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Tag: Manjit Sachdev

  • Lall speak about Jio Cinema’s Murder in Mahim

    Lall speak about Jio Cinema’s Murder in Mahim

    Mumbai: Jigsaw Pictures founder Rajnish Lall is pleased as punch. The former advertising professional-turned TVC and series producer’s latest production Murder in Mahim was launched on Jio Cinema on 10 May. The series has been getting good traction with most viewers binge watching all the episodes or at least four episodes at one go.

    The production got the green light from Tipping Point and Voot in early 2022, and took almost two years to be completed. It’s based on journalist Jerry Pinto’s book of the same name which tracked the investigation into a bunch of gay murders in the Mumbai suburb of Mahim in the last decade just before approval for same sex relationships got the green signal from the government.

    “I was attracted to it because I have an emotional attachment with Mahim. OTT has pulled off lots of thrillers and it’s a genre I love,” said Lall. “Murder in Mahim was especially interesting because of the drama and the relationships between characters. Also because of the social message it was providing about the LGBT which is still prejudiced against.”

    Tipping Point – a Viacom and Jio owned studio – acquired the rights and Jigsaw came on as a producer. Along the way, it was collectively decided that Raj Acharya would be able to handle the script better than the director that was initially thought of.

    “We had brushed up the script,” said Lall. “Our decision to bring in Raj proved right as he did magic with it and  improved on the final product.”

    The production schedule was pushed forward from April to June 2022 after the approval came through from the studio.

    “That proved challenging as we had to shoot during the monsoons. And most of our filming was outdoors., which is why we had to do a lot of improvements through post and VFX,”  explained Lall. “The budget increased, however, the studio compensated us for it.”

    However, he is quick to appreciate the deftness of the director’s vision and approach. As well as Mark Benjamin, Anjali Bhushan and Mohan Bangera from Tipping Point and Manjit Sachdev from Voot.

    “We worked well as a team. And we had a sorted director who brought out the best in two superb actors Ashutosh and Vijay Raaz as well as the rest of the supporting cast and the script. Our casting too was on the button and we shot for approximately 70 days,” revealed Lall.

    According to him, what has worked well in Murder in Mahim, is the realism that the show wanted to convey. “We have not beautified or galmourised it; it is gritty as it can be,” said Lall. “The music has also been appreciated. We have a pretty decent show as everything fell into place.”

  • AltBalaji’s Manjit Sachdev joins Viacom18 to lead content for Voot & Voot Select

    AltBalaji’s Manjit Sachdev joins Viacom18 to lead content for Voot & Voot Select

    KOLKATA: Strengthening its creative team and focus on building an immersive and inclusive content strategy, Viacom18 has appointed Manjit Sachdev as content head for its leading video on demand brands Voot and Voot Select. 

    Sachdev, in her new role, will lead the content team at Voot and will be responsible for driving the future original content strategy across the advertising and subscription businesses of Voot and Voot Select.

    She will be aligned to Viacom18 Digital Venture COO Gourav Rakshi and work towards building further scale to the platform's diverse content portfolio.

    Viacom18 Digital Ventures COO Gourav Rakshi said, “Voot has successfully developed a unique approach to storytelling which has helped create a differentiated perception in the minds of our audiences. I am happy to welcome Manjit to the team to reinforce and further burnish this strategy and build on our current success with Voot & Voot Select. I am confident that her experience and  understanding of the nuances of storytelling, will further elevate the content experience on our platforms."

    Read more news on Voot

    Sachdev comes with over 18 years of experience in the media and entertainment industry. Prior to joining Viacom18 she has been successfully driving the content strategy at various brands in the M&E space like AltBalaji and Sony Entertainment. At AltBalaji she was responsible for leading the content pipeline for the platform across different genres. 

    Viacom18 has over the last few years built a formidable digital ecosystem that has gone on to emerge as one of the key thought leaders in the category. Sachdev's appointment as head content on Voot will add further depth to our future content strategy.