MUMBAI: It was his thirst to do something different which led DOP-turned-director-writer Shivankar Arora to get into short films. After working in the TV industry for over a decade, Shivankar, who now owns a YouTube channel called Content Ka Keeda with his sister Shipra Arora, felt that a monotony had crept in, and decided to try something different. “While working in the TV industry for almost 13 years, I always had this urge of creating 5-minute short stories. After a point, I felt that the TV industry was getting monotonous for me. I decided to write content for short movies, web series and sell those to other OTT platforms. Fortunately, my sister Shipra was very adamant on developing content for our own YouTube channel. So, it wasn’t really a planned move to go on YouTube, it just happened to us. As a matter of fact, Dating Siyaapaa was written on a fun note. But looking at how well it turned out on screen, I think that’s when we started taking serious efforts for our YouTube channel and now it’s our baby, which will grow to millions of subscribers,” he says.
However, he has always been very passionate about his craft. Talking about how he decided to become a writer in the first place, Shivankar, who has been part of projects such as Pratigya, Uttaran, Naamkaran, Tu Aashiqui, says that it was nothing less than love at first sight. “I was 19 years when I shifted to Mumbai with my sister, who was working as a creative head at Balaji Telefilms. She was the one who introduced me to the entertainment industry and the moment I saw the set of Kavyanjali, I knew this is where I belong.”
Shivankar has also worked as a DOP for brands like ICICI TVS and others. Once he started making short films, there was no looking back, he says, “Short films can be very challenging and, at the same time, are great fun to work on. You tell a story in a very small duration, with a limited setup. At the end of the day, a short film is just a short movie with a clear, compelling story,” he says.
The director-writer says that the web has really evolved in the last few years and is here to stay. “The last few years have in many ways been an eye-opener for the digital entertainment industry. There is a major shift from mainstream cinema to OTT or YouTube. People in the age group of 15 to 30 years who make up the majority of India’s population are into binge-watching. This clearly shows that domestic consumers have an insatiable appetite for all kinds of content. The way people are shifting to the web from TV shows for entertainment is a clear sign we are ready for a change,” he says.
Talking specifically about YouTube, he says, “YouTube has its own consumer market, which is very difficult to overtake, at least in coming decades. YouTube is what TV was in the 90’s, everyone will watch it. So, like the TV audience finally got reduced in say, 2020 and people shifted to OTT platforms, the same way, YouTube might also witness a decrease in viewership, but after like 30 years. Also, the content that we make for our YouTube channel is not just fit for YouTube but can also fit as content on an OTT platform. We currently have a few offers to sell our content on OTT platforms too.”
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