Aniruddha Guha, Janice Sequeira and their Bollywood Film Club are gaining fans on the audio-only social media site by jamming with a geeky writers and celebrities willing to get candid
The couple hosts a writers’ discussion and another that includes candid chats with the stars
Actor Vidya Balan had told husband-wife duo Aniruddha Guha and Janice Sequeira that she would only be available for their Clubhouse session for one hour on a Sunday evening. The fact that she was ready to be on a panel was itself a departure for Balan, who is famously known to not work on the weekends. They were supposed to talk about her radical career choices and how one maintains a balance between commerce and art. “Before the session she called and asked me, do I really need to not dress up. I am sitting on the sofa in my home clothes. I said, ‘it’s all good’. And once we started, the session ran for two hours,” says Sequeira, adding, “Pratik Gandhi had a dislocated shoulder, but I think the fact that they don’t have to dress up, and there is no video involved made him realise it’s an easier medium to be on.”
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Guha and Sequiera are one of the first movers on social networking audio-only app, Clubhouse. Guha is an ex-film critic-turned-screenwriter (Malang, Rashmi Rocket) and Sequeira is a former broadcast journalist. He now hosts the talk show Social Media Star. The two are behind Bollywood Film Club, which they host on the site, with a 21k-strong following, which they have gathered in about two months. It has two distinct properties that fit the couple’s personalities—Inside the Writer’s Room every Thursday, which takes a deep dive into the process and craft of writing an OTT show or film with screenwriting teams; and In The Club on Sundays, which the couple hosts together. It includes relaxed conversations with celebrities about fashion, culture, work, relationships and really everything under the sun. As of now, they have talked to the writing team behind The Family Man, and Scam 1992, and also had freewheeling chats with Zoya Akhtar, Vikrant Massey and Pratik Gandhi. The two launched the show at the beginning of the second Coronavirus wave, and felt that the hours they spent on the app helped them cope with all the dark news doing the rounds. “For me, I feel it was about giving back to the writers’ community. Even now, people don’t talk about technicians, and writers. It was also about going back to my journalism roots,” says Guha, who says he wasn’t sure how much of an audience a geeky chat like the writers’ room would garner. Close to three thousand visitors turned up for the Family Man episode. “The Writers’ Room is more technical, and has a set format, while In the Club is chilled out; we just go with the flow.” In a recent episode, actor Arjun Kapoor came on and spoke candidly about the business of filmmaking, and the inside dope on the trade. “We got a lot of DMs after that episode, saying they didn’t think Arjun had this side [to his personality].”
Despite its technical nature, the Writers’ Room for The Family Man saw an audience of 3,000
Their experience and years spent working with and in the film industry is helping them rope in the A-listers. They are confident the room will grow, as the platform itself gets monetised and brand collaborations come in. “A senior Clubhouse Headquarters head came for the Family Man room, and came on stage, and introduced the room to an international audience. They have given us encouragement saying they will help us market the rooms better. We love doing what we do, and the validation is great to get,” says Guha. Sequeira believes that although the property is an extension of what they both do, eventually the future lies in monetising content. “Branded content needs to become a norm,” she says, as Guha adds, “At the end of the day, any money we make off it, will be a byproduct of doing what we love every day. It takes four hours of our life every week, and it gives us satisfaction in return. I hope that the writing community progresses as a result.”
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