Ashee Sharma
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Will Patanjali's Bhajan Reality Show 'Bhajan Ratna' Cut It?

The show will be broadcast on Aastha Channel soon.

Since the past two days' media, is abuzz with the news of Baba Ramdev beating Olympic silver medallist Andrey Stadnik in a promotional gig for Patanjali Powervita Pro Wrestling League (PWL). But away from the limelight, in the temple town of Haridwar, Baba Ramdev's Patanjali Ayurved pulled off another unique feat in the world of devotional/religious programming.

Will Patanjali's Bhajan Reality Show 'Bhajan Ratna' Cut It?
Will Patanjali's Bhajan Reality Show 'Bhajan Ratna' Cut It?
The brainchild of Aastha TV and Ath Entertainment (a Delhi-based production company), Bhajan Ratna - a bhajan-singing reality show sponsored by Patanjali, will hit TV screens this summer. The production team has just finished recording the 'Maha Audition' which will be part of the show.
Will Patanjali's Bhajan Reality Show 'Bhajan Ratna' Cut It?
Commenting on the objective of the show, Pankaj Narayan, co-founder and producer at Ath Entertainment, says, "With Bhajan Ratna we wish to revive and develop the country's cultural and spiritual consciousness, particularly of the youth that has drifted away from Indian traditions and values. Off late we have seen devotional songs being adulterated with film music. This show is an attempt to reinstate their sanctity, and reward the talent that has been confined to temples and religious gatherings."

Here's what Baba Ramdev has to say about it...

Will Patanjali's Bhajan Reality Show 'Bhajan Ratna' Cut It?

The format

The curtain-raiser for Bhajan Ratna was held last year at Parmarth Niketan, Rishikesh. With 'Maa Ganga' as the theme, the event was linked to Clean Ganga Drive. Similarly, the show will also promote Sardar Patel United Clean India Drive and every week it will have a different theme based on various gods such as Hanuman, Krishna, Ram Chandra, and more.

Will Patanjali's Bhajan Reality Show 'Bhajan Ratna' Cut It?
Organised between 14 and 17 January, 2017 at Patanjali Yogpeeth, the 'Maha-Audition' was conducted with 354 candidates shortlisted during auditions held in 15 cities (after the curtain-raiser event) including Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Varanasi, Jaipur, Udaipur, Ahmedabad, Indore, Nagpur, Raipur, Ranchi, Lucknow, Dehradun, Chandigarh, and Patna.
Will Patanjali's Bhajan Reality Show 'Bhajan Ratna' Cut It?
40 of these 354 candidates were selected, and now they will be competing for the Bhajan Ratna title in the 'Maha Mukabla' which will be broadcast on Aastha TV. Elimination rounds will go on for three months, and India is expected to get its first 'Bhajan Ratna' by May-end. As an additional treat, these 40 'ratnas' will be groomed in yoga, dhyaan, panchkarma, and Indian culture and music at Patanjali Yogpeeth.

Bhajan Ratna will be judged by Anup Jalota, Kavita Paudwal and Trupti Shakya. Guest judges will include names such as Pandit Birju Maharaj, Sadhana Sargam, Vipin Sachdeva, Malini Awasthi and more. Male and female gurus will also be present. The show will be anchored by actor Sourabh Raaj Jain, best known for portraying Lord Krishna in Mahabharat (Star Plus, 2013), and singer and musician Deepali Sathe.

Bhajan Ratna will also provide a platform to lyricists who will pen down new bhajans for every episode.

Promotions

Bhajan Ratna will be directed by Apoova Bajaj (co-founder - Ath Entertainment). Patanjali is the title sponsor of the show and the sole advertiser as well, but according to sources close to the channel, brands sharing Patanjali's philosophy might come on board as advertisers later.

Will Patanjali's Bhajan Reality Show 'Bhajan Ratna' Cut It?
Narayan informs that other than Patanjali ads, 'profile branding' was also explored for revenue generation. This involved inviting renowned personalities as special guests on the show.

So far, the plan is to air Bhajan Ratna during prime-time on Friday and Saturday, with a repeat telecast on Sunday.

Will Patanjali's Bhajan Reality Show 'Bhajan Ratna' Cut It?
While the auditions were modestly promoted, primarily on social media, cross channel publicity including television (GECs and news channels), print and outdoor for the show is likely to begin soon. The initiative also found mentions in the religious discourses of gurus at the Ujjain Mahakumbh held last year.

Bhajan Ratna is estimated to reach over 100 million viewers in eight countries through Aastha TV. Aastha TV is one of the television channels of Vedic Broadcasting Limited in which Baba Ramdev's aide and the MD of Patanjali Ayurved, Acharya Balkrisha holds 99.9 per cent stake.

Will it take off on the right note?

One of the main objectives of this show is to make devotional music popular among the youth, and the makers of Bhajan Ratna believe that presenting bhajans in an interesting reality-show format will help in achieving it.

We spoke to Vikram Mehra (managing director, Saregama India) and Siddhartha Roy (CEO, Hungama.com and COO, Hungama Digital Media Entertainment) to find out who are the consumers of devotional music in India, which formats work, and what the consumption patterns look like. Interestingly, both Mehra and Roy tell us that devotional music/content finds many takers among the youth. The key is to curate it well and make it easily available.

While Saregama has a full-fledged app called Saregama Shakti for devotional content, Hungama treats it as a separate category and not just a genre. This is testimony to their assertion that devotional music is consumed all over the country across age groups..

Will Patanjali's Bhajan Reality Show 'Bhajan Ratna' Cut It?
Will Patanjali's Bhajan Reality Show 'Bhajan Ratna' Cut It?
"The perception that the youth only listen to music that's fun is wrong. There's a time and occasion for every song. Even for teenagers, there are times such as examination time or break-up time when they want to turn inward. Youngsters who stay alone use our app during festivals to know the 'pujan vidhis' and prayers. Mantras are another popular format for meditation or chanting, and our app also allows users to customise the number of repetitions," says Mehra.

Sharing another interesting trivia, Mehra tells us that while film music forms a bulk of consumption for the youth, it is largely a group phenomenon. Devotional starts playing a very important role in personal consumption. "And therefore, we have positioned our app as something that can be used when you need inner strength. We don't tell the youth to download it for their parents or grandparents, but for themselves," he adds.

Hungama's Roy shares that devotional content is consumed in three main formats: content around gods, film-based songs/bhajans, and discourses by renowned saints and scholars. With the youth, the challenge is to package it right and make it discoverable. For instance, did we know about this unique form of Muslim devotional music called 'Maplah' which is popular in Kerala? Hungama Music makes it available to its listeners.

"Film music is a very big in India, but majority of the non-film music is driven by devotional as a category. Earlier we used to hear devotional music in temples and religious gatherings, then came CDs, and later devotional channels. Mainstream television also played devotional content during specific time bands in the day. But today, thanks to data proliferation, music of all kinds is being consumed upwards across the country and that too on the go," he states.

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