MUMBAI: Founder and CEO of Content Project Pvt. Ltd., Neelesh Misra is very popular among the masses for his skills as a story teller, especially on his Big FM show 'Yaadon Ka Idiot Box', and as a lyricist and scriptwriter. But currently, the CEO is busy chalking out plans to explore opportunities as Phase III approaches.

Misra believes that the Phase III expansion "is really an exciting time for a company like his."

Without revealing much, Misra stated that "as India's only writers' company (Content Project Pvt. Ltd) – we are very keenly focussed on radio. We are already in discussion with major radio stations to develop new content/ concepts for them. We are looking at innovating and exploring new areas in content also. We should be able to get some clarity soon and then we will make some announcements." The content development will be beyond Content Project's story-telling format, which had so far, been the company's strength.

Yet another property of Misra is the rural newspaper 'Gaon Connection' which he hopes to develop into a radio show. "A lot of content of the Gaon Connection is ready and we want to use it as a radio show. We are in discussions with a few stake holders in the radio business. We would want it to become a 360 enterprise. We would like it to have TV and print integration because most advertisers would like to head to rural India. We feel that it is something that should excite us and the marketers."

Radio players with a presence in urban and rural areas will be an ideal partnership for 'Gaon Connection'. Misra said, "We feel that rural audiences would be very interested in our content and there is a lot of non-fiction story telling in rural India. In the city, there is rural nostalgia, which is vastly untapped and the show will fulfil that. We are keen to take this forward and bring it to the mobile platform in a big way."

The digital team of 'Gaon Connection' is building a mobile project involving voice content, text and possibly video content. "We will be starting a pilot soon," Misra added. He also said that reporters for Gaon Connection will be helping in creating the voice content.

'Gaon Connection' was developed into a TV program called 'Gaon Connection' which was aired on DD National twice a week, was the popular non-fiction show for Doordarshan. The company is in talks with the soon to be created DD Kisan channel. Misra added, "We are waiting to hear from the committee who would approve of the content."

 The print newspaper- 'Gaon Connection' is currently circulated in 40 districts of UP and five districts each, of Bihar and Jharkhand. However, the voice project on the mobile platform will go across various regions. It will start with Hindi-speaking states and then will be localised in different languages.

Currently, Misra's entities are not supported by any investors, but he is open to investments with people who share the same vision. He also shared that they (writers) would love to run a radio station where they could run content of their own kind. He did not deny his wish of running a community radio station either, if it was not as expensive as it is today.

Alongside, Gaon Connection and Content Project, Misra is writing scripts for films and advising some brands for their different campaigns. He also managed to launch a publishing house with Vani Prakashan and Content Project Pvt. Ltd, to give the independent writers an extra edge.