Industry Talk: Co-Founder of Hashtag Productions Sidharth Mishra On Key Learnings From PSL (Virtual) & the Upcoming Web Series

One of the most significant developments in Indian poker last year was the Virtual Poker League (VPL). With live poker on a COVID-19 induced hiatus, Poker Sports League (PSL), which was all set to host its third season, had to pull on the brakes. In such a situation, to bring some liveliness back to the poker circuit, the decision to host the charity event, VPL, was taken. The VPL paved the way for PSL Season 3 (Virtual) in 2021. Hosting a full-fledged poker league on a virtual platform is no mean feat. Still, it was exceptionally executed by the media company, Hashtag Productions, led by co-founder Sidharth Mishra (cover image)!

The company was started in 2016 and, in the following years, has revolutionized the digital poker sphere in India. And Mishra has been at the forefront of that movement. From producing streams for live and online tournaments to running a virtual poker league to creating digital poker content, he has done it all!

With over 22 years of experience in production, Mishra has worked with most of the country’s top poker brands, including handling the production of the final table live streams of Spartan Poker’s Final Table Series (FTS 1.0 & 2.0) and the India Online Poker Championship (IOPC). Now, he runs a full-fledged team of about 17 people who work out of a state-of-the-art studio in Goa.

And it’s not just his expertise in production that has helped him dominate the arena, but also his passion for the game. “I have come a long way from when I started my journey, where I didn’t know anything about poker. Today, I think, if I didn’t have a girlfriend, I would have been in love with poker completely,” says Mishra.

Mishra was first introduced to poker when he was asked to come in as a consultant for live streaming by the former CEO of Adda52, Anuj Gupta. He worked as a consultant for the online poker site for the next three years and was in charge of producing the live streams for DPT and WPT India events. The opportunity gave him a keen insight into the poker industry. By the time the Poker Sports League (PSL) was conceptualized and launched in May 2017, Mishra was a natural fit to head its production company, Hashtag Productions.

While his work with PSL Season 3 has been praised by all, the upcoming web series, to be released on VOOT, has been the talk of the poker community. If you thought the PSL Season 3 live streams were fun and energetic, then get ready to be blown away by the OTT web series that will give you a glimpse into the often-overlooked part of the mind sport. The lives of the poker players, their trials and tribulations, their victory and joy.

In an exclusive interview with PokerGuru, Mishra explains in detail the painstaking efforts that his team and he put in to pull off the Virtual Poker League and the PSL Season 3 after that. While some snags still happened, but as Mishra says, “failures basically give us the learnings that we require to improve ourselves, move ahead and get better.”

Here are the excerpts.

We are all excited to see what you are cooking for the Pocket52 PSL Season 3 web series. What can the poker lovers expect from the series?

The Pocket 52 PSL OTT show will give the audience a unique glimpse into a poker player’s life. Their personal struggles, victories, and overcoming the taboo when it comes to the disclosure of the fact that they play poker to their families and close friends.

As it stands today in our country, poker is not without controversy and uncertainty about which side of legality it falls under. Some states consider it a game of skill, while others don’t. This state-wise divide of opinions makes the poker player’s growth and participation in the game somewhat difficult. Our endeavor through this show is to dispel some of the misconceptions and myths about poker through poker player’s perspectives while sharing their insights on the game.

We’ve already seen snippets of your team traveling throughout the country to take player bytes. How are you envisaging the upcoming OTT show?

We want to approach it from a point of view that is not superficial. We just don’t want to interview a player and say, what do you think of poker? We want to know who they are and their struggles when speaking to their family when they broke the news to their family and their reaction. So, we are taking those bytes from their parents themselves to understand their perspective. We wanted to know how they gained widespread acceptance amidst all the taboo that’s already there around poker.

When people think about poker players, they believe that poker players get to travel a lot. They can just wear shorts and a t-shirt and play from their living room or bedroom. That is a general perception. They see people like Gaurav Sood, Sriharsha Doddapaneni, Abhinav Iyer, and they are like, ‘Oh my God, he won lakhs over a tournament, maybe I can achieve that too.’ But they haven’t seen the number of failures that these guys have had. The amount of time, effort that these guys have put in. So, everyone sees the good side of poker; everyone sees the glory and everything else. But what goes behind it is not what many, many people see. So that’s what we are trying to project with this.

This is primarily a lifestyle show. It’s concentrated on poker players. Highlighting their personal journeys, their personal struggles, their personal ambitions, and their personal glories.

Can you tell us about the show’s format, in terms of run-time per episode, and how many episodes are there going to be?

We are looking at about five episodes as of now, for average 22 minutes run time. We have many business objectives tied up with this show, with brands like MPL, PokerDangal, and our title sponsor, Pocket52. So, there is obviously a business objective to it as well. We will be creating a parallel show. It will be a culmination of what happened in PSL. So, it will have tournament data. It will have the gameplay. It will have the player bytes. So that’s another segment that we are doing. So, it’s not just one show. We are doing two shows.

When can the poker players expect the announcement for the web series?

We’ll make an announcement once we have a first block ready. The shooting team has come back from all the respective shoot locations. We had three teams deployed all across India, so Kanchan Sharma was in Agra, so we had to go there to shoot her bytes. There was Delhi, Gwalior, Mumbai, Vijaywada, and Chennai, where we interviewed the IIM students. All the teams came together with all the material, and we have started the editing and the post-production process. We are looking at least 10 days, 20 to 30 days to complete that. So, by the end of April, all the episodes should be ready.

PSL Season 3 was a one-of-a-kind poker league. What are your views on the response the league received? What was the general feedback shared by the players, the viewers, sponsors, and team owners?

We’ve taken a lot of feedback from the players. Some of them are very, very well-known. Most of these prominent players are already a part of Pocket 52PSL. So, we ran the entire tournament on our apps with them. That was a completely new experience. We did not use a supplemental site to host our online event. We had to develop everything in-house in terms of tech. We are a relatively new company, and we are growing still, so there was always going to be technical snags here and there. But the idea is how quickly you can recover from these snags and rectify the issue and move on is what makes the difference.

I think our teams did an excellent job in identifying the problem immediately and moving on. This is going to be an ongoing process for as long as we exist. It’s going to be a trial, error, fix, move on. I think that’s the mantra that we have.

As far as the production is concerned, it was a huge, huge undertaking for us because sending out the shoot kits to 130 players, including the substitutes, logistically, was quite challenging. Poker players, as we all know sometimes, are not available. They’ve been grinding all night. The DHL delivery guy is ringing the bell at the door. The kit is not delivered and stuff like that. So those are the things that we had to tackle.

Making the players set it up in their own houses, remotely, was another challenge. So, we had to connect with all the players and make sure they knew exactly what they were doing. Once the tournament started, everybody was given video links because we couldn’t use Zoom or any other such platform. We had to develop our own proprietary video tech for it. From all fronts, from the app, from the tech, from production, they all had to come together for Pocket 52 PSL to be done successfully from all these aspects. And I think to a large extent it did.

As far as the player experience is concerned, I think everyone wants to see people at the sets. Overall, I think everybody understands that this was a great initiative of bringing poker players together once again without risking any of the things that COVID brings with it. So, we received great appreciation from within the poker community. Whatever we do, whatever we bring now, whatever we do in the future is mainly for the community. That’s how important it is for us.

The team owners were also very, very happy. People like Jaydeep Dawer and Sam Reddy have been part of PSL from the very beginning. They continue to show their support, and I think the team owners have been super, super supportive of our efforts because they all knew going in that because of Covid, we could not do the live scenario. While live poker obviously carried its own euphoric experiential bit but with going virtual, initially, there were doubts about whether or not we would be able to pull it off. But I think with what we’ve done with Pocket52 PSL Virtual 3, the team owners are extremely happy with it. Our sponsors like MPL or Poker Dangal and our title sponsor, Pocket52, have also been super supportive.

The initial plans were to host Pocket52 PSL Season 3 in a live environment like usual, but the pandemic changed everything. What were some of the challenges that you faced during the planning stages of the virtual league?

We faced a few challenges when we were beta testing. The first was figuring out how do we place the poker players’ videos on the set itself, right on the table itself. Because we are a tech company and the gameplay application is entirely under our control, we could alter many things. VPL (Virtual Poker League) charity poker event was our first learning on how to do it. I think Pocket52 PSL Season 3 Virtual was an enhancement from what we learned from VPL.

During the VPL, we received feedback like the players’ video box was too small in terms of player positioning. Chip sizes and bet sizes weren’t visible. So, we kept tweaking it.

Also, what you have to understand is that many people will not be consuming this over television. Most of these people are consuming data today through their mobiles. So, the intelligibility, when it comes to viewership, if you are not showing the correct sizes of stacks, bet sizing, videos, so on and so forth, you’re going to experience a drop in the viewership. So, we basically had to optimize for mobile viewership. Even with Voot, who is our broadcast partner, we basically got some feedback as well. They said that this is going to be viewed mainly on mobile. So, we have to tweak everything where all the information is visible clearly for the mobile. So, even in terms of the font that we used and so on and so forth, they have to be mobile-friendly.

We also experimented a lot with all the video-based formats like Zoom, Skype, and so on and so forth. But the tile movement that happens basically changes the position of the player – should one guy disconnect. We had many disconnections from the player end even though we had a 150 MBPS leased line. We made sure that our connection was robust. Some of the players didn’t have those kinds of connections, like case in point being Abhishek (Goindi) when he kept dropping out. Kaniska Samant kept dropping out. And it’s not because of anything else. It’s not that they don’t have good internet connections. That’s just Goa. We just wanted to make sure that okay, if the player blanks out or loses connection, his window doesn’t change. Because that changes everything for us when we are displaying images against their seat numbers. So, that was again a huge undertaking that we had to sort of come up with and develop in-house to make sure that this kind of stuff does not happen.

These were the technical nuances that we had to take care of. The video was also a big, big, big part of it. Each shoot kit costs you know about ₹25,000. We had to deploy 130 shoot kits. So, it’s not even a cheap proposition. It was a very, very expensive undertaking on our part. We had to make sure that the videos are projected correctly on our app and within our back-end. So, for that, we had to build a state-of-the-art control room.

How was Hashtag Productions’ experience in pulling off a league like this?

I think now it’s become second nature for us. I think VPL was where we really, really kind of struggled, and we put many theories to the test. By the time Pocket52PSL came around, I think we already knew what was expected, where the technical snags would happen. FTS, for instance, we had Peter (Abraham) in Mumbai, and we had Maria (Ho) and all these guys that were plugged in.

Basically, the learning from Pocket52 PSL and VPL is what we are applying to the tech going forward to our companies that we have partnered with the eminent poker players that are out there in the market. We are already talking about Baazi Poker Tour (BPT) and everything else. It’s the learning that we get from there that will be applied to a lot of our clients. As a production company, we not only serve our own interests, which are in-house properties like PSL, and everything else, but we also focus on being the best production house there is in all of India. I’ve not seen this quality of work coming out of any other Asian poker tournament. Internationally.

We are at the forefront of this technology. We’re constantly developing new ideas. There is a new thing that I’m going to be announcing next month once we finalize it. I’m keeping it under wraps. But if we crack that piece of technology, then I think we’re going to be the industry leaders when it comes to streaming. Our prime focus is only poker. We want to be the best production company there is to serve the poker community and broadcast. So, yes, there will be challenges. I’m sure we’ll come up with optimal solutions.

PSL Season 3 had a mixture of English and Hindi commentary. Can you tell us why you choose to include Hindi in the commentary?

Poker has largely been perceived as a rich man’s sport. This means that many people who view it rather have a perception of what it is, viewing a lot of content in English. Even if you look at all the international sites streaming right now, most of the commentary is in English. With Arjun Singh and Himani (Singh), who we brought in, we basically tried to localize the poker content.

In India, most people talk in Hindi. Why are we doing it only in English then? Why are we not introducing the regional languages? Hindi is just the beginning. We want to start streaming in Gujarati and Malayalam. We want to start streaming in other languages as well. The idea is, we want poker to be inclusive, not exclusive. For that level of inclusivity, we have to make our content available to the largest Hindi-speaking audience as well. And that’s the reason why we took a very conscious decision in making sure that JD (Jaideep Sajwan) was speaking in Hindi. Like Sriram doesn’t speak Hindi all that much. So, everything was a mix of Hindi and English. We broadcasted in English. And moving forward, I think that’s the way we’re going to be. Again, these are the learning that we have for our personal product. We spoke with Spartan Poker, and we are talking with PokerBaazi and will try to implement this. We want this to be inclusive for anyone from anywhere in India. I want people to understand the game. The only way you can play good poker is if you understand it if you learn it. And most people lose out on that because they don’t necessarily have English as their first language. They don’t have explanation videos or explainer videos in Hindi. Why not? So, that is the other thing that we are trying to add to it. Many people are like PSL is such a premium brand, so why not just stick to the English route? And to that, I say, poker is for everyone. I don’t want to alienate any of the Hindi-speaking crowd from a beautiful sport like poker.

What were your team’s key learnings and takeaways from Pocket52 PSL Season 3? Tell us about the things that can be improved in the future.

The concept of instant action replay. It’s there in cricket, football, basketball, etc. When someone dunks a ball, or someone hits the sticks or scores a goal, there is an instant replay where commentators can immediately go back to that particular action and talk about it. Poker, in any of its broadcast, doesn’t have it. We want to introduce replay in that. So, if someone buffs someone with a weak hand, we should be able to replay it back. We should be able to see the player’s reaction. We should be able to see the commentary that goes with it.

These are like the small things that we are learning from other sports and trying to implement with poker. I mean, this is just one of the things. There are going to be a million different things that we will be taking in and implementing.

Your team and Hashtag productions have a monopoly in poker streaming projects, and you are closely associated with almost all live or online streaming projects. How did it all start?

I don’t think we hold a monopoly on anything. I mean, we just had the first movers’ advantage, and I think we just kept growing our production arsenal. I think the first RFID live streaming that ever happened was out of Deltin Royale, and we did that.

You use the word monopoly, but I think its attention to detail is what has brought us this far. As we’re servicing the live stream industry and the poker industry. We are aware that poker is unlike any other sport that is widely accepted mainstream, like football and cricket. Poker is very different in terms of its coverage and its consumption. So, the only reason we’ve been able to stay ahead of the curve is that we mandate that all our production crew must understand poker. They need to understand what it is. And only then we’ll be able to create good content out of it. Basically, that is our secret sauce.

Tell us about the FTS 2.0 live streams and other projects you have been working on.

We have just recently completed the Final Table Series 2.0. We were a part of FTS 1.0, which was streamed. Then we were a part of the IOPC that happened and then FTS 2.0. We are in talks with PokerBaazi to cover their Baazi Poker Tours. Whether it’s live or online, it remains to be seen depending on what the COVID situation is. But we are already in talks with PokerBaazi to reopen the live streaming. We got all the equipment that’s already been there and been shut for like the last year or so since we haven’t streamed. So, we are planning to resume operations on that front.

Obviously, the OTT show is underway that we are doing currently. And we are prepping for PSL Season 4, which hopefully, if you know, everything permitting, will be a live scenario.

Tell us about your core team at Hashtag Productions. Take us through the key people’s background and their roles.

I used to head our productions earlier. I still do to a large extent. Everything that happens in terms of tech, production, finding new tech, finding new production methods, I’m still in charge of it all. I have now taken on a more research-oriented role than an operational one.

I walk up to my tech team, and I say, ‘Okay, this is what I want to implement. How can we do it?’ So, obviously, someone who is filling in my shoes is Karan Vig. He is the head of productions for Hashtag Productions and oversees all aspects of productions from live to online streams.

Then we have Sritama Ray Vig, our creative producer, who takes care of all the scripting, whether it’s for the show, the narrative, or the commentators, like the intros, the outros, all the little segments that we do with the talent like Himani (Singh) and Arjun (Singh). I mean any presenter MC who joins hands with us, we basically script everything for them, which is Sri’s job.

Then we come down to our streaming head Chetan Bhawsar. He used to work for Prime Focus, a very well reputed production, a post-production company in Mumbai. Chetan was a part of the core that streamed the first-ever IPL match.

So, a little bit of background. Karan used to direct a lot of reality-based TV shows. He was part of Big Boss, as well. So, both Karan and Chetan have worked in the reality show business. Karan has also directed quite a few things in the reality series. So has Sri.

Dhaval Gohil is my chief editor. He has about four editors working under him. We have an audio engineer whose name is Ved Prakash. He handles all the live audio as well as the studio audio. Our newest addition to the team is Ryan, a music producer and composes and writes his own music. We got him on because we wanted to differentiate the music that we produce from the library music that’s available everywhere.

So, you’re saying that all the music used by you in your productions is created in-house?

Most of it. About 70% of the music we are using now or creating now is mostly done in-house. We have a state-of-the-art recording studio facility out of Goa. We make a lot of our own music. We produce our own music. We mix and master our own tracks. We are also looking at creating commercial tracks now as we move on. So that’s a new addition to us. We have streaming trackers who basically monitor the streaming. In the live case scenario, when you have an RFID table and the streaming trackers, we have a team of two trackers that are with us. And as we grow, and we plan to start servicing more and more poker houses. We’ve got about 17 people who are part of this team right now in Goa.

Talking about the future, what are your plans for PSL Season 4 and onwards? How do you plan to up the level of the league and the production going ahead?

PSL Season 4 is going to be a hybrid between the virtual and the live formats. By that, what I mean is the qualifying process will happen through the virtual formats where the players come in and play on the Hashtag Poker app. Hopefully, even the qualifiers that we do will have video integrated. Now, that’s a massive task like we are talking about 10,000 people playing, so 10,000 people with videos. That is something that we are working towards.

Once the qualifiers are done, you have your boot camp, which we covered either in a virtual or real-life format, depending on how COVID fairs. But we are prepared for both. And we would ideally be live streaming, everything that we do. So, right up from the qualifications to the selection ceremony, to the boot camps, it will all be broadcasted.

We would love for PSL to go live in a venue, on the ground somewhere, or in a casino. That is the hope. So, if everything goes well and COVID doesn’t affect us, we will be taking that route. We will have a real rail of players around the venue. If it doesn’t, we are also prepared for that. But we will be taking it a notch further when it comes to the video production because obviously, we’ve got our learnings from the VPL and PSL. So, moving forward, I think we’ll only up the game in terms of production.

Any parting words?

I have come a long way from when I started my journey, where I didn’t know anything about poker. Today, I think, if I didn’t have a girlfriend, I would have been in love with poker completely. I’d be playing poker 24/7. I am completely in love with the game. I’m in love with the community. I love what poker stands for. I support everything that poker players do to present poker in a positive light. Our endeavor is to always propagate what poker truly stands for discipline, perseverance, hard work, and camaraderie because there is a lot of camaraderie within the poker community. It’s just the fact that it’s a very, very tight-knit community. Everyone knows each other. It’s a small community, but it’s all set for growth. We are just experiencing the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the industry. It’s got way too many miles to go. There is a long way ahead of us.

I would like to thank the poker community for allowing us to fail from time to time because those failures basically give us the learnings that we require to improve ourselves, move ahead and get better.