Epic pitches unheard stories from epic storytellers, builds 10 pm slot

The Epic Channel has rolled out a set of promos for its 10 pm slot. 

 

Each of the films promotes a show from the slot. The three shows promoted are: Mid-wicket Tales with actor Naseeruddin Shah, Jaane Pehchane with lyricist an writer Javed Akhtar and Stories by Rabindranath Tagore with Bollywood director Anurag Basu.

 

One of the films (above) begins with Basu asking the audience what they would call a person who left college the day after joining. He goes on to call the person a ‘drop out’ but later introduces this person as celebrated writer Rabindranath Tagore.  Basu starts to talk about the writer's work but abruptly stops when he looks at the watch and realises that it’s not yet 10 pm. The film ends with his message: ‘Maaf kijiye abhi dus nahin baje’ (Apologies, it’s not 10 pm yet) and details of the show. 

 

 

The promo for Akhtar's show has him talking about Bollywood villain Pran. Akhtar talks about the evolution of the portrayal of villains in Indian cinema, but once again, he stops when he remembers that it’s not yet 10 pm. 

 

 

Shah features in a cricket uniform to promote his show, which is cricket-based. As he shares an anecdote about the Indian cricket team and the famous announcement of change in captaincy aboard a flight, he too stops to pass on the key message. The show airs 10 pm. 

 

Mahesh Samat, founder and managing director, Epic channel said, “Our new campaign ‘Maaf Kijiye Abhi Dus Nahin Baje’ is very innovative and has an intriguing concept with the central idea of owning the 10 pm slot on television. We are aiming for it to become the new prime time.  I would like to congratulate Grey India for coming up with a spectacular campaign. We are confident that we will be able to propagate and widen our audience base while we continue to churn out differentiated content that connects with them.”

 

Goral Ajmera, senior executive creative director, Grey Group Mumbai, said, “India lives and breathes Bollywood and cricket, yet there are so many untold stories and anecdotes. And what better way to hear them than from some of the country’s best storytellers themselves? Our campaign for Epic intends to create curiosity with unheard stories narrated by Naseerudin Shah, Javed Akhtar and Anurag Basu. Needless to say, it was a wonderful experience working with veterans like them.”

 

Credits

 

Client: The Epic channel 

Creative agency: Grey Group

Sr. ECD: Goral Ajmera

Creative supervisor: Navin Chalke

Associate creative director: Divya Saxena

Junior copywriter: Sukanya Subramaniyan

AVP, planning: Soumitra Patnekar

Senior planner: Pritesh Angane

VP, client services: Aditya Chandra

Associate account director: Devyani Upadhyaya

Senior account executive: Dhruv Thapar

Manager, social media: Kushal Kaushik

Senior VP, films:  Samir Chadha

Director, films: Sharad Shinde