Bringing in really interesting concepts being born out of their creative minds, MTV has always been a game changer. After reality shows, short films and social impactful projects, the channel is all set to give the youth of the country a new dose of entertainment in a never-seen-before avatar through MTV Films. The channel along with Hindustan Unilever Ltd has got together to bring six films that will be based on brand philosophies of HUL products. Speaking to Tellychakkar.com at the launch, Aditya Swamy, EVP and Business Head, MTV shares details about this new concept, MTV programming strategies and a lot more. Exceprts: What made you decide on such a different concept on MTV Films? The primary objective of MTV Films is to connect brands to the people beyond ways they have already been doing. And the medium to fulfill it were many but we chose films because they suited the stature of all these brands. The selected brands are all well-known and easily stand a high rank in the Top 20 brands of our country. So such mega brands needed a mega and evolved medium like films to spread their philosophies in a mega way. Also movies have a huge reach and the connection is instant. If you go abroad and say that you are from India, the first thing they talk about is Bollywood (smiles). And you also have a talented team of directors lined up for the same! Yes and the basic quality we needed of directors associated with this project was that they should be people who can be good story tellers and not just make people aware of the brands. These directors (Anurag Basu, Rohan Sippy, Abhinay Deo, Nikhil Advani, Anurag Kashyap and Shoojit Sircar) are also big guys in the industry who are known to weave beautiful stories. When they got to know about this concept, they were really excited and were raring to go. They are like the perfect strikers in the team and with such lethal combination it’s surely going to be a great show. So how did you zero on these directors? To be honest, tell me how we can decide upon them. All of them are so popular names in the film industry and we cannot judge or choose them. Hence I like to look at it as if they chose us. We did go out to a lot of people and they were the one who responded positively on the concept and having being a master at being experimental with their projects, they were more than happy to come on board. And a common thread between them is that all of them want to come out of their comfort zone. And how did you choose upon these five brands (Sunsilk, Ponds, Tresemme, Close Up and Lakme)? They were provided to us by Hindustan Unilever and it was their choice completely. Do you think that this concept will work with the Indian audience? Take a look at Roadies that has been going on for 11 long years now. Hero Honda bikes have been closely associated with it. So definitely, if the brand is good and so is the show, each one of them can work wonders for one another. But at the end of the day, content has to be liked by audience and the show should become a hit. But, when you create a branded content, you have to put the viewer first and not the brand. Who are your target audience with MTV Films? Well, MTV mainly caters to the age group of 15-34 years but since films are universal and with such brands, we are definitely targeting it to our core audience, but if we can pull people from other groups too, it would definitely turn out to be a success story. And today, the definition of audience and content has changed. Anyways everyone wants to be young today (smiles), so we are sure these films would be for a universal audience. MTV had a stint with short films like Rush and now Traffic. How different are all of them? They are all very different entities. MTV Rush with Bejoy Nambair had 12 different stories although each was connected with one another in a backdrop of a college fest. On the other hand Traffic makes you sit up and realise how serious the crime of trafficking is in our country. Although the channel is about music and fun, we also believe in giving it back to the society and Traffic comes from that thought. And as for Films is considered, it’s all about brand content. The joy is to create different content every time and we at MTV believe in it always. And how about Horror Nights with Sunny? Well, on the whole, that is a very interesting concept and a lot of fun. People are always excited yet confused about the supernatural. Everybody loves grey; black and white is too boring these days. And Sunny (Leone) has a past, a present and most definitely a very different future and thus she also has this curiosity element attached to her which makes the show all the more interesting. How much will MTV have a hand creatively in MTV Films? With such talented people on board, I don’t think we would have like to step in. It would be unfair on our part if we budge in. We believe in getting the right set of talent in and letting them run free and doing their job, the way they want to do it. Everyone associated with us has their own role and they all know their job well. Lastly there are six directors and only five brands. Which is the last one? (Laughs) That is a surprise. It’s a secret in our pocket for which you will have to wait and watch. MTV Films goes on air from 23 March.