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Call My Agent: Bollywood, Applause Entertainment/Netflix
India’s content environment, says Applause Entertainment CEO Sameer Nair, is the “ultimate candy shop”. The limitless opportunities unfolding come with their own set of pressures on the country’s storytellers, he tells ContentAsia. Less than 10 of Netflix’s India originals have made it to the streamer’s
the next three to four years, with a strong and broad line up of original
new Top 10 TV lists for India since the most-watched rankings platform
drama and adaptations, feature films, documentaries and animation
launched in November with five months worth of back data.
across streaming platforms.
Call My Agent: Bollywood is the latest of the nine series to have attracted enough hours watched to qualify for the top 10 in India, joining
Netflix’s streaming rivals in India are way less transparent, but, in the absence of performance data, actions speak for themselves.
shows such as House of Secrets: The Burari Deaths (the only India show
In October this year, Applause Entertainment and BBC Studios India
that has made it to the global Top 10 for non-English TV), Kota Factory
announced the return of premium Indian drama, Criminal Justice, to Dis-
seasons one and two, anthology series Feels Like Ishq season 1 and Com-
ney+ Hotstar for a third season. There’s an adaptation of Middle East
edy Premium League, which is the sole Netflix original to have made it to
drama Fauda for India, along with Rudra, the local version of BBC Stu-
number one in its home country. There’s also Crime Stories: India Detec-
dios’ Luther.
tives, season one, a four-episode series that appeared at number seven in the week of its 22 September debut and then sank, never to return.
These follow a ContentAsia Awards 2021 win for Criminal Justice’s second season, Criminal Justice: Behind Closed Doors (Dec 2020), for Best
For whatever this says (or doesn’t) about the performance of Netflix’s In-
Asian Drama Series for a Regional/International Market. The first season
dia originals in their home market, its ranking on a tiny list distinguishes Call
of Criminal Justice premiered in India in April 2019. The franchise is among
My Agent: Bollywood from the original productions rushing across India.
Hotstar Specials’ most watched shows on Disney+ Hotstar, the compa-
Applause Entertainment, the four-year-old production house behind
nies said, giving no specifics.
this Indian adaptation of the French series, has clearly built on ambitious
The ContentAsia Awards’ win at the end of August was followed in
launch goals in a market that, for all its decades worth of output in a
October by the 26th Busan International Film Festival’s Kim Jiseok Award
market of about 210 million TV homes, is a newcomer to premium drama.
2021 for Indian filmmaker Aparna Sen’s The Rapist, won jointly with Philip-
Today, Applause says its content war chest could top US$500 million in
pines/Japan sports feature, Gensan Punch. Praise for the film was glori-
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contentasia December 2021