Connecting a creative community of women

“We wanted a medium where we could interact with viewers and understand what kind of content they like,” says Anil Narang, former head of Marketing & Strategy at Star Suvarna. The idea was to create a community that would act as the channel’s eyes and ears on the ground, giving direct feedback as well as helping to promote the channel through the word of mouth. But that was only a small part of our vision for the Ladies Club. “We wanted to create a platform for Karnataka’s housewives. There are a lot of women who have talent, but due to their household responsibilities they can't nurture it. So we thought we would give them a platform to showcase their talent.” How it works is simple. Every month, each Suvarna Ladies Club organises a cultural programme where members get the opportunity to perform onstage. The best performances stand to win a prize, but every performance gets telecast on Star Suvarna Plus.

Alongside the cultural programmes, we also encourage the Ladies Club to contribute to social causes and organise social activities. These activities are coordinated with local clubs by KB Vaidya from the program team, who speaks to the club’s different chapters almost every single day. Over the years, the club has led blood donation camps, tree-planting drives, social awareness camps and actively participated in the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan. It also pays special attention to the issues of women’s rights. In July 2014, the Suvarna Ladies Club led a candlelight march in Bangalore to protest the sexual assault of a six-year-old female student. The efforts of the club’s members have been recognised many times by local authorities, including the Karnataka government.

“Suvarna is really proud of the club because they are our extended family,” says Anil. At the annual Star Suvarna Parivaar Awards, the presidents of the twelve local clubs give many of the awards out. “People always get in touch with me to try and understand how this works. It's really a proud feeling that we've been able to do this and build it up to 20,000 members. Now we're thinking of how to grow this further, because we believe this can become an even greater community.”