Sunday 2 June 2013

Supari!

Broker: Madam, you recently bought a shop in Koramangala.Madam: Yes, I did.
Broker: Madam, you did not pay us the brokerage for the transaction.
Madam: (With a sudden change in the tone and raising the voice) who are you and why should I pay you the brokerage? I don’t even know you and I did not engage any broker for this transaction.
Broker: (In a local accent) Madam, you do not understand the issue. If we are present in a locality, irrespective of whether you engage us or not, you have to pay us the brokerage.
Madam: Look, I don’t follow what you are saying; my husband will speak to you (about to hang up the phone…).
Broker: Madam, don’t hang up the phone on me, if you hang up I’ll do tunak tunak tun ta naa naa in front of your shop.
And…, the conversation goes on for some time before it is cut by Don Darius. Well, the above is a segment called Supari during the evening radio show, D Company (5:00–9:00 pm), which is hosted by RJ Darius on Fever 104FM, Bangalore. RJ Danish is the Broker in the above conversation and a Fever 104FM listener has placed a contract aka Supari (in Bollywood parlance), on the Madam. RJ Danish executes the contract (Supari) as a broker by placing a prank call to the Madam.
RJ Danish is the prankster on the evening show who assumes a different identity each day and executes the contract placed by a listener of Fever 104FM.
As Fever 104FM advertises itself as the Baap of Bollywood and RJ Darius as the Don of Radio, the evening show is all about the elements of a Bollywood Don. Be it Don Ki Sazaa (Fever Googly), Contract Killing (Supari) or Dance Bars (Don Ka Dance Bar).
How to place a Supari?
Listener sends an SMS to 9986104104 with the message SUPARI<space><Name>
After the listener sends an SMS with his/her name, RJ Danish gets in touch with the listener to find who the listener wants to place a Supari on. As I never placed a Supari, I assume RJ Danish would ask the listener additional details for the prank to be played. The details might include Supari’s name, age, gender, any recent event in their lives such as dine-out, a purchase (for example, the conversation between Madam and Broker), a college admission etc.
What’s the big deal?
Playing pranks is not new. It goes by different names on television channels (do you remember Bakra!) and perhaps other radio stations too. In my opinion, RJ Danish has struck a chord with the listeners. On numerous occasions, I have heard Fever 104FM listeners on air that they liked today’s prank. You can check out the pranks by clicking here.
As the call is always cut abruptly by RJ Darius, in one of the shows RJ Darius asked RJ Danish, ”we never get to hear what happens in the end”, and RJ Danish replied “I get abused a little more and then I apologize…”.
Advertising opportunities?
I cannot recall if it is a sponsored segment, so I won’t be able to comment on this topic.
What next?
It would be good to send ‘the subject’ of the Supari a card with Fever 104FM branding on it with a Supari (betelnut) stuck in the middle. The card might say, ‘Someone took out a Supari on me’ and mention the date, time and name of the person who gave the contract! It can also be a digital version of the card that ‘the subject’ can place on his/her social media profile.
Can this content be networked to other Fever 104FM stations, currently in existence or likely to come up in future (Phase III FM expansion)? It is a difficult question for me to answer, I’ll say no. Can this content be syndicated to any other radio station as an interstitial?  Another difficult question, perhaps the answer would depend upon how the station acquiring this content will be able to monetize it. Can this content be monetized in any other manner or squeezed out to gain the maximum advantage? Yes, Telecom Value Added Services is a viable option and is something which Fever did in the past for their show, Gandhi. How about a mobile application which allows the user to play back/forward the repertoire of past Suparis? Folks, I am out of answers now, why don’t you leave your thoughts in the comments box below! We’ll take it offline ;-)