Ronnie Screwvala, B.Saikumar, Ajay Chacko name their digital media brand 'Arré'

The trio's digital media venture, UDigital, plans to go live with Arré later this year. Arré will be a storytelling platform across genres and formats.

UDigital, the recently announced digital media venture founded by Ronnie Screwvala, B Saikumar and Ajay Chacko, has announced that it will go live with its digital brand Arré later this year.

Arré is an original content destination that will be a storytelling platform across genres and formats.

Arré is one of the most commonly spoken words across India - a friendly, Indian colloquial term that is popularly understood as 'hey'. While its origins are in Hindi, it is an expression that's not only understood throughout the length and breadth of the country, but has also been included in the Oxford dictionary of the English language as an 'all purpose Indian-English interjection', says the company.

The company adds that the word crosses boundaries of language, audience groups and geographies. Arré portrays a range of emotions - from the 'surprised and the questioning' to the 'friendly thumbs-up affirmative' to 'disagreement and protest' to 'Arré yaar!' It is Indian, young, cool, bold, opinionated, fearless and entertaining. The company calls it the "wow moment of digital content."

Arré will express itself across mediums, from text to graphic art to podcasts and video, in multiple genres such as reality and fiction, factual and opinionated, as well as pure entertainment. It is working with collaborators across the spectrum in developing original content; from writers, artistes, journalists and storytellers, to independent filmmakers, established production houses as well as upcoming talent in fiction, reality and non-fiction genres.

B Saikumar, founder and managing director, UDigital, adds, "Arré was born out of the need to create a truly disruptive digital product. Our philosophy is to continuously challenge the 'moulds' of format, media and structure to create content that is reflective of good storytelling in a digital environment. Much like the name, we hope to make Arré, the brand, a part of daily conversations in India and globally!"

The Logo

The logo and visual identity of Arré has been designed and developed by AREA 17, an interactive agency based in Paris and New York. AREA 17 has an acclaimed body of work on international brands in media such as Vice, Quartz, The Atlantic, Style.com, Facebook, Pinterest and more.

The Accent on the é in Arré is reflective of the varied expressions and emotions that the brand will straddle, as well as its international outlook.

For the record, Screwvala had quit Walt Disney India in 2013 to pursue his entrepreneurial goals in some of the impact sectors in India and devote more time with his foundation, SWADES. Chacko and Saikumar moved out of Network18 last year, when Reliance Industries acquired controlling stake of the media company.