Lakshmi Venugopal talked to Swaroop Banerjee, COO & Business Head, ZEE LIVE on the upcoming virtual 3 day long festival It's a Girl thing India.
IAGT (It's A Girl Thing) is a great concept; a trendy thought too, tell us more of how the idea came by?
IAGT was earlier hosted in Singapore and Manila and received a massive fan following in both the countries and India being a country with a huge number of young women, becomes one of the best and apt country to host a festival like IAGT.
IAGT is a platform with a purpose, it aims to empower, inspire and aspire young women worldwide and help them to explore and achieve their dreams. It is an initiative which focuses at bringing girls together, to form a united community, where they can come and express themselves freely. It is a three-day long festival held virtually which sees some of India’s and the world’s best-known influencers, creators and celebrities in a live show covering talks, panel discussions, performances and virtual meet and greets.
The conversations will be around topics like Body positivity, Self-love, Health, Fashion, Education and Climate change. With this stellar lineup of panelists, the platform is going to serve as a stepping stone for many young girls in India.
This year is different from all others, how is the experience of doing this in a virtual format?
IAGT has been an on-ground festival when earlier held in Singapore and Manila; however, keeping in mind the unprecedented pandemic, we decided to host it virtually. Leveraging the strong network leadership that Zee has, the virtual experience will allow many audiences to attend the festival from their homes.
The festival will be hosting talks, panel discussions, performances, and virtual meet and greets to enable fans to engage with the influencers across various topics. In the past, Branded Asia has associated with Michele Obama Foundation for IAGT live and had popular influencers like Lilly Singh, Bethany Mota, Zoe Sugg (Zoella), Megan Batoon, Niomi Smart, Meredith Foster, Brooklyn and Bailey, Kiana Valenciano and many more.
Some of the participants at IAGT India include famous names like Dia Mirza, Fatima Sana Shaikh, Merrell Twins, Prajakta Koli, Raja Kumari, Jasleen Royal and Aranya Johar, among others
Keeping into consideration the on-going pandemic and keeping our audience’s safety in mind, we decided to do it virtually. Needless to say, nothing can beat the excitement that a live on-ground event brings in however, virtual events has become the new normal now.
Having said that, our aim remains the same – we want to encourage and empower young teenage girls through this platform and since this is a virtual event it also helps us reach a larger number of audiences. We are hopeful that in the near future, we will be able to host it on-ground again.
How were the delegates chosen to be part of the event?
I have to say that a few months back when we started speaking to the talent line-up, every creator we spoke to said that they are so happy that It’s A Girl Thing is coming to India and they would love to be a part of it.
IAGT stands for being a purpose driven, all girl platform that dives deep into topics like self love, body positivity, education, climate change, financial independence, adulting, women in music.
So if you see the talent line-up it compliments the topics directly. Inspiring speakers that are loved by their female fans like Dia Mirza, Fatima Sana Shaikh, Prajakta Koli, Rytasha Rathore, Wengie, Merrell Twins, Akriti Kakar, Raja Kumari and the entire power packed line-up just celebrates what it truly means to be a girl. I just take a bow to all of these creators for showing so much love on our debut in India.
Events such as these are what the entire world needs right now. How do you see the future changing with such initiatives?
Women across the world are perceived in a certain way – they are expected to dress in a certain manner, behave a certain way and also live their lives in what deems fit to society.
In a world which is constantly putting so much pressure and expectations on women, IAGT as a platform is breaking the stereotypical barriers and aims at empowering women to dream big and express themselves freely. As a society, we need to stand together and support women with such platforms right from a young age in order to build strong women of the future.
Beyond virtual, tell us about your plans ahead.
We are extremely confident that IAGT is going to positively impact a huge number of young teenage girls in India. Post the virtual festival, we plan to take this to many of our regional markets leveraging the strong reach Zee as a network has to offer and to ensure we empower, aspire and inspire a larger number of audiences.
