ShareChat and TVF team up in search of the next Viral Stars

Homegrown social media platform ‘ShareChat’ and digital entertainment company ‘TVF’ are launching the first-ever and largest all-India, digital-first talent discovery platform called The Viral Stars. The initiative will give millions of Indian youth across the country an opportunity to showcase their unique talent and become India’s next generation of Viral Stars. They will also have the opportunity to win multiple cash and other prizes.

The three-month programme opened on November 15 with an online call for entries in eight languages —Hindi, Bengali, Marathi, Punjabi, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada and Malayalam. Users can participate by recording a short video (up to 30 seconds) on ShareChat across categories, including humour, music, dance, fashion, beauty or ajab-gajab. Contestants can continue posting videos as a creator till February 15, 2019. A digital leaderboard that will track audience reactions, engagements and votes on each video will determine the winners.

Speaking about the inimitable concept behind the latest offering, Karan Chaudhry, President and COO, TVF, said, “As Indians, we love video content. Nine in 10 Indians watch videos on their phones, across the major Indian languages. Humour, music, beauty, dance or reality are among top short-form genres that India loves to watch online.”

The Viral Stars programme will visit 50 cities and engage with youth at over 200 colleges to put the spotlight on emerging and hidden talent across campuses. The programme will include on-ground activations featuring popular digital celebrities and youth influencers like Ashish Chanchlani, Mukti Mohan, Pranitha Subhash and more.

The Viral Stars programme participant submissions will be live on Sharechat app in the ‘The Viral Stars’ category and will also be presented in a 200-episode series on TVFPlay’s ‘The Viral Stars’ channel with a special focus on the youth from colleges.

Commenting on the initiative and the partnership with TVF, Sunil Kamath, Chief Business Officer at ShareChat, said, “ShareChat is India’s No. 1 regional social networking app developed keeping in mind the needs of Indian audience to communicate in their native languages. Through this association, we want to provide our users with a platform where they can showcase their talent and get an opportunity to become the next digital stars. As of now, we are a community of 50+ million people and we believe that our search for the next generation viral star would be a huge opportunity for our community.”

Commenting on the partnership with ShareChat, Rahul Sarangi, Global Head of Business and Content Development, TVF added, “Through a strategy covering digital content, social influence and live experience, we’re using our expertise to encourage more creators and rewarding great content with the recognition it deserves. With the range of our culture, geographies and languages, Viral Stars will foster an environment of content creation with the youth.”

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