MUMBAI: Radio Mirchi’s first-of-its-kind digital platform, Mirchi Scribbled was inaugurated with great pomp by celebrated Bollywood lyricist Manoj Muntashir. The event was hosted by Mirchi Ahmedabad’s popular RJ Vashishth while the chief digital officer of the popular radio station, Rahul Balyan also graced the event. 

Commenting on what led to the idea of Mirchi Scribbled, Radio Mirchi chief digital officer reveals, “With our legacy of radio, we have always engaged with our listeners through the spoken-word and have known its power. Our RJs are voices of their cities, our audio content like Sunday Suspense (stories of Satyajit ray), Ek Purani Kahani (recreation of stories by Manto) etc., are highly popular on Youtube. So creation of Mirchi Scribbled is a logical extension for Mirchi. There is a strong community around the spoken word and poetry already, and a lot of Mirchi’s own creative talent are part of this sub-culture as well.”

“Through this initiative, we want to create a platform for talent to showcase their work and help in taking it to a bigger digital audience. All great works start with small initial scribbles, and the name Mirchi scribbled reflects that experimental outlook as well, being a platform for professionals as well as the amateurs,” he adds. 

Further speaking on the format of the show, Balyan reveals, “Mirchi Scribbled will be a multi-platform property across YT channel, social media, and open mic events across cities. So there will be weekly content created, along with periodic on-ground events as well.”

Every show launched, has a marketing strategy, but Mirchi is vouching on its content and wants to keep it more organic. 

“Most of the marketing for this platform will be organic and through the word of mouth. This will be a multi-platform property, and we hope to pull in new audiences across on-ground events, social media and Youtube.  We are building a community around Mirchi Scribbled, which will help to pull-in more performers and audiences,” Rahul Balyan shares. 

On being asked about the various brands, Radio Mirchi is planning to have on board for Mirchi Scribbled, the chief digital officer informs, “We want to bring in more corporate sponsorship for such events, which will give more spotlight to such content, events and to the artists. The audience for this property is niche and discerning, which is highly attractive TG to advertisers. We are in talks with various brands.

“This platform isn’t just for story telling, but also for poetry and spoken word. We don’t want to restrict ourselves to just one art form and this would be a platform for all  kinds of Spoken art forms,” Balyan answers on how the show will stand out. 

Mirchi Scribbled will also be available to watch on YouTube. 

On being quizzed about how promising is the digitalisation of Content today, Rahul Balyan says, “Social media and Youtube is enabling communities to build around shared interests. With availability of such content on digital platforms, more young audiences are getting exposed to it as well. We hope that Mirchi Scribbled will be a catalyst for a bigger adoption of this artform.”

The inaugural event was an open-mic  event, which had four featured poets and many more who had registered online for a slot to perform. 

“It will be a mix of performers across age groups and experience. People are coming from Ludhiana and Lucknow just to perform,” he concludes. 

Meanwhile, Manoj Muntashir added colour to the event with his poetry.