Here’s why Ted Talks India is a strong property for Star

Star India got one of the biggest names of Bollywood for Ted Talks India, a show that brings minds from different walks of life to inspire Indians and entertain them as well.

It was a bet by Star that paid off as the first season of the show managed to draw around 96 million viewers, according to data by BARC.

The launch episode of the first season garnered 4.99 million impressions and reached 42.4 million homes in India alone.

Who would have thought that an infotainment show would manage to impress Indian audiences, but it did. Now, the expectations with season 2 have increased.

“The choice of making this available in vernacular languages is going to make a huge difference. This might change the fortunes for them," said Yashwant Kumar, co-founder and CEO, GenY Medium, Digital Marketing firm.

Season 2 of Ted Talks is dubbed in Tamil, Telugu and Bengali, and will be available on Hotstar.

N Chandramouli, CEO, TRA Research believes that the multiplier effect will be manifold courtesy the regional language and digital push for the new season.

"The top languages in these kind of talks are Tamil, Marathi, Bengali. You need to have these languages for sure when it comes to such content," he added.

He also said that it will be a mutually benefiting relationship of Hotstar with Ted Talks as the latter will allow Hotstar to go beyond entertainment and sports and Hotstar will help the show to engage with its user base of 300 million monthly active users.

In addition, Kumar thinks that the timing has been right (for season 2) with Shah Rukh Khan’s birthday (November 2) and the show starting just after SRK’s interview with David Letterman. “There will be more buzz about the speakers in the coming weeks as they are topical and that’s why the season could be a big success,” he added.

The second season is getting as many as 26 speakers including Kshitij Marwah, who developed the technology of 3D photography, Gitanjali Rao, a 12-year-old young innovator of a quick, low-cost test to detect lead contamination in water, and writer-director and cancer survivor Tahira Kashyap-Khurrana.

Another attraction for the show is its host that will up the entertainment quotient on the show just like last season.

Experts say that Khan's star power is a major advantage in making the show gain a wider audience.

“He definitely brings in the charm which will give the extra edge to the show,” said Chandramouli.