Kaushik Das, Founder & CEO
Ranajit Mohanty, CCO
The team of CEO Insights engages in an exclusive interaction with Kaushik Das (Founder & CEO) and Ranajit Mohanty (CCO) of AAO NXT to know more about this unique OTT platform that has emerged as the most promising OTT startup from the eastern province of India within a very short span.
What inspired you to establish AAO NXT? What are the key drivers that you take to ensure that the operations of the company are used appropriately to meet its short or long-term needs?
Kaushik: Coming from a state where our culture is surrounded and linked with every parameter of the universe, we have huge contents which the world has yet to see. As the Odia entertainment industry is age-old and conventional, so is the thought process. But here, entrepreneurs never invest in content and entertainment. My passion for movies & creativity was always nurturing many ideas to reflect the entertainment/contents of my Odisha to the world level. So, implementing contemporary technologies as the befitting concept, we have developed our OTT platform AAO NXT.
Choosing premium world-class concepts, we have readied some of the most beautiful and contemporary content along with the top-end user-friendly technologies. Consistently, we upgrade our technology by keeping our subscribers in our minds. We have a long-term vision, by the virtue of which we have come to be known as the best OTT platform from the Eastern part of India.
As the COO of the firm, how do you leverage your professional background and experience to mold creative content modules for your company?
Ranajit: Experience always pays but trends and telling patterns evolve
with time and technology. As the global content scenario is slowly breaking the boundaries of language, culture and lifestyles, we are also envisioning to acquire an upper hand over the OTT industry. With various uniqueness of our roots, it won’t be an exaggeration to say that we are here to reveal the best-kept secrets of the entertainment world. Be it socio-economic-cultural practices, lifestyles, unexplored science findings, mysteries and tales that would raise the eyebrows of billions, or the Stories of the Soil, Legends of the Land, Cult of the community, Mysteries behind the manuscripts, our creative content would drive a plethora of new wave contents into Asian cinematic storytelling for sure. Based on our mixed experience of good and bad, we have made a content policy for making a complete entertainment basket for our viewers from old classics to trendy gripping extended narratives of web series.
What opportunities do you foresee in the current trend of the industry and how are you molding AAO NXT to achieve sustained success in this domain?
Kaushik: Currently, OTT platforms are the best model for entertainment, and regional platforms are successful because of their target audience. We have professional content writers, an in-house post-production team, and an IT expert who create our content using an outsourced model. We are on SVOD & TVOD mode and our subscriptions are very nominal, which has managed to attract and retain a lot of customers.
Having experience for more than 20 years across various sectors of the industry, how does it help you in making creative decisions regarding OTT platforms
Ranajit: My experience from live-action to animation to graphic storytelling drives a clarity in panoramic perspective to judge any content that is pitched, shown or even created in-house as AAO Originals. Not only in production, but understanding the entertainment market nationally and internationally, we have an edge over being exposed to international and national content markets much earlier than OTTs happened in India. So, it was easy for us when we have the distribution muscle in the form of an OTT, as the technology has emerged only just a few years back.
Though creative decisions are very challenging at times, we strongly believe our score is well above 80 percent unanimously among my other board members, if compared. Most of our decisions so far are proven to be effective, creating the right impact among our subscribers in the very first year of our operations. As we started in a non-market, my entire experience and thrust have been going to converting that to a potential one. The challenge here is already low esteem due to poor regional content produced over the decade. But we are scoring much better and will
What opportunities do you foresee in the current trend of the industry and how are you molding AAO NXT to achieve sustained success in this domain?
Kaushik: Currently, OTT platforms are the best model for entertainment, and regional platforms are successful because of their target audience. We have professional content writers, an in-house post-production team, and an IT expert who create our content using an outsourced model. We are on SVOD & TVOD mode and our subscriptions are very nominal, which has managed to attract and retain a lot of customers.
Based on our mixed experience of good and bad, we have made a content policy for making a complete entertainment basket for our viewers from old classics to trendy gripping extended narratives of web series
Having experience for more than 20 years across various sectors of the industry, how does it help you in making creative decisions regarding OTT platforms
Ranajit: My experience from live-action to animation to graphic storytelling drives a clarity in panoramic perspective to judge any content that is pitched, shown or even created in-house as AAO Originals. Not only in production, but understanding the entertainment market nationally and internationally, we have an edge over being exposed to international and national content markets much earlier than OTTs happened in India. So, it was easy for us when we have the distribution muscle in the form of an OTT, as the technology has emerged only just a few years back.
Though creative decisions are very challenging at times, we strongly believe our score is well above 80 percent unanimously among my other board members, if compared. Most of our decisions so far are proven to be effective, creating the right impact among our subscribers in the very first year of our operations. As we started in a non-market, my entire experience and thrust have been going to converting that to a potential one. The challenge here is already low esteem due to poor regional content produced over the decade. But we are scoring much better and will
continue our winning spree. Thanks to the propelling payload of our trusted network, the rhythm of technology and trends budding out of our experience in understanding each transition.
How has AAO NXT since its inception? What is the future roadmap set for your company?
Kaushik: We have started our commercial releases on the 12th of March 2021, via one web series, one feature film and two commercial films. Having 150K downloads and an 80K subscription base presently, we have concluded a short film festival with an immense success rate. We intend to achieve a 25 lakhs subscription base in the business year 2021-22.
How are you updating yourself with the latest industry trends to find the right content to produce on the OTT platform?
Ranajit: From 8mm film rolls, VHS, U-Matic to Beta to Digital, we have leaped and synched with many technologies that have emerged with rapid succession throughout my journey into film making. My adaptability is as fast as this generation, and I still work on every phase of production whenever I have the luxury of time. More often, I guide my content makers to avoid production hazards and invisible blunders. Recently, I co-directed, co-wrote, and supervised one web series CLUB 69 that carried almost 992 VFX shots. Being well-exposed to international content scenarios as well as aware of the pulse of our untapped potential market at the same time, we are creating a new market. We rather want to lead than following others though updating our knowledge on various trending contents, which is a ritual holding in such an organization. We are going through a very interesting time where content merit-o-cracy is going to stay for long.
Tell us about the upcoming project you have undertaken so far? Any AAO NXT original Odia series or movie you would like to recommend for your viewers?
Ranajit: We have many shows coming-up like Ardha Satya, Shuka Bhaira Sholay, Ayushmaan Mastaram, Anthony, Marooned, Kaale, and Chitrasangini, apart from numerous shorts and anthologies getting produced and would be ready within a month or two to stream. Our recent trending shows which I would like to recommend to our viewers are, CLUB69. EDA (The Obstinate), old classics like Bhakta Salabega, Rakta Golapa, Suryamukhi, Samaya and many more.
Kaushik Das, Founder & CEO
A management graduate, an entrepreneur and an investor, Kaushik is passionate about technology. Coming from a humble background, he started working and gaining experience in the manufacturing sector of mining and construction equipment. His passion towards making things by his own strength & nurture his investor thoughts led to the establishment of. Kaushik sincerely believes that there is no age defined to be independent & think differently
Ranajit Mohanty, Chief Creative Officer
As a filmmaker, Ranajit was personally mentored by Christopher Doyle, Emily Young, Andres Viel, Makhmalbaf family, Adoor Gopalakrishnan, Aparna Sen, and A.K. Bir during his professional journey. Growing-up with the best of both worlds when compared to popular and artistic contents, Ranajit is pragmatically engaged in sharing his experiences and expertise with the world through AAO NXT.
How has AAO NXT since its inception? What is the future roadmap set for your company?
Kaushik: We have started our commercial releases on the 12th of March 2021, via one web series, one feature film and two commercial films. Having 150K downloads and an 80K subscription base presently, we have concluded a short film festival with an immense success rate. We intend to achieve a 25 lakhs subscription base in the business year 2021-22.
How are you updating yourself with the latest industry trends to find the right content to produce on the OTT platform?
Ranajit: From 8mm film rolls, VHS, U-Matic to Beta to Digital, we have leaped and synched with many technologies that have emerged with rapid succession throughout my journey into film making. My adaptability is as fast as this generation, and I still work on every phase of production whenever I have the luxury of time. More often, I guide my content makers to avoid production hazards and invisible blunders. Recently, I co-directed, co-wrote, and supervised one web series CLUB 69 that carried almost 992 VFX shots. Being well-exposed to international content scenarios as well as aware of the pulse of our untapped potential market at the same time, we are creating a new market. We rather want to lead than following others though updating our knowledge on various trending contents, which is a ritual holding in such an organization. We are going through a very interesting time where content merit-o-cracy is going to stay for long.
Tell us about the upcoming project you have undertaken so far? Any AAO NXT original Odia series or movie you would like to recommend for your viewers?
Ranajit: We have many shows coming-up like Ardha Satya, Shuka Bhaira Sholay, Ayushmaan Mastaram, Anthony, Marooned, Kaale, and Chitrasangini, apart from numerous shorts and anthologies getting produced and would be ready within a month or two to stream. Our recent trending shows which I would like to recommend to our viewers are, CLUB69. EDA (The Obstinate), old classics like Bhakta Salabega, Rakta Golapa, Suryamukhi, Samaya and many more.
Kaushik Das, Founder & CEO
A management graduate, an entrepreneur and an investor, Kaushik is passionate about technology. Coming from a humble background, he started working and gaining experience in the manufacturing sector of mining and construction equipment. His passion towards making things by his own strength & nurture his investor thoughts led to the establishment of. Kaushik sincerely believes that there is no age defined to be independent & think differently
Ranajit Mohanty, Chief Creative Officer
As a filmmaker, Ranajit was personally mentored by Christopher Doyle, Emily Young, Andres Viel, Makhmalbaf family, Adoor Gopalakrishnan, Aparna Sen, and A.K. Bir during his professional journey. Growing-up with the best of both worlds when compared to popular and artistic contents, Ranajit is pragmatically engaged in sharing his experiences and expertise with the world through AAO NXT.