MUMBAI: Goldmines Telefilms recently reached a new milestone with the launch of its free to air (FTA) Hindi movie channel Dhinchaak on India’s only FTA DTH platform DD Free Dish on 24 May 2020. Within three months of its launch, the channel rose through the ranks to become number one, that too in a highly competitive category with 30 plus rivals. Dhinchaak is now a leading movie channel in both the Hindi speaking market (HSM) overall (U+R) and rural market.

In a chat with indiantelevision.com, Goldmines Telefilms director Manish Shah said that the company had participated in an auction of DD Free Dish and they were all set to go on air from 1 April 2020. But as the nationwide lockdown was imposed from 16 March, Shah was not able to launch Dhinchaak on time.

“It has been a very exciting journey along with a lot of stress and we went into a scenario where everyone was working from home. It called for a lot of efforts. But since I have been running Goldmines Telefilms for the past 15 years and I have a better understanding of content, we know what audiences want and what they prefer,” added Shah.

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Dhinchaak came in on the number five spot with 48 GRPs in its first reported data in week 31, and grew steadily over the subsequent months to reach a 73 GRP mark in the week ending 1 October. The movie channel has been consistent, being the number one ranked channel for the last four weeks in HSM 2+ Overall and the HSM FTA Category. Five out of the top 10 movies in week 38 and 39 in HSM 2+ and nine out of the top ten movies in HSM rural in week 37 were from Dhinchaak.

The channel is currently available on DD Free Dish, Dish TV, Tata Sky, DAN, Hathaway and InDigital cable among other distribution platform operators in India.

Looking at the big picture

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Over the years, Goldmines Telefilms has become one of the biggest players in terrestrial television rights. The studio has assigned the satellite rights of many movies to major channels in the Hindi movie industry with a success ratio of over 80 per cent, said Shah. He is interested in designing content that can be watched by the entire family together. According to Shah, Goldmines has covered 70 per cent of the Indian market and the rest 30 per cent will be swept up in due course of time.  

The company already has a powerful digital presence, with 15 channels and 42 million subscribers for the main Goldmines Telefilms channel on YouTube, and an ever-growing digital revenue model, revealed Shah.

Besides having the biggest library of south Indian movies, Goldmines has also been a pioneer in their dubbing. But Shah is now looking at the big picture: he will distribute his content pan India, with Hindi-speaking market being the prime focus. He mentioned that the studio has covered 90 per cent of the Bihar and Madhya Pradesh segment whereas for Uttar Pradesh it is at 70 per cent. Till December, Shah aims to have a distribution model that will attract 90 per cent of the audiences.

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Content is king

Elucidating more about syndication and acquisition of content, Shah said that the channel has a library of 2000+ blockbuster titles. From time-tested chartbusters like Sarrainodu, DJ, Kanchana, Kanchana 2, Theri, Bhairava, Betting Raja, they also have a slew of world television premieres lined up. Apart from dubbed south Indian movies Dhinchaak will also screen Hindi movies like Badhaai Ho, Kalank, Gentleman, India’s Most Wanted, Mohenjo Daro, among others.

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During the pandemic, the studio opted a digital route to acquire content. As of now the studio will continue using its own library to showcase movies on Dhinchaak but Shah is willing to source content from other production houses as well. However, he is clear that he will not syndicate his movies to anyone. Whatever content they have it is only for their channel. He considers Sony Max, Zee Cinema, Star Gold as their closest competitor.

On marketing and monetisation

As far as marketing and promotion are concerned, the Goldmines director is looking at organically growing the channel. “We have not spent a single amount on promotions, I always believed that your growth has to be organic. I am extremely happy with the responses that I receive. We do promotions through our own social media platforms. On YouTube we have 100 million views a day. Based on audience response, we create our content. Across all platforms we have 10,000 videos uploaded. On Facebook we are growing 100 per cent on a month-on-month basis. We are also present on Amazon, MX Player and other similar platforms,” he said.

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Shah is confident that with the help of Siddharth Chopra, who heads the revenue department for the network, he will be able to associate with major brands. Chopra’s last stint was with Times Network, where he was VP and national sales head of the English entertainment cluster. Shah also admitted that as of now the channel is not being monetized, but he is currently in talks with various advertisers and expects they will be onboard by mid-October.