Dream Girl, Rangbaaz, Uri-The Surgical Strike win big at HIGH5 on ZEE5

2019 is set to end only to kick start the award season very soon. The year gone by has been quite enriching, especially due to the advent of OTT platforms which are giving audiences a lot of interesting choices.

Moreover, with films doing quite well – first in theaters, and then on the digital medium – is only adding to the visibility and sustenance factor.

This is what makes one of the unique award platforms,'HIGH5 on ZEE5', interesting, as it recently rolled out awards for multiple categories which were not just restricted to top Bollywood films and web series across languages, but also included Hindi TV shows, Hindi Original Series, Regional Original Series as well as Music Videos.

Some such winners, which were announced at the event that took place late last week at ZEE5’s HQ in Mumbai, were Dream Girl, Uri - The Surgical Strike, Rangbaaz, Kumkum Bhagya and Virgin Bhaskar to name a few. The competition was intense as ever since its inception. ZEE 5 has launched more than 100 originals across genres and that too in 12 languages.

With one of the biggest database of the latest Hindi blockbusters in its kitty, data pertaining to consumers’ viewership, engagement rate and completion rate was considered.

 While Dream Girl and Uri - The Surgical Strike were felicitated for being some of the most-viewed movies on the platform, regional series like Auto Shankar and G.O.D. went home with awards as well. While Kumkum Bhagya continued with its winning run as the most-viewed TV show in the month gone by, Rangbaaz – which is now in its second season – won an award for being the most-viewed original series. Other notable winners were original series Virgin Bhasskar, music video Dirty Girl and the music album of Dream Girl.

Those present at the event were Nushrat Bharucha (Dream Girl), Anant Joshi (Virgin Bhasskar), Sarathkumar S M (Auto Shankar), Krishna Kaul and Mughda Chapekar (Kumkum Bhagya), Bhav Dhulia (director of Rangbaaz), Radhiva Lavu and Anish Yohan Kuruvilla (producer and director of G.O.D.), Panduranga Hari.R (director of Auto Shankar) and Shivangi Bhayana (singer of Dirty Girl).

Celebrating the event, Aparna Acharekar, Programming Head, ZEE5 India said, "2019 has been a fantastic year for ZEE5. We have released over 100- plus originals in six languages on the platform and received immense appreciation from our viewers. At ZEE5, we are constantly monitoring data to understand viewership patterns, and trying to map the genres they like, the series which they enjoy, and the time they spend on the platform.”

Acknowledging the value and relevance of the data in hand, she added, "We believe that data is the currency of the digital age. It is based on this data that today’s awards are being given.”

There is a lot more that would be up for grabs in time to come for ZEE5, with the platform enjoying 8.9 million DAUs (daily active users) as of September 2019, and 90 million+ downloads being crossed already.

Moreover, with the platform committed to launching 15-20 more originals in the next three months, it is certainly going to be an eventful Q1 2020 for the platform as well as the audiences.