MUMBAI: With an aim to address the need for positive entertainment during this time, Flipkart and Varun Dhawan recently launched 'Entertainer No. 1’ - a unique stay-at-home reality show under the Flipkart Originals umbrella. To promote the show, the brand has introduced a TV and digital campaign featuring Varun Dhawan, asking the country to participate in this unique show. Filmed on a smartphone by the actor at his home, the concept and execution of the film drives home the show's message of innovating when entertaining from home, while practicing social distancing.
The TVC is centred around Varun creatively using everyday essentials as props, to bring out the true ‘entertainer’ in him. He is seen performing various acts including rapping using a bucket as a drum set, donning a hip hop look while cleaning, using the shower head as a mic - all in a quest to find India’s most talented entertainers and inspiring millions of Indians to stay at home as they bring out their creative best. Conventionally, a TVC shoot of this nature involves several creative and production discussions, all of which were done on video calls from home.
“At a time when the nation is spending all their time indoors, we found an interesting opportunity to use entertainment and cheer up India in a special way. Through Entertainer No 1, we are bringing a unique stay-at-home reality show to our audience, that provides budding entertainers a platform to stay connected during this difficult time. What sets this show and its marketing campaign apart, is the way it has been conceptualized and brought to life, entirely from home,” Flipkart customer marketing and digital businesses head Vikas Gupta said.
Varun Dhawan said, “Being an entertainer, I constantly seek different ways to keep people in positive spirits and this show has given me a great platform to do so. This was a one-of-a-kind shooting experience for me and it required me to be more involved at every step of the way. I truly enjoyed working on this campaign and I look forward to judging some interesting entries for ‘Entertainer No. 1’ from across the country.”
“This has truly been a paradigm shift in Ad film making. We always had the notion that work from home was not too productive and here we were creating and bringing to life an entire show along with creating and releasing communication for it, from home. I would like to believe this is unprecedented. And I feel truly exhilarated that we could achieve this task in a never seen, never done before manner. This is history of sorts where we created India’s first digital reality show without stepping out of our homes. Every step of the creation was exciting, challenging and digital in it’s true sense,” Marching Ants co-founder Joy Ghoshal said.