How Does Safari Channel Make Money

He caught the travel bug, passed it on

He was the selfie-hunters' most sought-after celebrity at the opening day of the Kerala Literature Festival.

Santhosh George Kulangara, whose camera travelled through 120 countries taking millions of eyeballs along with it on the Malayalam travel TV channel Safari, obliged almost everybody. And, when he suggests that his TV channel had a huge role in triggering youngsters' lust for travel, addicts of the 24-hour 'exploration channel', eagerly agree. For, he and the channel could drive thousands of couch potatoes to pack their bags and head to the closest railway station or airport to explore alien lands.

An attitude change

In an interview after his presentation at the KLF session on travel, Mr. Kulangara says, "Keralites love to travel, but fear pulls most of them back," he says. "My experiences showed them that they too can travel." Of course, the information explosion, social media, and the disposable income with the young helped. Social attitude to travel has changed rapidly. "In the past, parents viewed children who travelled around as prodigal; this has now changed."

"I am the greatest fan and addict of the channel," Mr. Kulangara replies, when told of the growing number of Safari TV addicts. "I enjoy my work, it's a huge passion," he says. "I travel, I shoot, I edit, I do almost all the studio work."

How does he make his travel stories so intimate for the millions of the Safari addicts? "I turn my lens into my viewers' eyeballs and along with me my viewers are seeing the same sights," he explains.

The business model

"You have no paid commercials on your channel, so what is your business model?" He pauses, asks a counter question. "Does a poet have a business model? Safari is my poetry, my art, my self-expression..." He is a successful publisher (he heads the Labour India group), he points out. "I work in my other enterprises at daytime and in the studio in the evenings to pursue my passion, the Safari channel."

Cost factor

Mr. Kulangara says that since he does almost all the production and post-production work (he has been in the TV/video sector for over two decades), the operational cost is a hundredth of such other TV channels. "If you are a carpenter and you make your own chair using your own timber, the manufacturing cost is just a fraction of the price you pay for a chair in the market."

Our code of editorial values