‘Bangladesh is a top priority for Zee5’: Archana

TBS: What are your expectations for 'Jodi Kintu Tobuo' in Bangladesh?

Archana: We have launched four originals from different genres so far as we try to understand what the Bangladesh audience will love. But we know one thing – love has a universal appeal and everyone loves a beautiful love story. In other words, what we are trying to do is to share a very beautiful love story through 'Jodi Kintu Tobuo' that will help you briefly forget about the turbulent times we are going through today – the Covid-19 pandemic and all the suffering it has caused.

As a result, you can expect to find a very youthful new Bangladeshi sensibility ingrained in the movie that you want to share with the rest of the world to show that this is also Bangladesh. The young people of Bangladesh are as modern as anywhere else in the world and share the same hopes, dreams and aspirations as the global youths. We hope that Bangladesh loves the movie and the love story we are trying to tell.

TBS: How is the experience of working with Bangladeshi a director and artists?

Archana: This a question so close to my heart. We fell in love with Bangladesh to put it simply. We fell in love with the people of Bangladesh. Every single collaboration we do, we have found warmth, generosity, tremendous talent, made great creative friends and formed many bridges.

TBS: What are the prospects of ZEE5 in the Bangladeshi market? 

Archana: The prospects are quite bright. Among the 197 countries where our services are available, we have particularly focused on 10 countries including Bangladesh which is at the top of our priorities. Additionally, a lot of investment, time and energy is necessary to develop and nurture a strong partnership in the Bangladeshi market.

TBS: What will make Bangladeshi audiences choose ZEE5 over all the other local and international streaming platforms available to them?

Archana: I do not think there is much competition when it comes to the amount of relatable content for Bangladeshis available on ZEE5. You have to remember that even today we are talking about 130,000 hours of content across so many genres available on the platform.

We are not just offering access to movies and web series but also to live television, theatre, news and content from so many other genres that make ZEE5 a one-stop-shop for audiences. ZEE5 has something for everyone in 18 languages including Bangla and English. We are also offering the best of the best in terms of actors, movies and local artists. These are some of the reasons why Bangladesh will choose ZEE5.

TBS: ZEE5 operates in over 190 countries. Which region or country do you think has the most responsive audiences?

Archana: There are wonderful people all across the globe. We have a huge Bangladeshi audience in the Middle East and Europe, especially Italy. When we launch in the US, we can expect a large reception from the Bangladeshi audience there as well. With so much good reception all over the world, it is hard to single out a single country or region in that regard.

Additionally, the few originals that we have already launched have done really well in the UK, Canada and the Middle East. So, they are very important markets for us.   

TBS: What is the plan for local production in Bangladesh? What new content can we look forward to?

Archana: Basically, content is what you are interacting with and what evolves here. Although we have released a lot of content already during the pandemic, there is a big global release planned for May so stay tuned for that.

TBS: ZEE5 offers all its content for free in Bangladesh. Why?

Archana: No other country in the world has access to our originals for free. It is a very special initiative only for Bangladesh. We genuinely want nothing to stop the Bangladeshi people from watching great content as we are in the process of developing the local market.