Deepak Dhar cracks the code of India’s format future

MUMBAI: You could say he broke into the session with a punchline instead of a headline. “Is everyone awake?” asked Anil Wanvari, founder and chairman of Indiantelevision.com, before inviting the audience to jog in place. What followed was a lively fireside chat with Deepak Dhar, founder and group chief executive of Banijay Asia, that swiftly shifted gears from banter to business, and from formats to the future.

Dhar, often positioned as the sharp commercial mind of India’s format universe, revealed early that the stereotype misses half the story. Before becoming the rainmaker behind blockbuster franchises, he was a director shaping shows such as Laughter Challenge, Popstar, Khatron Ke Khiladi and the early seasons of Bigg Boss. “If the story is not right, there is no business around it,” he said, emphasising that creativity remains the company’s engine.

On whether Banijay Asia is India’s number one production house, Dhar sidestepped rankings but highlighted its vast footprint. The company creates content across seven to eight Indian languages, long and short formats, vertical videos, micro-dramas and premium series. “We produce everything from Bigg Boss to Night Manager, from Kapil Sharma to Trial by Fire,” he said. 

The conversation then moved to the shifts reshaping entertainment consumption. Dhar noted that the last three years have forced creators to unlearn and relearn as audiences move across devices and platforms. This has led to new ventures including Creatia, the company’s Asia-focused content arm, and the Banijay Creator Universe, built to merge premium formats with creator-driven ecosystems on Youtube.

Banijay is also expanding aggressively into live events, sports reality and large-scale global experiences. Dhar highlighted the company’s work on Miss World, the India–Pakistan match opening ceremony, and international partnerships with event-design studios that have crafted spectacles for World Cups, Euro Cups and the Olympics.

A clear ambition surfaced repeatedly, to find Indian stories with global potential. Dhar believes India’s moment mirrors the waves previously enjoyed by Korean, Turkish and Scandinavian content. “The next Narcos or Money Heist should really come from India,” he said, adding that Banijay Asia is scouting journalistic accounts, independent stories and bold formats that can travel across continents.

On the fast-growing FAST channel ecosystem, Dhar confirmed that Banijay Asia owns most of its library, including Bigg Boss seasons across languages, and is exploring ways to make them available as connected TV channels.

AI, unsurprisingly, entered the chat. Dhar dismissed fears of displacement and framed generative tools as accelerators. “It will make the human mind faster, more efficient,” he said, confirming that Banijay has already set up a global AI lab and will begin experimenting with GenAI-driven short-form content in India within months.

Micro-dramas are also a focus area, with three shows already in production through the company’s joint venture with Collective Artists. These will be brand-funded and released primarily on YouTube.

In the Asian market, Banijay’s Creatia division is moving quickly with shows such as Race to Space, where one contestant from Thailand will win a chance to board a Jeff Bezos rocket. Other formats, such as My Chef and Grind from Taiwan, have already sold to Thailand and Indonesia and will debut in India soon.

As the session wrapped, Wanvari teased Dhar about shoes gifted by his daughter, a running joke that bookended the chat as playfully as it began. The mood was buoyant, but Dhar’s roadmap was unmistakably serious: diversify, globalise and push Indian storytelling into orbit.