ITV

Category: Fiction

  • ‘Fiction will help endemol scale up in India’

    For Endemol India, it has been a roller coaster ride. The international content creator has established itself as a leader in the reality TV genre and has expanded into other strands of content. Now the gameplan is to speed up on the fiction front.

    Endemol, which produced 1400 hours of content in 2010, is planning to scale up in several verticals including regional language, sports and food and lifestyle programming. The company recently formed a JV with Rhiti Sports, the company which manages Indian skipper MS Dhoni, for sports formats.

    In an interview with Indiantelevision.com‘s Ashwin Pinto, Endemol India managing director Deepak Dhar talks about the company‘s growth plans.

    Excerpts:
     

    What progress did Endemol make in India last year?
    The progress has been 360 degrees. Initially, we were known for reality. Now it is not the only thing; we are known for other strands of non fiction also.

    We have an array of fiction shows. We have moved into regional as well with Bengali and Southern language content. We have also gained from being in the Hindi general entertainment channel (GEC) space.
     

    How does India compare to other Asian markets?
    It is growing. The entire world is looking at us. Our parent is looking at what India can do. We did over 1400 hours of production last year. We have done well if you look at the state of our productions or business development. We have had double digit growth.
     

    Could you shed light on how you are scaling up the fiction business?
    We are seeing ideas that can be exploited in the Hindi GEC space. They can also go into the regional space, south, Bengali, Marathi. We are looking at slots that need newer storytellung. We are meeting with our broadcast partners to see what the synergies are.

    We do a lot of non fiction and format work. In terms of scaling up, growth will come from fiction.

    We will be making two to three announcements in the next few weeks.
     

    What kind of shows are you looking at?
    We are not focussing only comedy or only drama or only thriller. We are known for 360 degree entertainment solutions. Anything that fits the household will be our focus.
     

    Are you looking at forming JVs with local production houses?
    We are constantly analysing it. Now we are largely focussing on organic growth. We will look at inorganic growth, but at this point of time there is nothing serious.
     
    ‘Now we are largely focussing on organic growth. We will look at inorganic growth, but at this point of time there is nothing serious‘
     

    In terms of margins, how are you faring?
    Margins are always tough in this country, espcially in the broadcast and production sector. In our formats and even our fiction business, we have kept a healthy balance in our margins due to product efficiencies. In a year, we do around nine non fiction shows.
     

    But in the fiction space aren‘t margins squeezed?
    They are squeezed but again for us the emphasis is great
    storytelling. We want to be happy with the stories being told and we will manage the margins. Comedy has its own space. In drama, emotions are integral to the Indian psyche. That will never go out of fashion.
     

    How do you manage costs?
    It is a challenge. Broadcasters are always looking to push costs down without the quality falling. Broadcasters, though, understand that to have a quality product the margins must be healthy. The production house must be given some breathing space.

    Non fiction shows have a larger budget. You get a bang for 13-26 weeks and that is it. With fiction it is like running a marathon. You need to have the stamina to push the idea and engage the audience.
     

    Balaji to some extent has lost dominance which has created a gap. How are ou tapping this?
    We have already tapped into this. We are doing three fiction shows at this point of time. We will be adding two more within a month or so. We have stepped into this opportunity. We also look at the competition and what is on the horizon.

    Fiction is where the horizon is. The margins can improve in this genre. People will look at us as an Indian producer and not just as a format producer. We will focus largely on fiction.

    Indian production houses are known for doing one kind of show. We are not like that. We do things from ‘songs and dancing‘ to reality and action-based shows.
     

    How were you able to broadbase youreself into fiction?
    This has to do with the team. We have Gadgi and Kartik as the creative and business heads. They lend credibility and experience to Endemol‘s fiction slate. We believe that if you have the right talent on board, then the right discussions start flowing out.

    Geet has worked. Mili Ye at one point really worked. But the story ran its cycle. These stories have been channel drivers for Star One and Star Plus; they will help us consolidate our next line of fiction.
     

    In the non fiction area, you entered the food genre with two shows. What scope do you see in the lifestyle space?
    Lifestyle is a niche space. However, we do not want to leave any space untapped. The opportunity might seem small. But an opportunity needs to be seen.

    Documentary and speciality channels are growing in popularity in the West. You will see the same trend happening here. A new spate of speciality channels from science and technology to crime and thriller to food are bound to come in. This is a new space we will be busy with this year.

     

    Is the approach here different from how you look at other areas like formats?
    Yes! In lifestyle you will have to create original ideas; it is not about replicating an idea from the US. We don‘t want to simply pick up a format. it has to fit into an opportunity.
     
    The local version of Wipeout launches tomorrow. Has the format been changed in any way?
    Not really. You will see the same thing. It will be extremely engaging, funny and competitive. It is the new next breed of reality shows that we will roll out on Indian television. We want to push trends and get trends into the country.
     

    What trends are we seeing abroad in the format space?
    A lot of game shows are doing well at this point. 1vs 100, Million Pound drop Aare two big game shows. We are bringing them to India.

    Deal Or No Deal has done well. We produced 300 episodes of this on the Sun Network. We did five seasons back to back for them.

    You will see us pushing a lot of gameshows going forward. Howwever, reality will always be the flavour of the season. People like to watch others in pressure cooker scenarios. This is the spectrum of ideas you will see.

    We are also looking to bring in State of Panic to India. Circus Of The Celebrities is another one. It is an engaging, high end primetime experience. The common thread is people being pushed into pressure cooker situations; in others pure true human emotions are glorified on primetime television. As long as the emotions are true, it will help some of these format shows stand.

    We are also doing things in the ad funded space. Rin Mera Star Superstar, Fair And Lovely Choo Lo Aasman have done well for us. This is what I mean by having a 360 degree approach. We are pushing ideas in this space. We need top keep a balance between the needs of a broadcaster and an advertiser. You do not want an advertiser funded show to look like one. You have to do something that has been well thought through and engages.
     

    What is the gameplan to tackle the South market?
    We will take our big ticket gameshows there. We are also taking reality shows there.

    Currently the South is a growing part of our business. This year we will add a few more fundamental blocks to make it stand on its own.

    We are concentrating on the Tamil and Telugu markets. We producing a lot in the Malayalam space as well.
     
    What balance are you looking at between fiction and non fiction content?
    We want it to be 50:50. We are on track to achieve this. We have been the market leader in the non fiction space. The challenge is to see how we can fast track our business and sales. We are adding new pieces like sports into our business. This will bring in new challenges as every business has its own dynamic. We have a good tab on the competition.
     

    How did the tie up with Rhiti Sports come about?
    We have been exploring this in terms of doing things in the sports space. We want formats like The Match, Next Great Champ. We are looking at basketball, football, boxing, cricket. Rhiti Sports with their credibility will help us monetise the formats across sports broadcasting and GECs as well.

    The sports genre is not tapped in terms of formats. Sports formats are consumed a lot by the youth, kids and women. We have a rich library of content in the sports format space.
     
    You used to do a Call TV initiative with ETV. How did that fare?
    It was a good experience. In the interactive TV space, we do a lot internationally. There was a need to create a low cost game show. We produced Break The Bank. The market size, though, is small. The telecom industry versus the content industry faces its own set of challenges. So we did not push it too hard.
     
    Are you looking at new media?
    Yes! We do a lot of content for the mobile internationally. With 3G coming in, we are keen to tap this space. We have formats tailored for the mobile like small comedy interstitials. The youth love to sample something really fast. They are restless. They don‘t only want content on the television. A lot of discussions are going on globally regarding how to cater to the mobile audience.
     
    Where do you see Endemol five years from now?
    When we came in four years ago, the idea was to Indianise the Endemol brand. Now we want to localise and regionalise the Endemol brand. We want to adapt our content to a lot of regional markets.

  • TV and film production companies have a bumpy FY’10

    Television content production companies have had a bumpy ride during the 12-month period ended March 2010 as broadcasters cut costs and restructured businesses to tide over the recession.The listed TV content companies – Balaji Telefilms, UTV Television, BAG Films and Media, Creative Eye and Sri Adhikari Bros – posted a combined revenue of Rs 3.36 billion, down 38.32 per cent from Rs 5.44 billion in the year ago period. Barring Sri Adhikari Bros, which has low revenues, each company’s turnover de-grew during the fiscal.

    Realisation per hour of programming fell dramatically and the content creators had to work on squeezed margins. The existence of too many content companies did not make the task any easier.

    The listed companies, in fact, swung into losses at an operational level. The combined loss stood at Rs 25.79 millon compared to operating profit of Rs 186.73 million in the year-ago period.

     
    Expenses were kept under tight control as projects fell, amounting to Rs 2.25 billion, or a drop of 37.48 per cent.

    (We have taken UTV’s content financials which include airtime sales as they don’t disclose them separately. Also, expenses and net profit are not available for UTV and BAG separately).

    The movie production houses also had a rough patch as it was caught in a row with multiplex operators, cluttered releases and high ratio of box office disasters.

     

    The combined revenues of the five listed companies – UTV Motion Pictures, Cinevistaas, Pritish Nandy Communications, Mukta Arts and Shree Ashtavinayak – dropped 20.48 per cent to Rs 13.78 billion (from Rs 17.33 billion).

     
    On an operational level, these companies, however, posted a profit of Rs 1.43 billion, up 2.6 per cent from the earlier year.
    Expenses fell by 24 per cent to Rs 8.13 billion, as against Rs 10.71 billion in the year-ago period.

    The content entertainment revenue pie, in fact, fell by 24.74 per cent in FY’10. Revenue of the listed film and television production companies stood at Rs 17.14 billion, down from Rs 22.77 billion a year ago.

     

  • Optimystix has format down pat; looks to widen view

    From being the first Indian production house to tie up with two international format owners to foraying into fiction, Optimystix has been experimental. The production house will be completing six years of their existence in October this year. And with a total of 11 non-fiction shows and one fiction show telecast on leading broadcasters like Star, Sony, Zee, Nick and Pogo, over six years of their existence, Optimystix this year, has its kitty full with a reality talent hunt show to be launched in October. The production house also plans to venture into film production and set up an advertising division by early next year.

    Sanjiv Sharma, cofounder of Optimystix

    On entering the Optimystix office, located at a suburb in Mumbai, the first thing that catches your eyes is the office décor, which highlights the colour used in the logo of the production house. Saffron, Blue, Green and Golden…

    Ask the “Optimistic duo” or the founders of the production house, ad film director Sanjiv Sharma and writer director Vipul Shah, about it and pat comes a reply, “It is a simple logo. Four bands of colours in the logo depict four earth colours. Saffron is the colour of India, Blue-the colour of water and sky, Golden depicts wheat and Green is nature. And as all these elements of nature don‘t meet, similarly the edges on the logo don‘t meet. It is symbolic to wide varieties of programmes that we have been making, which has no similarity with each other.”

    Sanjiv is quick to quote a line from Shakespeare, “Greatness is thrust upon you,” and this is what happened with Optimystix. While working on Khul ja sim sim in 2001, we got the understanding of the business. It wasn‘t the hottest formats like KBC. Yet it managed to capture the Indian audience. So the point is that it is not necessary that we get the most popular formats. It‘s about understanding the Indian mindset and getting the best format for adaptation.”

    Vipul adds, “Khul ja Sim Sim gave us the recognition as a production house in format business.”

    Optimystix tasted success with Indian Idol part one

    But it was Indion Idol part one in 2004 which reinforced their position in the market. At that time, Optimystix had a three-man leadership team that included Rajiv Vyas as well. Vyas joined Optimystix as its CEO in October 2003, soon after he quit cable MSO InCableNet where he was CEO. Vyas was with Optimystix till March 2006. It was during that period that the production house not only produced Indion Idol, but also struck a deal with two international format owners, Sparks Network and Zodiak International.

    Queried as to the reasons for Vyas‘ departure, Sanjiv says, “He got better opportunities and decided to move on.”

    While Indian Idol was a sort of watershed landmark in Optimystix‘s evolution, the production house could not be a part of the second series of Indian Idol. So the Vipul-Sanjiv duo continued their efforts to remain in the position of format owners.

    The Road To Victory:
    Founded by Sanjiv and Vipul in October 2000 with an aim of producing world class programming for Indian television, the production house has come a long way.

    Vipul started his career about a decade ago as writer with sitcom Dekh Bhai Dekh, after which he went to write popular shows like Philips Top Ten, Battle of Bollywood, Zee Horror Show, BSA Star ki Pasand and I Love You to name a few.

    It takes two to ‘tango‘, Sanjiv Sharma and Vipul Shah

    Sanjiv has had a successful stint as an ad filmmaker with nearly 1,000 ad campaigns to his credit. The talented twosome met during the making of BSA Star ki Pasand and since then there has been no looking back.

    Six years down the line, the production house has undoubtly managed to attain the objective of bringing quality entertainment into the television industry.

    And when asked, why a name likes Optimystix Sanjiv says, “Why not Optimystix?” Vipul then explains the meaning. He says, “Optimystix is a combination of two words. First is Optical, which deals with optics and the second are Mystix, which means mystery. Therefore, we relate story telling as being mystical.” The camaraderie between the two is such that that you are tempted to call it endearing.

    From format shows to reality shows… including fiction, the production house has done it all. A sneak peak into Optimystix through the eyes of its creators.

    Formats: Format shows are currently in vogue in the Indian television market, with every broadcaster having one or more reality format shows running. Optimystix has also managed to carve its own space by being the first production company in India to tie up with two international format owners to exclusively market their formats in India. Both tie-ups were announced at MIPCOM, Cannes October 2005.

    One is Zodiak Television, which is a leading international TV-format distributor based in Copenhagen, Denmark. Kam Ya Zyaada launched on Zee Television on 12 December 2005 was based on a format owned by Zodiak TV, and adapted for India by Optimystix. And the other is Sparks network. But as Sanjiv puts forward. “With Sparks‘s network, it was not a tie up. Rather it was getting on board with 12 independent producers from Europe and one from South America. Optimystix, being the only Asian company in its network.”

    ‘Khul ja Sim Sim‘ was the first format show from Optimystix

    Some of the formats adapted from Sparks were Khul Ja Sim Sim (Let‘s make a deal) on Star Plus, Kismey Kitnaa Hai Dam (Night fever) on Star Plus, Indian Idol (Pop Idol) on Sony, Dum Dum Dum on Nick and Bum Bum Bum Gir Pade Hum on Pogo.

    And this year at Cannes, they plan to go a step further by not only buying formats but selling its indigenously developed format to production houses in France and USA.

    With their shows, Kam ya Zyaada (Zee) and Jet set go (Star one) coming to an end, with a lukewarm response this year, there has been a decline in the programming hours of Optimystix.

    But in 2007, Optimystix will once again be adapting a “Zodiak Format” (Stars on the Stage), which will be launched on Star early next year, “In this show, a trained singer would train a celebrity. For instance, Sunidhi Chauhan will train Ronit Roy and both of them will perform together. They will be judged on the basis of their performance. Besides this particular format two other formats will be locked soon,” informs Sharma.

    Stills from ‘Yeh Meri Life Hai‘, the first fiction show from Optimystix

    Fiction: The production house forayed into fiction with Yeh Meri Life Hai in 2004. The serial had a run of 323 episodes from May 2004 to November 2005. “It ran parallel to Jassi Jaisi koi Nahi, which was considered to be the most successful property on Sony,” says Sharma.

    Future plans on fiction: Plans are afoot to launch two fiction shows by March 2007. And each show will be targeted to a 600 episode running. As put across by Sanjiv, “Our team is already in place. Vipul, being a writer is working on the shows.”

    Film Production: In all these years, Optimystix have established themselves as major players in format shows on Indian television. With a script writer and director at home, Optimystix plans to get into film production next year. “Our objective is to be in every genre of entertainment,” asserts Sharma.

    Without revealing much, Vipul says, “There are two subjects that we have worked on. One would be a crossover film and the other film would depict a journey of a middle class girl.” But if given a chance Vipul says that, as a team they would like to make a comedy film. “A comedy film with a message-to be more precise… Something like Lage Raho Munnabhai.”

    Take on the Optimystix team:

    The optimistic team of ‘Optimystix‘

    We are a team of around 40 people. “We believe in having the best people with us… not necessarily experienced, but definitely bright people. The stress is on the creative mind,” says Vipul. Sanjiv adds quickly, “As a result of which we are proud to have a fantastic team of creative people as well as a management team. And as far as the production team is concerned, since most of them are with me since my advertising days, they have an eye for detail. And all of them have a hunger to prove a point.”

    Motto: To be the best… “We work as a football team and not a cricket team. As in a football team when you know that you pass the ball down to someone… the person will try to the best of his capabilities to take it to the net. Its teamwork and trust put together. “

     

    Future plans: There are three major divisions of Optimystix right now. One is the TV (India), the other is Focus (which deals with International projects and development work) and the third is the Emerging media division. Sanjiv elaborates, “Our plan is to set up an advertising division by January next year. In the next few months, say six months from now, we will tie up with Dentsu on a few productions. We will also be getting into a partnership with an Australian company Ambience Entertainment. It doesn‘t stop here. It‘s like an organic process. More people, more creative minds and better output at the end of it.”

    There are six ideas on which the creative team of Optimystix is working and by March end next year, Optimystix plans to have eight international properties in its kitty.

    On Cine star ki khoj 2: Zee has awarded the production duties of Cinestar Ki Khoj 2 to Optimystix. The shooting schedule has started and the show will be launched in October. We are involved largely in two key areas, “Production support and format. The set this time will be different from the one in first series. We have worked with Umang on the sets,” informs Sanjiv.

    Five years from now: Next to Walt Disney and Pixar. Sanjiv says, “Creative leadership propels the company, not the desire to amass wealth and going by our approach and vision will lead us to that position. After five years we see ourselves as an entertainment company working in association with a creative team which becomes the cynosure of media at that point of time.”

    Vipul Shah, cofounder of Optimystix in conversation

    Finally Sanjiv on Vipul:
    We are totally different but our goals and objectives are the same. When two people stand and look at a horizon and dream of reaching it one day following two different paths, the result will be unexpected. He is the man who understands the need of television as a medium better than anybody else. My advertising background gives him technical support.

    Vipul on Sanjay: It‘s about aesthetics. Latitude between two people. When two sets of values cojoin to the same people… the success rate is higher.

  • American television loses an iconic producer in Aaron Spelling

    A few days ago (Friday, 23 June) Aaron Spelling, who holds the Guinness World Record as the most prolific producer in television, passed away. The 83-year-old, who died in his mansion in Los Angeles, had suffered a stroke on 18 June.In a career spanning an astonishing five decades, Spelling, who had a great fear of flying, worked in one form or another on nearly 200 projects on both television and film.

    Such was his sphere of influence that a trivia fact on imdb.com indicates that in the 1970s, when he had one hit show after another, he had so many shows on ABC with who he had a contract that insiders used to joke that ABC stood for “Aaron‘s Broadcasting Company”. He was involved with around 70 weekly television series, which amounted to around 4,220 hours. Back to back it would take 176 days to watch all of them.

    Born into a Jewish family, Spelling, in his early life, had to fight against the tag of being different. He started his career in Hollywood in the 1950‘s. Success did not come in a hurry though. He spent some time as a writer and as a bit-player actor (he was a gas station attendant in an episode of I Love Lucy). He then donned the hat of a producer thanks to a break given by Dick Powell.

    His first hit was the crime drama Burke‘s Law, starring Gene Barry. However it was the next show The Mod Squad in 1969 that paved the way for his path breaking career. In the 1970‘s he cemented his reputation by producing one great show after another. Some of them included S.W.A.T., Starsky and Hutch, Charlie‘s Angels, which were conceptually so appealing that Hollywood, desperately searching for ideas, made them into films a few decades later.

    Charlie‘s Angels showed women in a role other than a homemaker happy with kids. It is justly considered ground breaking in terms of having women who took care of business and did not need a man to look after them. More importantly it gave young girls in the 1970‘s and 1980‘s strong role models to look up to.

    Starsky and Hutch was one of the first great cop shows on American television. It paved the way for numerous cop shows including the likes of Miami Vice.

    There are two clear reasons for Spellings‘ success. One was his keen sense of intuition of what audiences at a particular point of time wanted to watch. The other was the fact that he always respected the viewer. Spelling was also great in the casting arena, a prime example being Charlies Angels which made household names out of Jaclyn Smith, Kate Jackson and most of all, Farrah Fawcett.

    That is a knack he never lost. In the 1990‘s he produced Beverly Hills 90210 which is considered to have defined a generation of privileged youth who despite being surrounded by luxury in the svelte surroundings of Beverly Hills have anger issues. He was astute in casting his daughter Tori Spelling as a teen. While the father and daughter did subsequently have their differences, Tori issued a statement saying that she was glad that she had the chance to reconcile with her dad before he passed away.

    Another piece of great casting was having Joan Collins play the matriarch in the long running soap Dynasty. This show in fact proved that Spelling was comfortable working in different genres.

    Spelling noted that Collins brought a huge aspect of her personality to the role which lent the show more bite. “We wrote a character, but the character could have been played by 50 people and 49 of them would have failed. She made it work.”

    So there was Dynasty on one hand an escapist soap and then there was Family. This was a far more realistic drama that ran from 1976-1980. Spelling had the courage to tackle among other subjects – homosexuality which even now Hollywood is skittish about tackling. Dynasty too had a gay character. More recently Spelling was involved with the supernatural show Charmed which airs in India on Star World.

    Recently, 7th Heaven passed The Waltons and Little House on the Prairie as the longest-running family drama.

    In real life Spelling had a 123 room mansion in Los Angeles which many considered to be a parallel to the life of ease and excess that the rich characters in Dynasty lived. “The house that Dynasty built‘ is how tour operators describe his mansion to hordes of tourists. In fact, Spelling was known to on occasion wave a hello to tourists. the soure of his wealth came from Spelling-Goldberg Productions. In 1986 the company went public.

    Spelling may have made escapist crowd pleasing fare, but he was also not shy of working on projects that took a hard look at subjects. An example is the film And The Band Played On which looked at how Aids would not have been such a menace had the authorities paid more attention during the early days.

    As far as the critics were concerned Spelling had a choice to make. As he once said in an AP interview way back in 1986, “The knocks by the critics bother you, but you have a choice of proving yourself to 300 critics or 30 million fans.” Going by the ratings and the enduring appeal that his shows constantly got over the years, Spelling can rest in peace knowing that he fulfilled a mission that other producers will be lucky to come anywhere close to achieving.

  • K Sera Sera to pump in Rs 2.5 billion for 20 movies

    K Sera Sera to pump in Rs 2.5 billion for 20 movies

    MUMBAI: K Sera Sera is planning a production pipeline of 20 movies and has announced an investment outlay of Rs 2.5 billion over the next two years.

    The company will also foray into regional film production. “We have been looking at aggressively scaling up and have signed up big ticket directors. We plan to produce more than 20 films, which will be released by end-March 2008, at a total outlay in excess of Rs. 250 crores,” said K Sera Sera managing director Parag Sanghavi.

    The company has signed up a wide spectrum of directorial talent like David Dhawan, Abbas Mastan and Priyadarshan which it believes will give it a definite edge in the battle for market share in the Hindi feature films business. “We are in advanced stages of discussions to forge an alliance with yet another leading Bollywood director who has won immense critical and popular acclaim. We shall share details at an opportune time in the near future,” Sanghavi revealed.

    How does the company fund these projects? In the first phase, K Sera Sera will require Rs 1.1 billion, of which it has deployed Rs 550 million for the four movies which are on floor. Besides, it will use Rs 300 million from the money it raised through a follow-on public issue. The debt component will be around Rs 250-300 million.

    K Sera Sera recently launched its first initiative of film distribution as a test case in Mumbai. Elaborating on the plans to release more films in the near future, Sanghavi said, “We released Malamaal Weekly with a total of 150-plus prints including digital prints in Mumbai. The film achieved a revenue of close to Rs 40 million, which was much more than what was achieved by mega starrers like Family and Zinda in the same time.”

    The company is planning to make 8-10 movies a year, scaling up from three movies it produced for the current fiscal. “We should see a topline growth of over 100 per cent year-on-year in FY 07 and 08 from the expected March 06 figures of Rs 700 million. Profitability too is expected to grow at the same rate,” said Sanghvi.