nd spot because Bhojpuri commentary is already GOATed,” wrote another.
“The crisp one-liners and witty observations have definitely struck a chord with the viewers, and I couldn’t be happier,” said member of Parliament Ravi Kishan, one of the Bhojpuri commentators who are carving a distinct fanbase for themselves. “I am thrilled with the overwhelming response from the audience,” he told FE
When IPL commentator with JioCinema Gulam Hussain uttered “Ee kaa ho…muhva fodbe ka?”, the clip went viral on social media. Speaking of the response, Hussain said, “Even those do not understand Bhojpuri are taking interest. I have received calls from people saying that they never watched cricket but are doing so now only because of Bhojpuri.”
While commentary happened in multiple vernacular languages, such as Telugu, Tamil, Bengali and Marathi previously, Bhojpuri and Punjabi have been added by JioCinema. Reliance-backed Viacom 18, which has JioCinema under its fold, had won the digital rights of IPL in the auction last year.
Commenting on the reason for introducing more vernacular languages, Siddharth Sharma, head of content, Viacom18 Sports, said, “This results in a more informed and engaged audience, who are more likely to stay tuned for a longer time.”
Sharma said: “It was evident in the opening weekend, where the average time spent per viewer per match touched 57 minutes on JioCinema. The time spent per viewer per match increased by over 60% compared to last season’s first weekend. Additionally, the regional language feeds also provide more targeted advertising and sponsorship opportunities for partner brands and advertisers. We secured more than 20 partners before TATA IPL started.”
Although English and Hindi continue to garner huge audience, “there has been a growing demand for regional language feeds in recent years,” Sharma added. While Bhojpuri has gone viral beyond Purvanchal, “another feed that got a lot of fan love is our Punjabi language coverage,” he said.
The first time seasoned sports commentator Sunil Taneja went viral was during the Tokyo Olympics in 2021, when the Indian hockey team made it to the Olympics semi-final after 49 years. As the nation went into a frenzy, Taneja, along with fellow commentator Siddharth Pandey, could not hold their excitement and tears, and their emotional commentary went viral.
“After that clip, now my Punjabi clips have gone viral,” Taneja told FE. He said the experience and response have been so “unbelievably beautiful” that even people from Pakistan “are using VPN and other jugaad to hear Punjabi commentary. We even receive messages from USA, Canada and Australia asking how to listen to our commentary,” Taneja said.
Terming the response as “overwhelming”, Gurjeet Singh, another Punjabi commentator, said people have reached out to him saying that even though they do not know the language, it is fun to hear. Taneja, who primarily does commentary in Hindi, said the difference is that Punjabi has boliyan, or couplets. “There is a natural, beautiful culture of Punjabi couplet. We incorporate a lot of these into our commentary, and people have loved that. So while somebody taking a wicket can be conveyed simply, in Punjabi, I said, “Laah te dande, chala de jhande” (the sticks have fallen, the flags are flying).
It is the local flavour, entertainment quotient and a whole new lexicon for the sport, taking things beyond the literal meaning and catching emotions more than words, that have struck a chord.
Explaining that, Saurabh Kumar, another Bhojpuri commentator with JioCinema, said, “On day 1 of the IPL, one of Ghulam’s line got very famous. If a fielder jumps in the air to catch the ball, Ghulam said, ‘Joota mein spring laagal ba kya?’ (Do his shoes have springs?). This is emotion. We get more attracted to emotion than words and that connects with even non-Bhojpuri audiences.”
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How do you beat “Badka wicket nikal dele Little” and “Little ne vaddi wicket leyi aa,” when IPL debutant John Little of Gujarat Titans ousted Chennai Super Kings’ Ambati Raidu.
Viacom18’s Sharma added, “We worked on a framework that imbued the essence of the region, replete with tonality and pop cultural references and built a new lexicon for the sport. Common world parallels were drawn to drive the nuances of the sport and make it more comprehensible to the man on the street.”
And surely, what better way to make it more comprehensible than capturing the audience’s excitement by saying, “darshak khushi se hungama karal baade!”