* The idea is to integrate on-air with digital for promotions and listener interactivity: Indira Rangarajan, VP & RPH (West & Central) -- Radio Mirchi

MUMBAI: It will be recalled that Pizza Hut Director Marketing, Anup Jain,  had said in an interview on RadioAndMusic.com that his company would be happy to try Radio (as a marketing medium) if it integrates with digital. On Tuesday, in the course of a film promotion visit to Radio Mirchi's Mumbai studio by star actors Rani Mukherjee and Vidya Balan for No One Killed Jessica (read music review here), Radio Mirchi took its social media initiative to the next level. The station gave its listeners a chance to ask questions to Rani Mukerji and Vidya Balan by posting their queries on the official Radio Mirchi page on Facebook, and after Mirchi RJ Prackriti had selected a few of the questions, in possibly a first from a Radio Network, Rani and Vidya replied to the questions through video. (The videos and Radio Mirchi Facebook Fan Page are at Facebook.com/mirchi983fm)

Rani said, Thanks to this special effort, we were able to interact with our fans not only through the radio, but also on video through Facebook, and answered as many 30 to 40 questions!...

We are looking at Facebook and Twitter in a strong way, and the idea is to integrate on-air with digital for both, promotions and listener interactivity, in a continually bigger way,... said Indira Rangarajan, VP & Regional Programming Head (West & Central) -- Radio Mirchi. The potential of both working together was very evident when, even on the extremely short notice of the on-air announcement, we had several queries from listeners wanting to reach out to Rani and Vidya....

On why Radio Mirchi, which  insists upon including one or the other of the key music talents of any film in its film-promotions-related programming, did not have brilliant composer Amit Trivedi or lyricist Amitabh Bhattacharya on air along with Rani and Vidya for No One Killed Jessica, Rangarajan said, Of course we have planned a complete episode with them, especially about the music of the film, and we will air it closer to the release date of the film for an even better musical connect for listeners. So both will be on Radio Mirch in the week of 7 Jan, which is when the film will release. Remember, our philosophy as a Radio Network is to give music its due... 

Rangarajan thanked Rani and Vidya, who came into the studio just before 11 am and were there for nearly four hours.... The entire studio interaction also seemed to put to rest the media-created controversy about cold vibes between Vidya Balan and Rani over the promotions of the film, Vidya, on being asked how it was to work with Rani, said, Rani is a great actor and she brings a lot of believability to her roles. I have admired her from her very first film, and it was a fantastic experience working with her....