Ram and Ria

Listen to what NDTV has to say about Ram and Ria

2008-03-26T17:26:00.007+05:30

Online sitcoms a big hit with IT professionals
Sam Daniel, Thursday, March 20, 2008 (Chennai)

There's a new breed of sitcom stars that are beginning to crowd the virtual world.

Vishwas is a software engineer who spends over 12 hours online every day. His great escape involves logging in to catch his daily dose of comic relief in form of online soaps in bite-size episodes every day.

''Its a great source of relief for us after a hard day's work or a long meeting. Its just three minutes and its funny. Its an excellent concept,'' said Vishwas Udupa, IT Professional.

Ram and Ria are the new stars of the online sitcom world. Three-minute capsules are a blessing for those glued to their computer screens.

All one needs is a broadband connection and one can watch the drama unspool, anytime anywhere, and that too free of cost. Conceived by a Chennai-based company, this site is buzzing with clicks even before the official launch.

''Soon these goodies can be offered at airports, in all internet enabled devices like ipods, mobile phones, nanos and all such devices,'' said Siddharth S Kumar, Pixel Kraft.

The visuals are stunning but the fact is that only fifty percent of these are shot, Viscom experts conjure up the rest of this micro world.

They first create a virtual setting for every episode and the result is beautiful blend of real and the reel, replete with a life-like feel.

Read more on NDTV.com
Log on to ramandria.tv brought to you by PixelKraft Media Solutions, Chennai.

Read the Ram and Ria story on The Hindu - Metro Plus

2008-03-26T16:37:00.017+05:30

Smaller screen, greater potential

Micro-sitcoms, web-exclusive TV shows, episodes for your mobile phones and music videos to push album sales. The Internet is opening up a new window of viewers every other second. SUDHISH KAMATH reports

TWO-MINUTE TREAT From the Internet micro-sitcom ‘Ram & Ria’

India’s first Internet micro-sitcom ‘Ram & Ria’, about the everyday quibbles of a married couple, got over one lakh hits within weeks of being uploaded on Rediff iShare. America’s cult TV series ‘Lost’ decided to kick off its much-awaited fourth season with a series of 13 exclusive ‘mobisodes’ that filled in the ‘Missing Pieces’ of the story told so far.

Just like how “The Office” launched a spin-off of the comedy series called “The Accountants” as web exclusive ‘webisodes’, starring a section of the cast from the main show, to give the series an extra dimension. A Malayalam rock band (Avial), a Tamil rapper (Yogi B) and even recently, a Tamil pop band called Prana have made a name for themselves by posting their music videos on Youtube and pushed album sales by offering their niche listeners free sample downloads.

Obviously, the key to their success is that they’ve all tailor-made the content within the limitations of the medium.Each episode, ‘mobisode’ or ‘webisode’ is not longer than a music video. About two to three minutes each. Hence, it doesn’t take more than a few seconds to stream and view.

What’s more, thanks to applications like Miro, episodes are downloadable and can be transferred for viewing on your mobile phone. The small screen is shrinking by the day.

“With broadband becoming a reality in India, more and more people are logging online to watch entertaining videos,” says Manish Agarwal, vice-president, Marketing, Rediff.com. About 2.4 million out of 9.3 million Internet subscribers in the country have broadband Internet with a downloadable speed of at least 256 kbps.

Huge opportunity

“This platform offers a tremendous opportunity for professional content owners to catch these audiences which are shifting from TV to the Internet for entertainment,” adds Manish.

Conceived and produced by PixelKraft based in Chennai, ‘Ram & Ria’ is based on the life of a typical South Indian man, his charming Mumbaikar wife and their endearing chemistry.

Siddharth Kumar, creative director of ‘Ram & Ria’, says that the inspiration to launch ‘Ram & Ria’ came from the dearth of contemporary Indian content online. “We strongly believe that there is great market for real content being produced for alternative media such as Internet and mobile,” he adds.

“I did ‘Ram & Ria’ because the idea of watching a serial which ends in two minutes was very appealing,” says Aarti Aney who plays Ria. “Plus it was for the Internet and so people could watch it at their own pace, in any order they chose, and as many episodes as they want. The script was funny, very relatable, the couple wasn’t glamorous per se’ neither did they live in some architectural monstrosity like in an Ekta Kapoor soap.”About 25 episodes of ‘Ram & Ria’ can be viewed on www.ramandria.tv or on Rediff iShare.

Potent tool

While it may be early days for popularity of the Internet sitcom to translate into revenue, the web-episode seems to be a potent tool for cross-media promotion for existing TV shows. To take a cue from American television, web episodes are used to build excitement around existing TV shows, like Lost’s ‘Missing Pieces’ and ‘The Office’ spin-off ‘The Accountants’ have demonstrated.

Ask any ‘Lost’ fan, and he would tell you how important it is not to miss watching any of the ‘Missing Pieces’ before the start of the season four. “There was a year’s break between season three and four, so the mobisodes were probably released to reignite the passion and excitement of the show before the new season and as you can guess, only ‘Lost’ can pack so much intrigue in doses of three minutes,” says Nisha Viswanathan, a regular Lostie, who not only downloads the even the regular 42-minute-long episodes off the Net but also faithfully listens to the Lost podcasts that discuss theories week after week, after each episode.

Internet users are known to have a short attention span given the slow bandwidth rate and availability of choice of content — Youtube, GoogleVideos, BigAdda and Rediff iShare have thousands of videos, and there are personal videos put up on Orkut and Facebook to choose from, clips from their favourite TV shows, concerts and even music videos made specially for the Internet...

Read more on The Hindu Metro Plus

Ram and Ria on Dinamalar

2008-03-26T16:17:00.006+05:30

Enjoy the sitcom videos on ramandria.tv brought to you be PixelKraft Media Solutions, Chennai.

Online sitcom bug bites Rediff’s iShare

2008-02-02T10:58:00.001+05:30

Arcopol Chaudhuri
Tuesday, January 22, 2008 02:52 IST

Production houses eye Web, mobile as new distribution turfs

MUMBAI: Content producers have reason to rejoice. After TV and film, independent filmmakers and production houses are exploring the internet and mobile as new platforms for distribution.

Take PixelKraft for example. The Chennai-based media solutions company now has an English micro sitcom video series called Ram & Ria live on iShare, Rediff.com’s social publishing platform for videos, music and photos.

Siddharth Kumar, creative director for the micro sitcom series, says every “webisode” has been kept short and humourous. “TV audiences and internet users consume video content differently.

With over 40 million broadband connections, in India, there is a great market for real content being produced for alternative media like the internet and mobile.”

Manish Agarwal, V-P, marketing, Rediff.com, says, “More and more people are logging online to watch entertaining videos. Our focus therefore is on creating a distribution platform offering fast uploads, a good streaming experience and getting a captive audience base.”

Alexa ranks Google’s video-sharing site YouTube at the sixth spot on the list of websites that attract the highest traffic in India. YouTube still has no formidable competition in the country yet, but a few social media platforms have got their high capacity servers ticking in the last one year.

Social networking sites like Fropper, Campus18, BigAdda, Minglebox have latched onto the online video feature, which allows free uploads of user-generated content (UGC), meant for sharing among peers.

But for sticky viewership, publishers have been eyeing professionally produced content. And therefore you have the likes of Rajshri Media, Tangerine Digital creating exclusive video content for the Web and mobile.

Rajshri Media is set to to launch a 90-episode series targeted specifically at mobile phone users. Tangerine is currently in the process of creating an online serial exclusively for the Web.

Meanwhile, another Web company nautanki.tv has tied up with IDPA (Indian Documentary Producer’s Association) to source quality video content. The video media network’s CEO Sunil Nair says there is more to life than Bollywood and TV and there is an audience out there which wants to see content which never gets past the distribution chain.

He points out, “About 85% of online video consumption in India happens from offices, places where internet is configured in the ‘always on’ connection and with a steady 128 kbps speed.”

Monetisation, however, remains a key issue, not just for an online video model but for the overall social media business.

Rediff’s Agarwal agrees, saying, “Nobody’s cracked the right model for monetising video content on the web. It could be advertiser funded videos, pre-rolls, embedded advertising … but its all in experimental stages now.”

Perhaps that is the reason why Nautanki.Tv is using the long tail of the net to distribute content.

“The viewership is not on Nautanki.Tv itself, but across the 1300-plus websites/feeds. The publishers optimise the feeds to gain maximum viewership by creating embeds and therefore audiences are consuming our web content from where they already are.”

RamAndRia.tv gets off the soap trail to spin a web around youth

2007-12-26T17:06:00.000+05:30

Move over, Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi; step aside, Ba Bahu Aur Baby; it’s time to welcome Ram and Ria, a new-age soap opera produced — not for television — but created exclusively for alternate media like the Internet and mobiles and in-flight entertainment. The ‘micro sitcom’, which can be viewed on RamAndRia.tv, is the first of its kind in the country.
With this serial, the new generation of English-speaking, high-earning 20 to 30-somethings has something positive to look forward to. “Most of the young adults today are either hard-pressed for time or are too fed up with the saas-bahu syndrome. They are constantly on the move and are not confined to the TV all the time. They are net-savvy and want to try out new mediums to satisfy their entertainment needs. It is here that Ram and Ria can strike a definitive chord,” said Siddharth Kumar (35), the creative director of the 40-episode sitcom.

The story is a humorous take on a newly-wed urban Indian couple, Ram and Ria. While Ram is a South Indian techie in his late 20s — traditional and stuck to his roots — Ria is the suave, stylish, cosmopolitan Mumbaiker in her early 20’s. Fate plays cupid and in spite of being complete opposites, they fall in love and marry in haste. After marriage, they slowly begin to discover each other, as each day in their lives brings out shocking surprises, culture shocks and hilarious twists. “It’s a north-meets-south, battle-of-the-sexes romantic comedy that will surely appeal to young adults,” said Kumar.

Structured in a non-linear narrative format, the user can choose to view any episode and still not miss the storyline — on the lines of classic television comedies like F.R.I.E.N.D.S. Currently, 10 episodes of around 3 to 5-minutes’ duration have been uploaded and new episodes will be added regularly, said sources from Pixelkraft Media Solutions, producers of the sitcom.

By Kunal Doleyin
Mail Today, 11th December, 2007

RamandRia.tv on Watblog.com

2007-11-30T11:37:00.000+05:30

Posted by Ankit Saxena on November 29th, 2007.WATBlog.com

Ram is a techie, nerdy, stuck-to-the-roots, traditional South Indian in his late 20’s. Ria is the suave, stylish, cosmopolitan Mumbaiker in her early 20’s. Fate plays cupid and in spite of being complete opposites, they fall in love in a hurry and marry in haste. And now, they will be available Online and a Mobile screen next to you.

RamAndRia.tv is a sitcom (situational comedy), produced by PixelKraft especially for the digital medium i.e. web and mobile. These are the same people who launched Indibiz.tv – a website for advertisements which we blogged about here.

We have talked about Mobile TV in our post Kyunki Mobile Bhi Kabhi TV Hoga and online video gaining momentum before. We stressed the need to create exclusive content for Mobile Screens. The move by PixelKraft can be seen as a step in this direction.

In recent times, there has been a shift in media consumption with people spending more and more time online. People are now beginning to consume entertainment less on other mediums and more on the move and alternate screens. Original entertainment content created for the alternate screens like the internet or mobile phones which require short format content is still scarce. Most of the videos posted online are either low quality rips of television content such as serials, news clips, music videos or personal home videos. The short format content or micro series, like RamandRia.tv, also provide brands an innovative branding opportunity and help them increase their brand presence on the internet and mobile platforms.

Specialized content production for new channels like mobile phones and internet is definitely here to stay. We just can’t wrap “Kaun Banega Crorepati” in a mobile video format and serve the audience. Availability of exclusive, made-for-mobile content is what will drive the adoption of Mobile TV. Otherwise, what stops them from downloading the same stuff from the internet rip sites and watching their favorite TV program again and again? An increased participation by users in the content creation is something that one can expect as the next logical development.

Chennai gives India its first Online Micro Sitcom

2007-11-26T11:19:00.000+05:30

Got a minute? Catch a sitcom

Gone are the never ending saas-bahu dramas and reality shows on television. They make way for the new phenomenon called 'online micro sitcom'. These are regular sitcoms except that the duration of the show is just for a few minutes, and it is aired on the Internet.

ramandria.tv, the first micro sitcom in India brought out by PixelKraft Media Solutions, has been online for just few days, but has already received more than 600 hits.

The present series are one minute long episodes in English, based on funny incidents between a husband and wife, namely Ram and Ria. Ram is a conservative Tamilian while Ria is an outspoken Mumbaiker. Ten episodes are online at present and in coming days more will be uploaded.

But why Internet? Siddharth S. Kumar, one of the directors of PixelKraft Media Solution says, "Before coming up with ramandria.tv, we did a small study. We realised that people are now trying to move away from the long running serials and want entertainment in smaller packages."

"Also our target audience is 25-40 years. This age group is now completely shifting their attention to the Internet and are also more of English speaking group. So keeping in mind all the factor, we wanted to create something new," he added.

Micro sitcoms are common abroad and there are several such sites available on the Internet such as philtelevision.com. There are also many videos on sites like YouTube as well. However ramandria.tv is the first micro sitcom to be brought out through the Internet in India.

V Balakrishnan, well-known stage actor from the popular theater group Theater Nisha, plays the role of Ram in the sitcom. He says, "People especially who are net savvy hardly have time for long running serials and sitcoms in general. A short story that lasts 40 seconds to one minute, which is more of quick joke, is always accessible in between their busy work schedules and is a great stress buster."

After the episodes were aired on the Internet, he says that he received excellent reviews from friends, family and those who have been watching his work constantly. "Everybody enjoyed this innovative idea and are eager to watch the coming episodes too," he remarks. He says that they are planning to increase the number of characters in the next season. " We may bring in the in laws and friends of Ram and Ria in the coming episodes, depending upon the response and the plot development."

Aarti Aney, a 23 year old theater actor from Mumbai, plays the role of Ria in the sitcom. She says that she got the opportunity through Balakrishnan, with whom she has worked on plays they have done together in Chennai. She remarks, "I think the one-minute episode concept is great. These days people are so busy, that even entertainment has taken a backseat. Micro sitcoms are not only less time consuming but entertaining as well." She says that the ideas behind the episodes ae simple and anyone can relate to themselves easily. "It is based on day-to-day events of our life, with humorous twist, and I am sure that with time the popularity of the show will catch up on the Internet and many other shows like these will also be available online," Aarti remarks.

Meera J Pillai - Deccan Chronicle, Chennai

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