Unhandled Exceptions: Asenshal

Unhandled Exceptions is a weekly web video series where each week a company, an individual or several individuals who are trying to do something different or interesting in Sri Lanka are interviewed. The types of people interviewed here range from startups to nonprofit organizations and even people in various disciplines such as sports or drama. This is done to give some much needed exposure to those who are interviewed and to promote innovation in post-war Sri Lanka. If you are or if you know of a business or individual(s) who can really benefit from this, please contact Adnan Issadeen via adnan.issadeen@live.com or via mobile (0773833241) or leave a message on the Facebook page www.facebook.com/techrumble 

PART I        
PART II       

 

Asenshal (pronounced essential), as described on their Facebook page is a Media Conglomerate, Production House and Advertising Agency. While none of this may sound exactly new, the concept that Asenshal is trying to bring to life is more long term and global than what typically surrounds this market. Everything that Asenshal wants to do, they want to be more along the lines of mainstream media so that they can, while focusing on Sri Lankan culture, create a global brand name by making their products accessible for everyone. To give an idea of what this means, the first game, created by co founder Shaveen Bandaranayake, was a Grand Theft Auto style sandbox game which revolved around an individual attempting to make a life as a trishaw driver. Set in Colombo, the game remains Sri Lankan while being built on top of a model that is globally accepted. In the same spirit, co founder Senthooran mentioned that even with their vision of making movies they want to go beyond film festivals and straight into the Oscars. This is an enormous task as few people ever do see the light of Oscars but if they should carry the name of Sri Lanka with them it would be an even greater achievement.

 

The question right now however is what are they doing at the moment currently to sustain their growth as a startup in the media space? The answer: making a reality TV series that isn’t a talent search or anything else that has been done in the past.

 

Reality TV and parties

The show that Asenshal is currently making is one where each episode will revolve around the organizing (or the making) of a surprise party. Organizers of the surprise party must send in a video of why they want the party to be recorded a month ahead giving the team time to prepare locations and once all recorded videos have been completed and the season has been telecasted, users get to vote for which birthday party was done the best.

 

The next question is does this have what it takes to make a reality TV show? The essence of all reality TV is conflict and drama. This answer on Quora makes an excellent point on how conflict drives reality TV and goes to prove my point that if the organizing of surprise parties remains without conflict, trouble or drama, then it may prove difficult for the show to take off. Given that surprise parties can be extremely chaotic in the organizing there seems to be excellent potential for a bit of drama here. On the flip side the preparation that Asenshal takes in organizing for the surprise party makes it so one can’t help but hope that none of the drama is killed off here. Taking a look at the Indian show which films the organizing of weddings, one could translate it over to this idea to prove that no matter how organized something is, at the end of the day there is a very good chance that there will be enough drama surrounding the event to make it more than interesting for those watching.

 

A final question that left me with worries is that 5 months into the making, the company has less than the required 6 shows to start the series. On further investigation however, it came to light that this included the time taken for concept design, production and post production of the pilot along with liaisons with producers and TV channels. I later asked Shaveen how he plans to increase the frequency of recordings to match the “one show a week” requirement to which he replied that he was confident that once they could go ahead with an all out marketing and publicity campaign along with a larger crew they would see the increase needed to keep the show running.

 

Verdict

The plan itself is gutsy as the company makes a step into a mostly unchartered area beyond the talent competitions and if it can be pulled off it’ll give the company breathing space to tackle maybe more than one reality TV show at the same time. Venturing out into unchartered territory however means walking a minefield of question marks but hopefully with time and enough marketing the company will not only navigate this minefield successfully but will also leave behind some valuable lessons for others who may want to follow this line.

 

If you wish to get involved with supporting Asenshal by finding them surprise parties to shoot, leave them a message on www.facebook.com/asenshalor give them a call at 0777037277.

 

For more information about Ahamed Adnan Issdaeen you can take a look at http://www.identyme.com/adnanissadeenor follow him on twitter @area51research. To stay up to date on the latest happening on Tech Rumble and Unhandled Exceptions head over to the Facebook Page and give it a like