ITV

Tag: Abundantia Entertainment

  • Amazon Prime Video announces ‘Breathe’ S2

    Amazon Prime Video announces ‘Breathe’ S2

    MUMBAI: Amazon Prime Video today announced that it has commenced the production of an all-new season of the Prime Original Series, Breathe. Created by Abundantia Entertainment, the second season of the show also marks the digital streaming on-screen debut of Bollywood star Abhishek Bachchan. The show will continue to be directed by Mayank Sharma while Bhavani Iyer, Vikram Tuli and Arshad Syed are writers of the show. Actor Amit Sadh returns in his award-winning role as Kabir Sawant.

    In its first season, the gritty psychological thriller won the hearts of Prime viewers across multiple geographies with a gripping storyline, bold narrative, and impactful performances by the cast led by superstar R Madhavan and Sadh. Now, the second season of the show has gone into production.

    Amazon Prime Video director and head of content Vijay Subramaniam said, “We received a phenomenal response from customers for the first season of Breathe. It was a disruptive, genre-defining show and our audiences loved it! We are now excited to commence work on the second season of the show and have secured Abhishek Bachchan as a lead cast who has effortlessly portrayed diverse & complex roles through his career and will be a great addition to the show. Our customers can expect another exciting face-off between the two leads as season two brings back the thrill and edge-of-the- seat drama.”

    Breathe executive producer and Abundantia Entertainment CEO Vikram Malhotra said, “Season one of Breathe pushed the boundaries of conventional story-telling and created a compelling Indian show that connected with the world. We are humbled by the success of the show and I’m very excited that Abhishek has joined the series in a lead role. With Amit continuing in his award-winning role, and an engaging new narrative, I am confident that season two will raise the bar even higher.”

    Actor Abhishek Bachchan said, “I am very excited to be a part of Breathe. As an artist, I have always liked to challenge myself through portraying unique characters and by being a part of genre-breaking stories. Content streaming and original digital series are the way of the future and I could not resist being a part of this new wave. I had seen season one of Breathe and when Mayank shared where the story progresses to in season two, I knew I had to do this! I look forward to this new dimension in my career.”

    Continuing in season two, actor Amit Sadh said, “Breathe has been an amazing ride for me! The love and recognition from fans all over the world has made all my hard work worth it. The new season of Breathe will take the story above and beyond the debut season; I can’t wait to return as Kabir Sawant.”

    Breathe is a gritty psychological, thriller series that follows the lives of ordinary people faced with extraordinary circumstances. How far will you go to save the life of a loved one? Breathe explores this very question. This emotional and psychological series was recently renewed for a second season.

  • Abundantia Entertainment beefs up creative team

    Abundantia Entertainment beefs up creative team

    MUMBAI: Abundantia Entertainment has beefed up its team significantly by adding former Viacom18 Motion Pictures creative chief Shivaji Dasgupta and former Sahara Movie Studios’ head of content & development Shikhaa Sharma to its people line-up.

     

    Established with the vision of producing and supporting progressive, high-quality entertainment content, Abundantia Entertainment has taken strong strides, especially in its motion pictures business, in a short span of time.

     

    Top-lining the announcement, Shivaji Dasgupta, an industry veteran of two decades, has played a key role in green-lighting and producing some of the finest and most critically acclaimed films of the last decade. With hands-on production experience to boot, Dasgupta’s impressive filmography includes Gangs of Wasseypur, Bhaag Milkha Bhaag, Madras Cafe, Kahaani, LSD, Once Upon A Time in Mumbai and Chashme Baddoor amongst others. Dasgupta will run Abundantia’s creative & production business and will have additional charge of commercial affairs for his slate of films.

     

    To spearhead Abundantia’s content development and incubation business across films, television and digital, it has brought on board Shikhaa Sharma who was until recently in-charge of the content and development function at Sahara Movie Studios and has also served in senior roles in the creative functions at Balaji Motion Pictures and Tips Industries in the past. Sharma’s filmography includes recent hits like Lootera, The Dirty Picture, Shor In The City and Race. Sharma’s core strength of identifying and mentoring new talent has seen her successfully support work from first-time writers and directors in the past.

     

    Dasgupta and Sharma will manage their roles independently while reporting to Abundantia founder and CEO Vikram Malhotra. Speaking on the new additions to the team Malhotra said, “Creativity, ideas and innovation are at the heart of Abundantia’s business model. I am delighted that we now have two of the brightest and most experienced creative minds in the business leading the charge at Abundantia. Shivaji has been associated with some of the finest film content in recent times and his production and commercial acumen will significantly enhance the quality and profitability of our slate. In Shikhaa we have somebody with formidable creative understanding and content development ability and coupled with her deep industry relationships, I look forward to taking our creative capability to the next level. I am confident that this dynamic duo will raise the bar for creative content in our business.”

     

    Driving the model of creating ‘talent-studio partnerships,’ Abundantia has assembled an impressive line-up for the first two years of operations of its motion pictures business. Combined with a strategic stake acquisition of Crouching Tiger Motion Pictures, the studio announced multiple film deals with production houses led by some of the hottest names in the movies business in India. Top-lining the slate are projects with Neeraj Pandey (A Wednesday, Special 26), Shoojit Sircar (Vicky Donor, Madras Cafe) and Nikhil Advani (D-Day, Kal Ho Na Ho) as well as up-coming talent like Soumik Sen (Gulaab Gang) and a set of talented first-time directors. At various stages of production, the slate will witness releases starting as early as mid-2014.

  • Neeraj Pandey’s ‘Ghalib Danger’ soon to be a major motion picture

    Neeraj Pandey’s ‘Ghalib Danger’ soon to be a major motion picture

    MUMBAI: Abundantia Entertainment and Neeraj Pandey recently announced a strategic deal in which the former would acquire rights to remake the Neeraj Pandey penned, best-selling novel ‘Ghalib Danger’ into a major Hindi film. The deal aims at the creation of a franchise for brand ‘Ghalib Danger’ and also includes the acquisition of rights to adapt the book as entertainment content across multiple platforms spanning television, digital & online media, graphic novels and gaming. 

     

    After earning widespread critical and commercial acclaim for super-hit films like A Wednesday and Special 26, Neeraj Pandey turned author to pen the gangster saga ‘Ghalib Danger’. The book, which was launched in December 2013, met with instant success to attain best-seller status in bookshops across the nation and is underway with its second print run to cater to the ever-growing demand amongst readers and fans of Pandey’s work. 

     

    The book revolves around the life of its protagonist Kamran Ali. A young taxi driver by profession, Kamran stays in Mumbai and dreams of making it big someday. A twist of fate awaits him on an eventful day as his life transforms when he saves the notorious underworld don Mirza from near death at the hands of a rival gang. As an act of gratitude and faith, Mirza takes Kamran under his wing and thus starts the journey of a small-town boy becoming the feared and revered ‘Ghalib Danger’. The lead character is a complete work of fiction and the story itself draws upon extensive research on the genre conducted by Neeraj Pandey and his team. 

     

    Speaking on the announcement and plans for the franchise, Neeraj Pandey said: “It’s always wonderful to collaborate with like-minded people and Ghalib Danger was a fantastic opportunity for Friday Filmworks and Abundantia to come together. It will be interesting to see this content getting exploited across entertainment platforms.” 

     

    Talking about this development, Abundantia Entertainment founder and CEO Vikram Malhotra added: “Abundantia is founded with the vision to support and promote progressive and clutter-breaking content. The ability to adapt a best-seller like ‘Ghalib Danger’ into a major movie and to partner with Neeraj on the film represented a significant opportunity. The gangster-thriller genre that Ghalib Danger boasts of has met with consistent success across platforms and we are delighted that we will be able to bring alivethe book for its fans all over the world”.  

     

    In a first-of-its-kind deal, Abundantia would partner with Friday Filmworks to co-produce the film and also leverage on Pandey’s and Friday Filmworks’ capability to custom-create and adapt the book across content consumption platforms.

     

    Production for the film is set to commence in the second-half of 2015 and is envisaged as a big-scale, ensemble cast entertainer.