Mumbai: News18 REEL Movie Awards, News18.com’s marquee property recognizes excellence in new age cinema and celebrates artists who championed creative visual storytelling across genres. First-of-its-kind awards held at Taj Lands End, Mumbai yesterday, also witnessed a panel discussion take place, which was moderated by Network18 Digital CEO Manish Maheshwari. The panelists comprised actors Richa Chadha, Saurabh Shukla, Sudhir Mishra, Rahul Bhat and Dhawal Gusain – CEO, The Viral Fever.
The panel discussion on the topic ‘How to Create Content 101’ opened for discussion and Dhawal Gusain began by sharing the major advantage that the digital space presented to the industry. He said, “The internet has lowered the entry barrier, which is to say that if you have talent, you can share the talent with the world and if you are good, you will be appreciated by the people.” He added, “Content in the digital space is highly consumer centric since we get feedback from the audiences in real time, in fifteen minutes from the time the content is shared online.”
Sudhir Mishra added that the digital domain has also brought in the freedom to express oneself creatively in ways that the big screen may not permit. Saurabh Shukla elaborated on the point saying, “With digital we now have access to different screen sizes, so while some stories are great they may not be fit for a big screen. But now we have platform where these good stories can be shared with an audience interested in consuming a variety of content.”
Richa Chadha felt that for an actor, it is such a major plus to have another platform that promotes freedom of expression. She said, “The digital platform gives actors the liberty to enact roles they may not get a chance to do on the big screen. Plus, the bottleneck created by the requirement of spending extreme amounts of funds on promotions is done away with when releasing content digitally.”
Rahul Bhat added, “Plus the medium has reduced the distance. It is often said that many come to Mumbai to fulfill their dreams, but today if you have talent you could be in any part of the world and you could upload your video and share it with the right people online. If you really good, you will certainly be noticed.”
Sudhir Mishra also went on to share details about the making of his upcoming offering Das Dev, giving more insights into the characters of his new venture. The panel came to a close with Dhawal Gusian’s comments that only good stories and content in any form on the digital space, win big.
With Reliance Digital as presenting sponsors, the awards show was also live streamed on Jio TV.