FilterCopy creator says short videos work best

For the last five years, the digital media company Pocket Aces has been making its audience, laugh, think and explore different genres of entertainment through its
channels Dice Media, FilterCopy and Gobble. The highly engaging content-driven channels have a huge subscriber base.

In a chat with Surupasree Sarmmah, Anirudh Pandita, co-founder, Pocket Aces, talks about FilterCopy and it’s rising popularity.

How did the idea of starting Pocket Aces come about?

Ashwin Suresh, my partner, and I were roommates in college. Though we worked in different investment banks after that, both of us always wanted to work together.
We felt that there was a content gap in India and wanted to bridge the divide between what we had on television and what the youth were interested in.

We were soon joined by Aditi, a childhood friend and an investment professional who was adept at helping startups scale.

We thought about what a mobile-first video brand would look like and that’s how FilterCopy, one of our earliest initiatives, was born. It was our attempt to provide young Indian audiences with relatable video content, which they can snack on in short bursts through the day. The content is freshly brewed by our young creators.

FilterCopy is an interesting name though...

All thanks to the team (laughs). There were a lot of brainstorming sessions and we came up with many innovative names but what struck us was FilterCopy, because it came with an apt tagline which is ‘freshly brewed content’. This summarised what we focus on. It was also a play on filter coffee, something we all love and consume every day.

Today, most online content is in the form of memes and web series. What do you think of this change in the meaning of entertainment?

Memes are more like emojis and work best for human communication. Web series are targeted versions of what we see on television. However, it gives the audience an option to watch what they are interested in.

Almost everyone is snacking on content nowadays, things which last for a few minutes.

Therefore, it has become important that content is short yet something that will create an impression. This change in the meaning of entertainment is primarily because ‘shareable’ is the buzzword now.

What is one of the most successful videos by FilterCopy?

We have been lucky to have produced many successful pieces of content.

However, one of our biggest successes were the two short videos called ‘Confusing Things Girlfriends Say’ and ‘Annoying Things Boyfriends Do’, featuring Dhruv Sehgal and Mithila Palkar.