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Filmmaker-actor Rohit Shetty's latest release 'Kantara' collected Rs 170 crore in India and Rs 18 crore overseas, for a worldwide gross of Rs 188 crore, becoming the second highest-grossing Kannada film of all time beating Yash-starrer 'KGF'. Due to the Diwali weekend, the film got a boost at the collections. The total box office collections of the film have reached Rs 170 crore. It will be crossing the Rs 200 crore mark before the end of the fourth week, according to pinkvilla.com. 'Kantara' has raked in Rs 111 crore approximately so far in Karnataka, with Rs 14 crore fourth weekend, which is double of the full fourth week of 'KGF 2'

Kantara beats KGF with its ₹188 crore box office collections

<ul><li>The box office collection of Prabhas’ last two releases, Saaho and Radhe Shyam, were much below expectations. </li><li>If it’s able to manage a good opening, <keyword id="9776044" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="adipurush" source="Orion">Adipurush</keyword> may be able to breach the ₹350-crore lifetime earnings mark, says Elara Capital. </li><li>Small and medium budget films continue to struggle, as their success in North and South circuits has dropped sharply. </li><li>The first quarter of FY24 has gotten off to a slow start, with no surprises except for The Kerala Story and Hollywood movie, Fast X. </li></ul>After an average performance of his last two movies, South superstar Prabhas might see a good run at the box office with his upcoming release Adipurush, say analysts. The movie, based on the mythological epic Ramayana, is expected to bring in opening day collections of ₹50-60 crore for the dubbed versions. The Hindi original is also expected to clock in ₹20 crore, predicts a research report by Elara Capital. As <a href="https://www.dnaindia.com/bollywood/report-adipurush-overseas-advance-booking-bulldozes-past-rs-6-crore-mark-prabhas-om-raut-kriti-sanon-saif-ali-khan-3047559">per media reports</a>, its advance bookings have been creating buzz, especially in overseas markets like Canada and Australia. If it’s able to manage a good opening, this big budget movie will be able to breach the ₹350- crore lifetime earnings mark – unlike Prabhas’ earlier movies Saaho and Radhe Shyam whose collections at ₹280 crore and ₹150 crore, respectively, were way below expectations “The film may surpass our estimates based on good content and word-of-mouth. Ticket prices are expected to be premium, around 20% higher than the average ticket prices on a pan-India level,” says Karan Taurani and Rounak Roy of Elara Capital. Adipurush will be released across India on June 16 in Hindi, Telugu, Tamil, Kannada and Malayalam. It also stars Saif Ali Khan and Kriti Sanon, and is directed by Om Raut who had delivered the superhit movie, Tanaji. Small budget films not bringing in the moolah In spite of a few recent hits like Pathaan, The Kerala Story, Kantara and more, movie theatres have been struggling to bring back footfalls to match the pre-Covid levels. “Small and medium budget films continue to struggle as frequency of content becoming successful has dropped sharply in the North and South circuits,” the research report from Elara, which tracks PVR, says. Vicky Kaushal and Sara Ali Khan's latest release Zara Hatke Zara Bachke has minted ₹37.4 crore in its first week, according to trade analyst Taran Adarsh. The movie, directed by Laxman Utekar, saw a decent opening, garnering ₹5.49 crore on the first day of its release. In spite of the positive surprise that the movie delivered, Elara believes that the momentum was driven by the Buy-One-Get-One-Free (BOGO) offer. It reduces distributor-producer share to approximately 30% from 50% earlier. “It makes film production economics unviable; while it is a good promotional activity to propel audiences back into the cinema halls to drive frequency, good and consistent content is the only big driver for improved occupancy levels,” say Taurani and Roy in their note. A slow start to FY24 The first quarter of FY24 has gotten off to a slow start in terms of box office, with no surprises except for The Kerala Story and Hollywood movie, Fast X. Hindi film box office collections for the first quarter are expected to be 20% lower than what they were pre-Covid. As compared to the same quarter last year, the drop is expected to be sharper at 30%, the research firm predicts. For context, the same time last year had hit movies like Rajamouli’s RRR, Karthik Aryan’s Bhool Bhulaiyaa 2 and Yash’s KGF 2. The second quarter of FY24 is expected to see many big movie releases like Karthik Aryan’s Satyaprem, Sunny Deol’s Gadar 2, Ranveer Singh’s Rocky Aur Rani Ki Prem Kahaani, Akshay Kumar’s OMG 2, Ranbir Kapoor’s Animal and Shah Rukh Khan’s Jawan. “Q2FY24 may be the best quarter even if half of these films report a healthy box office collection. Woes persist for exhibitors as Hindi content recovery is important to drive advertising growth, which remains under pressure,” the Elara report opines. The number of Hindi films lined up for release however remains lower than pre-Covid levels — by 30-35%.

Adipurush’s opening box office collection projections show Prabhas is back

<ul><li>Going hyperlocal, STAGE, a participant in <keyword id="1417364" type="General" weightage="50" keywordseo="shark-tank" source="Orion">Shark Tank</keyword> Season 2, plans to upload OTT content in the top 20 dialects of the country.</li><li>STAGE started with <keyword id="41646" type="General" weightage="80" keywordseo="haryana" source="Orion">Haryana</keyword>vi dialect content in 2019, now has over 225,000 subscribers across Haryana and Rajasthan. </li><li>Urban OTT markets have reached their saturation point with top 6 metros contributing only 10% to <keyword id="3658" type="General" weightage="80" keywordseo="india" source="Orion">India</keyword>’s OTT universe, Ormax Media reported. </li></ul>Shark Tank Season 2 participants and builders of Indore-based hyperlocal OTT platform STAGE, call themselves ‘cockroach’ founders. Back in 2018, when <a href="https://www.thehindubusinessline.com/info-tech/social-media/data-of-up-to-87-mn-users-harvested-facebook/article23442333.ece">87 million</a> Facebook profiles were harvested for data without consent by a British consulting firm Cambridge Analytica, <keyword id="1464818" type="General" weightage="50" keywordseo="vinay-singhal" source="Orion">Vinay Singhal</keyword>, <keyword id="2921541" type="General" weightage="50" keywordseo="parveen-singhal" source="Orion">Parveen Singhal</keyword> and <keyword id="3503521" type="General" weightage="50" keywordseo="shashank-vaishnav" source="Orion">Shashank Vaishnav</keyword> lost their ₹300 crore content startup WittyFeed overnight, losing millions of followers, traffic and money. The startups offered content across entertainment, tech, politics, health and more. “Most of our traffic was dependent on Facebook with a majority chunk coming from the USA, approximately 60 million users from there. In November 2018, Mark Zuckerberg got stuck in legal battles due to Cambridge Analytica and we got blocked. STAGE is our comeback,” said Shashank Vaishnav, co-founder and CTO of STAGE, told Business Insider India. Beyond languages to dialects Fast forward to 2019, STAGE shifted focus from out-of-India subscribers to Bharat. The startup claims to provide, quite literally, a ‘stage’ to local artists across India. Going beyond the regional language based OTTs that are already gaining attention, this startup claims to provide content across different dialects across Rajasthan and Haryana. “In India, there are about 50 OTT platforms uploading regional based content. Dialects don’t have their own scripts, cinema or literature as opposed to language. Haryana has 11 different dialects, Bhojpuri alone spoken by 100 million people. STAGE aims to give a platform to local artists from these spaces,” said <keyword id="16058" type="General" weightage="80" keywordseo="singhal" source="Orion">Singhal</keyword>. Regional OTTs like Koode in Malayalam, City Short TV in Gujarati, aha in Telugu, hoichoi of Bengali and Planet Marathi are some of the regional streaming services that are popular with users within and outside India. Video viewership in India is dominated by the regional language user base. Consumers today spend about 50-60 percent of the average time on Hindi videos, followed closely by 35-43% on regional content videos with only 5-7% on English, states a <a href="https://ficci.in/events/23490/ISP/The%20Digital%20First%20journey_Web.pdf">FICCI-KPMG</a> ‘The Digital First Journey’ report. After independence, India preached the idea of one nation, one language. Languages that had their own script and culture survived while dialects, which are spoken in conversations, began getting lost, Singhal said. “Hindi grew rapidly and thus dialects began to shrink. In 1900, India had about 19,500 different spoken dialects and languages. As of today, only 700 of these remain,” he added. STAGE currently has over 5,000 artists, uploading content in dialects of Mewari, Harauti, Sikhawati, Bangaru to name a few. It’s valued at ₹290 crore, having raised ₹40 crore in Series A funding led by <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/business/startups/news/shark-tank-s2-participant-stage-raises-40-crore-in-a-series-a-round/articleshow/96704515.cms">Blume Ventures</a>. The rise of Aam Aadmi’s viewership India’s diversity in terms of viewership is evident in the fact that there are over <a href="https://www.statista.com/statistics/1177588/india-number-of-satellite-tv-channels/#:~:text=As%20of%20June%202022%2C%20892,Organisation%2C%20commonly%20known%20as%20ISRO.">892</a> TV channels in India across music, movies, general entertainment, news, sports and more – and each of these divided into languages and a few local channels too survive till date. India OTTs in spite of their growth are unable to cater to the diversified needs, and at the same time younger audience beyond metros are seeking new-age entertainment provided by the streaming services. “Urban OTT markets have reached their saturation point and content is bound to go hyperlocal. The top 6 metros contribute only 10% to India’s OTT universe but 33% to total paid subscriptions in India,” said The Ormax OTT Audience Sizing Report 2022. Indian OTTs have already hit a wall when it comes to acquiring the next set of customers. “A large share of the 20% growth in audience base has come from rural India and small towns. The metro cities have reached saturation levels, with more than 79% OTT penetration. Platforms will have to rely on the smaller markets for the next phase of growth,” said <keyword id="161338" type="General" weightage="50" keywordseo="shailesh-kapoor" source="Orion">Shailesh Kapoor</keyword>, founder and CEO of Ormax Media. This is the sweet spot that STAGE intends to cater to. <div type="image" title="OTT growth in India since 2021" msid="96754688" hostid="261" sizebytes="43766"></div> The rise of Hariwood: Haryana-wood Local voices and their stories in the form of social drama, stand up comedy, documentaries and web series can find seekers easily. And, it’s a growing business. As per <a href="https://ficci.in/events/23490/ISP/The%20Digital%20First%20journey_Web.pdf">FICCI-KPMG</a> report, the demand for original content was estimated to increase from 2,500 hours in 2021 to over 4,000 hours by 2024. Moreover, there is enough and more talent across the grassroots that can be easily channelized onto the OTT platform. “Standup artists from hyperlocal regions take to this craft because their real dream is to become an actor. Since the nascent industry of dialects is not making any movies, they started performing stand up to gain exposure. We have successfully created a local Bollywood in Haryana. They even refer to the industry as ‘Hariwood’. The same situation is in Rajasthan,” said Vinay Singhal. The fact that movies like Kantara in a tribal setting found viewers across India, shows that hyperlocal platforms are capable of telling compelling ‘stories of the soil’. Very literally, there are many dances like the one seen in Kantara and have not been showcased on the right platform as of now. “There are numerous local folk dances that people enjoy locally a lot. For example, in Haryana there is a live theatrical folk dance called Ragni. In Rajasthan, there is Kalbeliya dance, which is also a popular folk music performance widely witnessed in the state. We have started recording these local artists and their folk rituals and performances for STAGE,” said Parveen Singhal, chief content officer at STAGE, told Business Insider India. A cockroach born in the winter In spite of great potential, STAGE like most startups has to face the test of time that’s funding winter. But the startup itself is a survival story, and claims to be a <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/business/startups/article/unicorns-are-pass-cockroaches-are-the-new-favourites-of-venture-capitalists/articleshow/95734214.cms">cockroach</a> that’s tough enough to survive any adversity. “We are very frugal and our company was born in the winter so we are confident of raising and maintaining capital. But capital infusion will see improvement from April 2023 onwards because there is a lot of dry powder available in the market. Last year, the VCs raised a significant amount of capital to be deployed in startups,” Singhal said. The idea of appearing on Shark Tank India Season 2, with their episode airing on January 4, was initially dismissed by the founders as the previous season of the show only funded early stage startups. STAGE was in the process of raising their Series A funding. But it was a pleasant surprise for the startup to discover that the show now progressed from early stage to late stage funding as well. STAGE was offered ₹1.5 crore for 0.6% equity and ₹1.5 crore debt at 18% interest from Namita Thapar, Aman Gupta and <keyword id="824423" type="General" weightage="50" keywordseo="peyush-bansal" source="Orion">Peyush Bansal</keyword>, judges at Shark Tank India Season 2, which they accepted. “We have already started preparing our website for the kind of traffic that is expected from the reality show, which has led to 3 times growth for companies who featured last season. Even though the judges are known to ask tough questions, they understood our story and it was an emotional moment for us,” said Singhal. STAGE started with Haryanavi content in 2019, now has over 225,000 subscribers across Haryana and Rajasthan. By 2027, they aim to upload content in the top 20 dialects of the country, reaching over 200 million households across India. It also plans to raise its Series B funding later this year. Its existing investors include Better Capital, IPV, TCA, Venture Catalysts and Blume Ventures. SEE ALSO: <a target="_blank" class="c-link c-message_attachment__title_link" href="https://www.businessinsider.in/business/startups/news/from-0-to-100-million-in-5-years-thats-how-long-startups-founded-in-2017-took-to-scale-up-says-redseer-report/articleshow/96739954.cms">From 0 to $100 million in 5 years – That’s how long startups founded in 2017 took to scale up, says Redseer report</a> <a target="_blank" class="c-link c-message_attachment__title_link" href="https://www.businessinsider.in/business/corporates/news/tcs-infosys-wipro-and-other-it-companies-earnings-preview-for-q3-fy23/articleshow/96731891.cms">December quarter likely to be a weak one for the IT sector – Infosys amongst top analyst picks</a>

A hyperlocal OTT born in funding winter wants to tell stories in Indian dialects

<ul><li>In 2022, dry dates became the norm, with most singles opting for sober outings, according to dating platforms Tinder and Bumble. </li><li><keyword id="9771276" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="revenge-travel" source="Orion">Revenge travel</keyword> and revenge shopping massively influenced consumer behaviour in 2022. </li><li>Conversations on finance dominated Twitter, especially on topics around cryptocurrency and decentralised finance. </li></ul>The year of 2022 will always be remembered as the one that marked a ‘beginning of the end of the Covid’. As a number of new normals came to be during the pandemic, this year itself set its own set of trends — some which might stay on and some that would vanish. <cmsannotation type="cmsannotation" annotationid="Dates goes through a ‘dry’ spell" comment="subhead2" text="Dates goes through a ‘dry’ spell">Dates goes through a ‘dry’ spell</cmsannotation> For two years, singles have checked <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/tech/apps/news/tinder-year-in-swipe-2021-report-reveals-key-highlights-of-online-dating-in-india/articleshow/88119375.cms">vaccination status </a>of possible dates and their stance on ‘masks’ before swiping. In 2022, dating turned dry where people don’t want to drink on dates. What’s worse is that they don’t wanna want dinner together either as per a <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/business/news/having-a-funny-bone-like-chandler-bings-could-make-you-hot-property-on-tinder/articleshow/95824855.cms">Tinder’s Year in Swipe Report for 2022</a> Apart from sober dates, people want to check the stance on social issues – from politics to LGBTQ+ – before they agree to have a coffee or even a smoothie with a potential romantic interest. “While they (young adults) may go on blind dates, they no longer turn a blind eye to red flags and increasingly look for green flags or positives in a match or a relationship,” said Dr Chandni Tugnait, Life Coach &amp; Tinder’s relationship expert. <div type="image" title="Dating" msid="96220984" hostid="261" sizebytes="63922"></div> In its 2022 dating predictions, <a href="https://bumble.com/en-in/the-buzz/2022-dating-trends">Bumble</a> also said that ‘34% of folks using the Bumble app say they’re more likely to go on a ‘dry date’ now than pre-Covid’. With Covid waning, maybe there are less reasons to drink on a date or otherwise? <cmsannotation type="cmsannotation" annotationid="Out of lockdowns - Revenge travel" comment="subhead2" text="Out of lockdowns - Revenge travel">Out of lockdowns - Revenge travel</cmsannotation> Travel has come a long way since the pandemic, from taking incoming travellers right into quarantine to 2022 – when airports are so congested that people are being asked to arrive 3.5 hours in advance to catch a domestic flight. As lockdowns ended, vaccinations increased and Covid itself turned milder with the Omicron wave – people stepped out of the four walls and rode into the sunsets. It’s now called revenge travel as people are going for more trips – even if they are shorter. As per the <a href="https://www.businesstraveller.com/business-travel/2022/08/10/india-emerges-as-the-global-leader-in-travel-in-2022-as-per-travel-lifestyle-network-survey/#:~:text=In%20terms%20of%20leisure%20travel,to%20bite%20the%20travel%20bug.">Travel Lifestyle Network survey</a>, India was the global leader in domestic travel with 24% people undertaking at least one vacation every month. The global average stands at 11%. So much so, domestic air traffic in November stood at over<a href="https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/industry/transportation/airlines-/-aviation/domestic-air-traffic-crosses-4-lakh-mark-for-two-straight-days/articleshow/95837004.cms"> 4 lakh</a> in November 2022 - though it’s still not close to pre-pandemic levels. And the number is only expected to rise further in 2023. “Despite some current instability felt globally, nearly 72% (people) report that travelling will always be worth it. If 2022 was about the triumphant return of travel, 2023 will be about creatively reimagining it amidst the chaos,” shared online travel agency Booking.com. <div type="image" title="Revenge Travel" msid="96221064" hostid="261" sizebytes="2427910"></div> Travel search engine Kayak also surveyed 1900 people and reported that the top three reasons Indians are travelling again are to explore the world (62%), live out their dreams (61%), and chase thrills (55%). <cmsannotation type="cmsannotation" annotationid="Revenge shopping led to a dip in household savings for Indians" comment="subhead2" text="Revenge shopping led to a dip in household savings for Indians">Revenge shopping led to a dip in household savings for Indians</cmsannotation> Pandemic made people make large and chunky investments as auto and home sales went up and kept going up in 2022 in spite of multiple interest rate hikes. Stores opened and people stepped into them in droves – triggering the trend of revenge shopping — be it clothes, accessories, make-up and all forms of consumer goods. But that did not take away the sheen of online shopping that saw a dream run during the pandemic. “Simultaneous growth of online and offline revalidates the domestic consumption story and indicates ample growth opportunities for both formats,” said a Redseer report. According to the <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/business/ecommerce/news/one-in-every-five-online-orders-had-a-kurti-or-saree-in-their-cart-redseer/articleshow/95598263.cms">Redseer report</a>, the festive season saw bumper sales online with 64% of the transacting shoppers coming from Tier 2+ cities — showing that a new set of consumers are going online. Yet, if economists are to be believed, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/finance/news/end-of-revenge-spending-urban-spending-to-taper-off-in-the-next-few-quarters-says-motilal-oswal/articleshow/96020912.cms">this trend might wane off</a>. The love for shopping in the face of rising inflation put a dent on consumers’ savings with Indian <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/finance/news/revenge-spending-effect-household-savings-dip-to-5-year-low/articleshow/95805817.cms">household savings falling to a five-year low </a>in 2021-22. <cmsannotation type="cmsannotation" annotationid="Indians changed they way they invested" comment="subhead2" text="Indians changed they way they invested">Indians changed they way they invested</cmsannotation> Pandemic, or the end of it, seems to have made Indians stop playing it safe. Bank deposits, which have been where Indians always packed their excess cash, are now no longer popular. They are favouring equities and the love for deposits is<a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/finance/banks/article/its-not-just-mercedes-even-bank-deposits-are-competing-with-equities/articleshow/95879457.cms"> fast vanishing from metro </a>and urban markets. As per <a href="http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/95813226.cms?utm_source=contentofinterest&amp;utm_medium=text&amp;utm_campaign=cppst">reports</a>, in October 2022, monthly investments into SIPs crossed a record ₹13,000 crore. Showing that young and novice investors are keen on changing their investment patterns is evident in Twitter searches. Most of them searched for NFTs, cryptocurrency, and later, the cryptocurrency crash, making ‘Finance goes social’ one of the biggest trends on the social media giant. Tweets about finance went up 78% YoY, as per the <a href="https://marketing.twitter.com/en/insights/the-conversation-twitter-trends-2022">Twitter Trends Report 2022</a>. “Finance Twitter used to be exclusive, highly technical… and just kinda boring. Crypto and DeFi (decentralised finance) have blown those notions right out of the water” stated Twitter. <cmsannotation type="cmsannotation" annotationid="Reading while watching" comment="subhead2" text="Reading while watching">Reading while watching</cmsannotation> It’s not what it sounds like – people are not flipping books while watching TV. Instead they are watching shows, series and movies in languages they do not understand and reading subtitles to understand dialogues. While hit movies like KGF-Chapter 1 and RRR were dubbed in Hindi, OTT viewers tuned into Korean Squid Game and Spanish Money Heist as well. In general, Indians across the nation are looking down South for entertainment as their popularity with the Hindi audience stayed on – as seen with Kannada superhit, Kantara. On the other hand, Bramhastra too was dubbed in four South Indian languages–Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, and Kannada–showing movies, like music, too have a universal language and appeal. <div type="image" title="brahmastra" msid="96221463" hostid="261" sizebytes="127442"></div> <cmsannotation type="cmsannotation" annotationid="New-age celebs go traditional" comment="subhead2" text="New-age celebs go traditional">New-age celebs go traditional</cmsannotation> The lines between social media celebrities (or ‘influencers’) and mainstream stars is starting to blur and how! After debuting with a cameo in Netflix’s Ghost Stories, popular influencer Kusha Kapila played a working pregnant woman in Netflix's Masaba Masaba S2 this year. YouTuber Prajakta Kohli was also part of the multi-starrer drama Jugjugg Jeeyo and returned for S2 of Netflix’s Mismatched. Vishnu Kaushal, famous for his ‘peach gang’ and hilarious sketches, made his acting debut with the drama series Feels Like Home. He was also <a href="https://www.filmfare.com/awards/filmfare-ott-awards-2022/vote#74">nominated</a> in the Best Supporting Actor category at the Filmfare OTT Awards 2022. <div type="image" title="Vishnu Kaushal" msid="96221201" hostid="261" sizebytes="293022"></div> This trend will continue to grow. In 2023, Dr Trinetra, one of the most popular and active voices on social media for sexual health and the Indian trans community, will star in the highly anticipated sequel of Amazon Prime Video’s Made in Heaven. <div type="image" title="Made in Heaven S2" msid="96221329" hostid="261" sizebytes="88228"></div> <cmsannotation type="cmsannotation" annotationid="Going green, everywhere" comment="subhead2" text="Going green, everywhere">Going green, everywhere</cmsannotation> Apart from buying EVs, Indians are embracing climate sensitivity in multiple ways. From weddings to dating to travelling – they are thinking green. And they are willing to pay the extra buck too, as per a EY Future Consumer Index <a href="https://www.ey.com/en_gl/news/2022/03/ey-future-consumer-index-growing-economic-uncertainty-and-rising-costs-dent-post-pandemic-hopes">report. </a> “Consumers are choosing to make more sustainable purchases, doing what they can to preserve their environment, with 56% saying they will pay more attention to the environmental impact of their purchases and 52% committing to pay more attention to the social impact,” stated the report. Kayak also reported that 43% respondents consider sustainability as one of their main criteria for a summer holiday. SEE ALSO: <a target="_blank" class="c-link c-message_attachment__title_link" href="https://www.businessinsider.in/stock-market/news/kfin-technologies-to-open-its-ipo-next-week-from-dec-19-21/articleshow/96220635.cms">KFin Technologies to open its IPO next week from Dec 19-21</a> <a target="_blank" class="c-link c-message_attachment__title_link" href="https://www.businessinsider.in/stock-market/news/paytm-share-buyback-at-a-50-premium-could-support-the-stock-in-near-term-jp-morgan/articleshow/96220518.cms">Paytm share buyback at a 50% premium could support the stock in near term: JP Morgan</a>

Binge subtitled watching, dry dating, equity investing - Top pop culture trends of 2022

<ul><li><ul><li>Cultural diplomat and author <keyword id="182794" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Amish-Tripathi" source="Orion">Amish Tripathi</keyword>’s new book <keyword id="14079627" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="War-of-Lanka" source="Orion">War of Lanka</keyword> sold six and a half million copies within two weeks of launch. </li><li>War of Lanka also saw India’s first Metaverse launch for a book, where an augmented reality filter was uploaded on Instagram for users. </li><li>India has become wealthier post 1991 and the emergence of ‘real’ India is inspiring films based on myths, says Tripathi. </li></ul> </li></ul>From the time he left his banking job to become a full-time writer in 2011, Amish Tripathi has attempted to give Indian deities human-like attributes through his take on myths. In his books, deities get angry, make human mistakes and even poke fun at each other. Director Shekhar Kapur, who is making a web series on Tripathi’s <keyword id="810431" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Shiva-Trilogy" source="Orion">Shiva trilogy</keyword>, called him ‘India’s literary popstar’. Tripathi’s first trilogy on deity Shiva became the fastest-selling book series in Indian publishing history. His most recent book ‘War of Lanka’ has already sold six and a half million copies and is currently under reprint. What makes his books popular is not just the content but also his marketing hooks. He roped in marketing agency Think WhyNot to launch an augmented reality filter on Instagram for the ‘War of Lanka’. Custom merchandise or making the first music album in Indian publishing history for ‘The Oath of the Vayuputras’ – the third book in his Shiva Trilogy – are some other marketing examples. The author of seven books encapsulating the stories of Ram, Raavan, Sita and Shiva, Tripathi talks to Business Insider India about topics ranging from the importance of myths to the impact of the pandemic on the publishing industry. Currently serving as a cultural diplomat as head of the Nehru Center in London, Tripathi also shares his take on the real India. <keyword id="14491960" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="UK-Prime-Minister-Rishi-Sunak" source="Orion">UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak</keyword> invited you to 10 Downing Street, how was the experience? Oh, it was very nice. It was a small get-together in 10 Downing Street, a celebration of Diwali. He had got people from the local Swami Chinmaya Mission to read a prayer. We did a proper lighting of the lamp with traditional rituals. It was also very nice to see so many native White British and other communities in attendance, celebrating a Hindu/Jain/Sikh festival with warmth and happiness. It's been almost a month since War of Lanka has been released. How has the response been? I will be honest. Prior to the launch of the book, I was a little nervous, quite nervous, actually, for various reasons. One, it was a completely new publisher and a new relationship. Secondly, Harper just had a few months post the contract signing to get the book out in the market. To bring the book out in just three-four months is difficult… I thought they did a very good job. Third was the pandemic, which had hit the publishing industry badly, and many bookstores and publishing houses had shut down. Since the distribution itself was shrinking, sales would be difficult. Lastly, since I also have a diplomatic job in the UK, I did not have that much time for the book tour. Normally, my book tour would spread out over three-four months, but now I only had three-four weeks; and I had to cover 14 cities across India in that time. But despite these constraints, War of Lanka is breaking records. It is selling even faster than Raavan: Enemy of Aryavarta. And all my previous book sales have also shot up. I can’t thank my readers enough for their consistent love and support. I am curious to know why you haven't written about Hanuman, a Shiva incarnation, especially after having dedicated separate books to Ram, Ravan and Sita? I might take that up actually. Lord Hanuman is a very fascinating character and represents loyalty, having a code and staying true to it, no matter what. That's what makes him worth respecting and worshiping. There is a separate spin-off story in mind that I have for Lord Hanuman. And one I hope to take up after some time. There will also be a story on Guru Vashishta and Guru Vishwamitra and how their relationship turned from friendship to enmity. People say youngsters don’t read as different forms of medium are competing for attention. Why do you think your book has struck a chord with the readers? Is it because of your standout marketing techniques as with a metaverse launch of the book? The metaverse campaign was very innovative, yes. And I am very grateful to Sangram Surve and his Think WhyNot agency for putting this together in association with Meta. Also, I think this assumption that the youth don't read is, frankly, a judgmental approach. The idea that today’s youth have low IQ, low attention spans, and only want to entertain themselves with flaky things is just plain silly. One person can have different tastes. I like thought-provoking movies like Schindler’s List or Inception, but I also like the suspension-of-brains movies of Salman Khan. The youth are like that as well. By the way, a vast majority of my readers are young. Second when it comes to marketing, social media has made word of mouth very powerful. The opinion of critics matters little now as compared to a decade ago. There are movies that are very well marketed that have been super flops. And a movie that had almost minimal marketing spends, like Kantara, was a massive hit. At the heart of it all, it has to be a good product, be it a movie or a book. If it's not a good product, no matter how much marketing you do, it's not going to work. If there is no depth in the movie or the book, if there's nothing to talk about, then word-of-mouth will be poor. A cult book has to be thought-provoking and initiate conversations. I myself tried the AR filters on Instagram and I came out to be on Raavan’s army. It would interest you to know that while many modern Indians think Raavan is Tamilian or Lankan, this may not necessarily match up to ancient texts. When you study ancient texts or folk traditions, it is revealed Raavan was born close to Delhi, a little ahead of Noida. One of the oldest temples of Raavan is situated there. He was not the original ruler of Lanka. The original ruler was Kubaer. Raavan deposed Kubaer and took over Lanka. Will you be venturing into writing about any other epic like Mahabharat? I do have various ideas. Let's see where life takes me. There is a fifth book that will join the Shiva Trilogy and the Ramachandra series called the <keyword id="15501176" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Rise-of-Meluha" source="Orion">Rise of Meluha</keyword>. But that will be released many years later. Is there a reason why Sita was portrayed as aggressive and militant in your book Sita-Warrior of Mithila? Was this because it has been written from a male perspective? There is a difference between being militant and being strong. Goddess Durga is not militant but she is strong. The image of Goddess Sita in the minds of modern urban Indians is largely inspired from a 1980s television series. In the original Valmiki Ramayana, Sita is portrayed in a much stronger form. And in the Adbhut Ramayan, also credited to Valmiki ji, Sita Maa is the one who kills the elder, more powerful Raavan. In ancient times, Indian women were seen as powerful with their own agency. We had women who ruled large empires like Rani Prabhavatigupta and Rani Rudramadevi. We had women Rishis (roughly the equivalent of Abrahamic prophets and messiahs). We even had women who founded universities. Frankly, our ancestors would be disappointed at how badly we, in modern India, treat women. We have been hearing about the Shiva trilogy for quite some time now. Is it expected soon? These are early days as we just started work on it. So let's see how it comes out. But we'll make announcements in the future. Coming to Indian cinema, there has been a shift in the portrayal of stories. Films are being inspired by myths like in Adipurush, Thank God, Ram Sethu, Ponniyan Selvan. Why do you think there is such a shift? Post 1991 India has become wealthier and the emergence of the real India is inspiring the demand for such stories. There is a real India that was always there, just that they didn't have money to form a big market. That is the India outside of the elite areas of our big cities. This is an India that is very deeply rooted in our ancient traditions and culture. And now, there are many citizens from the real India who have now risen because of economic growth over the last 30 years. A recent IMF report had said over 450 million Indians have been pulled out of poverty just in the last 10 years. And economic growth is creating a new consumer class. Smaller budget movies are making more money than big Hindi film movies because I think in many ways, Telugu, Kannada and Tamil movies are more rooted in the real India. This is something perhaps the Hindi film industry will pick up overtime. A Hindi film producer told me an interesting analysis. He felt that perhaps the Hindi film industry had become too elitist – he used the term ‘focused on Pali Hill, and South Mumbai and also perhaps, London &amp; New York’. He said that we should forget that there is a real India outside of Pali Hill and South Mumbai. And that is the main market for Indian movies. What does real India mean to you? Perhaps those who are more comfortable in Mangalore or Varanasi than in London, I think that's the real India. So, someone like you or me… My family’s roots are in Kashi and I was born in Mumbai; so I know English, Hindi, and some Marathi. But I can go to a Lord Shiva temple in Thrissur, Kerala. And I’ve been there actually, four-five years ago. I don’t understand Malayalam, but my books, by God's grace, do well in Malayalam. There were many out there who recognized me because many of them had read my books. But we couldn’t communicate well with each other because most of them there didn’t know English or Hindi, and I didn’t know Malayalam. And yet, when we started chanting and praying to Lord Shiva, we felt connected. I felt at home. That to me is the real India. Where we feel at home. Now, we may also get along with Western people, but essentially, where is home for us? For me, the real India is home. You began your journey as a writer in 2010. How has the scene of Indian publishing and marketing changed since then? This is the best and worst of times. Earlier the definition of bestseller was selling 5,000 to 10,000 books. Today a bestseller should sell at least 40,000 to 50,000 copies. There are some authors whose books sell in the hundreds of thousands. And few, such as Chetan and me, who are lucky enough for our books to sell in the millions. But on the negative side, GST has really hit the industry. I have myself appealed often to the government if they could give some relief on this, because we are a very tiny industry. Books have a positive impact culturally but in terms of revenue, we are very small. Second, piracy is hurting us a great deal. Many bookstores are suffering hard times as well because rental costs have shot up and piracy has hit them. Books in terms of price to space ratio are not as high as compared to jewelry or mobile phones, so high rental costs often make bookstore unviable. How do you think mythology is relevant in today's society? Indians often confuse myth with mithya or untruth. The Indian word for it would be Itihas or Kavya or Purana. The English word myth comes from the Greek word mythos, which means a story hiding a philosophical truth. I try to explore philosophies that I think are worth learning. Rather than making it a pedantic nonfiction philosophy textbook, if you try and bring it across through a story, you might have a greater chance of having an impact. There are various philosophies from our ancients that are worth learning. There is a line which I love, Ati Sarvatra Varjayet i.e. extremism of any kind should be avoided. But if you see the western approach, it is almost like extremism should be followed, always. For example, in the West, fighting for women’s rights gets translated into hatred for men. How's that good for society? I try to explore many of these philosophies through my books. What are the choices that we make? You will find that cultures which celebrate myths tend to be much more wise and liberal, intuitively liberal. You have celebrated devotees of both Vishnu and Shiva in your books. How do you strike a balance between the two? This so-called competition between Lord Shiva and Lord Vishnu is relatively modern. The Indian way is we are comfortable with multiple truths and we realise that the source is unity. One of the thousand names of Lord Vishnu listed in Vishnu Shahasranaam, which is chanted by many Vaishnavas (devotees of Lord Vishnu) regularly, is Shiva. On the other hand, many Shaivites (devotees of Lord Shiva) know the 1008 names of Lord Shiva that are listed in many of the found in the Shaivite puranas. And one of the names listed for Lord Shiva is Vishnu. So they are One and the Same. This competition is more between unwise devotees and should be avoided.

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