MX Player’s Aashram garners 300 million+ streams in less than a month

• MX Player's original series Aashram featuring Bobby Deol, has become the first series in India to garner 300 million+ streams in less than a month.
• We speak to Gautam Talwar, Chief Content Officer, MX Player to find out the strategy behind it and the platform’s plan to double down on the production of original content once we resume normalcy.

Aashram has become MX Player’s best performing original content as the series has already garnered 300 million streams in less than a month.

Gautam Talwar, Chief Content Officer, MX Player, said, “Aashram would be one of the top series seen in this country. We have just crossed 300 million streams in less than a month. It has actually surpassed our expectations and broken most of our internal records -- whether it would be the number of streams we have seen or the number of new users that have come onto the platform because of Aashram has been historic for us. Even if you compare it across the industry, it would be one of the top ranking shows in this country.”

Aashram has also helped MX Player grow stronger in its existing markets by 130-140%.

MX Player was able to achieve these numbers because of its large distribution. It currently has 75 million Daily Active Users and 200 million Monthly Active Users. They also used all their media vehicles to drive more traffic and get new users. It upped its media plan by going 360-degree including Out of Home, radio and TV.

On how it all started, Talwar said, “Work on Aashram started about 2 years ago when I had just joined. We knew a world we wanted to tell a story within and started with Habib Faisal writing a brilliant story for us. He had these mind-blowing characters in his mind whether it was Baba Nirala, Sati, Ujagar and Pami -- he gave us the bible and then we took it to the captain of the ship, Prakash Jha himself. He added so many more layers to the writing and gave it the real vision that was needed to create a show of this scale.”

During the on-going pandemic of about 28 weeks, between originals and acquired content, MX Player has launched 27 shows -- which is around one show a week.

After seeing great response for its originals such as Aashram and Times of Music, MX Player is also planning to double down its production of original content.

Sharing the content pipeline for the coming months, Talwar said, “We are going to double down on our originals. We are launching one on October 07. It is called High. It is again a show that we are proud of. It is at par with international shows. There are a couple of shows that we have already shot and are getting post-produced. One of them is Aashram Season 1 Part 2. So, we are sorted till January.”

MX Player has used the lockdown period quite smartly. It realised it has a content-hungry audience and tried to launch content for every mood. As they call it, MX Player is ‘Everytainment’ -- a platform that satiates every need gap and polished its scripts.

“All of us went through the 6-months of no shooting period so that has put us on a fast track now. As soon as the unlock happens, we hope to put a lot more shows on the floor to shoot them. They do take their time. Each and every show has a lead time of about a year and a half. So that is going to be a challenge. We have used the lockdown time to make sure that the writing is taken care of,” shared Talwar.

MX Player’s vision is to stand true to its proposition i.e., have enough content to satiate every need gap.

For more details on Aashram’s performance, watch our interview with Talwar here: