Gurugram-Based Startup Bringing Indian Mythological Stories To Smartphone Users

The Ramayan series, which appeared on Doordarshan last year during the COVID blockade, was the most-watched show in the TRP rankings. Mahabharat and Shri Krishna were also the most-watched shows of last year.

While this reflects the demand for Indian epics in local media, the Gurugram-based content prostitute wants to tell consumers these mythological stories in a short video format.

Sutradhar's mission is to provide a delightful experience to its smartphone users through its app. Founded by a startup Satish Meena and Gaurav Tiwari, in 2020, there is a big difference between the presentation of these Indian mythologies, especially on smartphones.

The founders believe that smartphone users are a distinct category of users who want the content to be presented in a short video format and done in an appealing way without losing the essence of the story.

The application currently provides content in 4 languages - Hindi, English, Odia, and Marathi.

About The Product

Sutradhar offers short videos of about 2 to 10 minutes, and the entire content of the application is Indian mythological history.

The founders believe they can target a market of 500 million smartphone users operating in multiple languages.

Satish and Gaurav are IIT graduates and are known to have spent more than a decade in the business world over the last 20 years but have always wanted to do something on their own. In fact, the two have been discussing different ideas for quite some time.

Gaurav personally loves to write scripts, and Satish has always had a strong habit of reading.

The founders believe they can reach the market of 500 million multilingual smartphone users in the country.

Satish and Gaurav are IIT graduates and have known each other for 20 years after spending more than a decade in business, but they need to do something on their own that has always existed. In fact, you two discuss different opinions several times.

Gaurav personally loves screenwriting, while Satish has developed a strong habit of reading.

Report Card 

The Sutradhar program since its launch in 2020 October month seen Log over 100,000 downloads and 50,000 users every month. According to Satish, the target customer base is people between the ages of 25 and 45 who live in metropolitan cities, Tier II or III. that they feel comfortable conducting online transactions.

Sutradhar has its in-house content creators team and works with freelancers to upload content.

According to Satish, however, the focus is not only on the stories of the great Indian legends, but also on several other important characters that are not known, but they played an important role.

Although Mahabharata and Ramayana are considered the most important stories in Indian mythology, it is a huge collection of very few unknown objects. Sutradhar tries to present such stories to the users.

Ecosystem Creation 

For sutradhar, engaging content delivery is just the beginning as it intends to build a complete ecosystem around it. This includes creating a team of content creators and users. At the same time, it wants to create a platform where people can engage in transactions of various products and services such as e-commerce.

In terms of a competitive landscape, the facilitator faces competition from multiple channels, including content such as Shrimandir and YouTube.

Satish says the facilitator is looking for one million active users over the next year and plans to add four more languages.

The average time spent by users on the app is more than 12 minutes and the founder claims that the time spent consuming content is doubled every month.

So far, the content on the facilitator can be viewed for free, but the plan is to make it a purposeful model over time.

 From Angel investors Titan Capital, Sutradhar has raised 110k in the fund, and talks are underway to extend another round of funding.

Satish had a long wait for the business when he tried to start at IIT in 2006 during his final year and it was difficult to raise even Rs 500,000. He says things are now in full swing.

Satish hopes to build on the scale with Sadardhar as the stories delivered to the consumers will not only be about fiction but will also have these elements in other genres of writing. Take for example the works of author Amish Tripathi.