No one – neither Netflix nor Korean creator Hwang Donghyuk – predicted the wild success of Squid Game. And of course everyone – including Netflix – hopes that the next drama may hit it out of the same park. So far, it’s not happening.
Paramount+ rolled out in Korea in June 2022 in partnership with domestic platform TVing, kicking off a new era in Asia for the U.S.based global streamer. Catherine Park, Paramount’s SVP, Head of Office and Streaming for Asia, talks about go-tomarket strategies.
Indonesian streaming platform Vidio moves into 2023 with at least three content superpowers, led by sports and original premium production. Managing Director, Monika Rudijono, talks about hopes and priorities.
Like everywhere, kids content consumption online has soared. That doesn’t mean programmers are buying less. Or that free-TV consumption in every market is equally impacted. Malena Amzah spoke to kids specialists from across platforms & around the region about their habits and activities.
A year after he joined the Asiabased streamer, Viu’s Head of Originals, Felix To, talks about creating a production culture, adaptations, content alliances, and why 2022 has been the most critical year.
Singapore-based Bitsmedia has upsized its Muslim Pro app with global SVOD service, Qalbox, offering content celebrating Muslim identities & cultures. Bitsmedia co-CEO, Nik Emir Din, talks about video strategies, programming acquisitions & what the company is hoping for from its first foray into premium video services.
Indian studio Applause Entertainment celebrated its fifth anniversary in August 2022. Vanita Kohli-Khandekar spoke to CEO, Sameer Nair, about scale, quality, discipline, a new breed of storytellers and why the earth is now flat. PLUS a hotlist of Indian production houses.
Our joint ventures with production houses in Indonesia are among our competitive advantages”
Monika Rudijono Managing Director, Vidio
Who would have thought? When it comes to “churn & return” and valuing discounts more than new content, Singapore – where a teeny car costs an outsize fortune, the roads are full and the city lights shine bright all the time – tops a list of six markets in Asia. That’s according to the results from a new study involving 8,000 respondents by Media Partners Asia’s (MPA) AMPD Research, which shows that the average frequency of cancellation and resubscription in Singapore is 2.1x a year. No other market in the survey, presented at the Apos event in Singapore at the end of September, tops the 2x mark. Thailand is second with 1.7x, followed by Indonesia at 1.5x and Philippines at 1.4x. Japan is 1.1x and Korea is 0.9x.
And that’s not all. Returnees in Singapore cite “bundling” (ie. the service appears to come for free) as the main reason for re-subscribing. Consumers in every other market in the survey put “interest in new content” as their top reason to resume services. In Singapore, new content comes third after bundling (#1) and discounts (#2).
What’s my takeaway from this finding? Initially:
Once I recovered from the finding that new content they have to pay for is not actually that important to Singapore survey participants, I started thinking about (1) smart consumer behaviour in the on-demand era. If you don’t have to have something all the time, why pay for it all the time? (2) smart platform behaviour. Bundling, with its two-year lock ins, is (as many have told me through the years and I still hate it) a smart response from a business/corporate perspective. And (3) the balance between the two. Somehow, what to me was the absolute worst aspect of the traditional pay-TV era, has, evolved into a shining endorsement of bundler extraordinaire, StarHub, and its Dare+ transformation strategy. How will this evolving tension between what’s good for the consumer and what’s good for the business play out?
Questioned in a special session on the sidelines of the Apos 2022 main agenda about why Indonesia’s Vidio needed so much original content, Emtek/SCM boss, Sutanto Hartono, said: “We need something new and compelling every day, 365 days a year”. Vidio went from two million paying subs at the end of 2021 to 3.5 million this year. In Singapore, StarHub’s pay-TV/entertainment subs were up 21% in the first half of this year – a spectacular turnaround. Consumers, clearly, are paying for – and getting – what they want.
This edition’s cover features new global content house, Empire of Arkadia (EOA), founded by video industry veteran, Fotini Paraskakis, with former Nippon TV senior exec, Shigeko (Cindy) Chino, and former Discovery APAC boss, Arthur Bastings. With offices in London and Tokyo, EOA will focus on Asian-inspired scripted & non-scripted stories targeting younger audiences around the world. EOA offices are also opening in Korea and Los Angeles to support the global network of creators. More info at hello@eoa.media
A celebration of the hardship and wonder of love
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4-10 July 2022 #1 23,950,000 7-13 March 2022 #6 15,900,000 13-19 Sept 2021 #1 63,190,000
11-17 July 2022 #1 45,580,000 14-20 March 2022 #1 23,480,000 20-26 Sept 2021 #1 448,730,000
18-24 July 2022 #2 55,070,000 21-27 March 2022 #1 30,940,000 27 Sept - 3 Oct 2021 #1 571,760,000
25-31 July 2022 #1 65,630,000 28 Mar - 3 Apr 2022 #1 32,520,000 4-10 Oct 2021 #1 412,940,000
1-7 Aug 2022 #1 67,010,000 4-10 April 2022 #2 41,460,000 11-17 Oct 2021 #1 258,840,000
8-14 Aug 2022 #1 69,360,000 11-17 April 2022 #2 24,190,000 18-24 Oct 2021 #1 147,560,000
15-21 Aug 2022 #1 77,430,000 18-24 April 2022 #4 20,380,000 25-31 Oct 2021 #1 90,100,000
22-28 Aug 2022 #1 53,890,000 25 April - 1 May 2022 #3 19,500,000 1-7 Nov 2021 #1 65,000,000
29 Aug - 4 Sept 2022 #1 48,820,000 2-8 May 2022 #3 19,100,000 8-14 Nov 2021 #1 42,790,000
5-11 Sept 2022 #1 31,640,000 9-15 May 2022 #3 20,160,000 15-21 Nov 2021 #3 30,410,000
12-18 Sept 2022 #4 21,970,000 16-22 May 2022 #6 13,220,000 22-28 Nov 2021 #3 25,730,000
19-25 Sept 2022 #4 16,890,000
Sept-2 Oct 2022
13,370,000
Total hours viewed 590,610,000
May 2022
May - 5 June 2022
hours
29 Nov - 5 Dec ‘21 #4 21,200,000
6-12 Dec 2021 #4 18,170,000
279,110,000 13-19 Dec 2021 #4 15,430,000
20-26 Dec 2021 #5 15,100,000
27 Dec ‘21 - 2 Jan ‘22 #6 18,110,000
Jan 2022 #8 14,980,000
Jan 2022 #10 11,780,000
Jan 2022 #8 10,200,000
June 2022 #10 7,480,000
Total hours viewed 2,289,500,000
No one – not even Netflix (by its own admission) nor Korean creator Hwang Dong-hyuk – predicted the wild success of Squid Game, which is said to have cost just under US$21.5 million to make and was watched for more than 2.3 billion hours between 13 Sept 2021 and 19 June 2022. But of course everyone – including Netflix – hopes that the next drama may hit it out of the same park.
So far, nothing has come even close. Which isn’t to say the Korean drama landscape is without surprises. Few – with perhaps the exception of Korean production house Astory, which refused to sell Netflix all rights and partnered with Skylife/ENA for the domestic release – would have predicted that legal drama, Extraordinary Attorney Woo, with its relatively meagre budget of about US$15 million for 16 episodes and lesser-known stars – would have topped the list of non-English global TV titles for seven consecutive weeks and, over 13 weeks, attracted more than half a billion viewing hours during its run on the top 10.
At 590,610,000 viewing hours – about 26% of Squid Game and at 70% of the budget – Extraordinary Attorney Woo is also considered a hit, with
more than double the viewing hours over 13 weeks than period drama Alchemy of Souls (222.2 million hours viewed in 13 of the 14 weeks from 27 June to 2 Oct), but less that high-school zombie horror series All of Us Are Dead, which was viewed for 659.51 million hours (29% of Squid Game’s hours) in the 11 weeks from 24 Jan to 10 April 2022.
Korean thriller, Narco-Saints, at 122.8 million hours in its first four weeks on the charts (5 Sept-2 Oct) seems to be Netflix’s hope of the moment as far as Asian drama goes, followed by romance/fantasy Young Lady and Gentleman (93 million hours in six weeks); and Studio Dragon mystery, Little Women (57 million hours in four weeks), part of a trend that has seen Korean titles dominate Netflix non-English TV top 10 with more titles than any other country in Asia or the rest of the world.
While other platforms are not a fraction as transparent about performance as is Netflix, it’s pretty much impossible to know with this kind of details how specific Korean titles perform elsewhere. Our guess is that, at best, it’s a fraction.
Indonesian streaming platform Vidio moves into 2023 with at least three content superpowers, led by sports and original premium production. Managing director Monika Rudijono talks about hopes and priorities.
In the past few months, Indonesian streaming platform Vidio has smashed one viewing record after another with original productions about everything, from mid-life crises in Suami-Suami Masa Kini, a comedy from MVP Pictures about four middle-aged men, teen investigative drama My Nerd Girl and YA romance Married with Senior from Screenplay Films, to blockbuster sports properties like the Premiere League. There are also Nia Dinata’s 18+-rated satire, Suka Duka Berduka, rooted in Indonesian upper-middle class’ obsession with status and wealth, and the Wattpad-based, The Sexy Doctor is Mine, about two girls vying for the attentions of, what else, a sexy doctor, which drew more than two million viewers in the 14 days after its August 2022 release... plus a slew of others as Vidio outpaces, outraces and outperforms rivals itching for a piece of Indonesia’s streaming action.
If competition has driven up quality in Indonesia, the biggest impact is on viewers, who have become spoiled for choice. “There are so many different OTTs in the market now and there’s something for everyone, so to speak,” says Vidio managing director, Monika Rudijono. “But that is also exactly what keeps us on our toes.”
Vidio is Indonesia’s most aggressive commissioner of original premium series, in addition to tapping the content ecosystem of the broader Emtek/SCM empire, which includes two of the country’s largest mass-
market free-TV broadcast channels – SCTV and Indosiar. This provides Vidio with current content as well as a vast library of new and longer-tail shows, including films and sinetron that, for all the boxes it doesn’t tick for premium series, retain massive reach and remain well-loved. Vidio also licenses international content from Hollywood, Korea, Bollywood and elsewhere. Gaming is another content pillar.
For the year to end 2022, Vidio will have produced something like 37 originals, with plans for more in 2023. Rudijono credits that volume in large part to the way Vidio structures its production network, including investments in production houses such as Screenplay Films, Base Entertainment and Sinemart. All produce for Vidio as well as for others.
“Our joint ventures with production houses in Indonesia are among our competitive advantages,” Rudijono told delegates during her ContentAsia Summit 2022 opening keynote.
“In Indonesia, the pool for filmmakers, for talent, for creative people is limited. So, joint ventures with some of these production houses helps us do a few things. The first is to secure our production flow and volume. It also gives us, to a certain degree, first choice in terms of creative ideas. At the same time, joint ventures helps us to manage our costs better. So, all in all, a combination of being able to get the stories, the production flow, the creative talent as well as competitive advantage in terms of
costing really helps us to propel our original productions. Without these joint ventures, it would be impossible for us, for example, to produce more than 30 titles in a year.”
Vidio works with Indonesia’s top creators, including director Tommy Dewo, who won Best Director of a Scripted TV Programme in the 2021 ContentAsia Awards for Serigala Terakhir from Screenplay Productions, writer/director Gina S. Noer, directors Pritagita Arianegara, Ody C Hara hap, Monty Tiwa, Kutz Agus and Hadrah Daeng Ratu, among others.
In the relatively short time from 2019 that Vidio has committed to originals and notwithstanding the impact of Covid, the platform has expanded beyond its focus on tried-and-tested IP, which involved part nering, for instance, with story-telling platform Wattpad and adapting popular film IP into TV series. “These brought us much success,” Rudijono says. The shows also helped to build a viewer and subscriber base, and, crucially, gave Vidio invaluable insights into audience habits. “We started to understand what it is that our audience wants. Now we aim to experiment more,” she adds.
Suami-Suami Masa Kini, produced by MVP Pictures Indonesia for Vidio, is one of the results of moving more boldly into start-from-scratch origi nal stories. The series, written by Imam Darto and directed by Ody C. Harahap, was one of five titles nominated for Best Comedy in this year’s ContentAsia Awards. The show follows four middle-aged men – Yuda, Raka, Ical and Tobi – who have been besties since high school. Now 40, they gather for a raucous boys karaoke evening and end up stuck in an elevator. When all efforts to summon help fail, they resign themselves to a night in a cramped space waiting for the morning shift to arrive. Tired, hopeless and drunk, the four start sharing truths about the real state of their lives and relationships.
Sky Films’ Virgin Mom, which has a second season coming in 2023, is another of Vidio’s true originals. The romantic drama, directed by Hadrah Daeng Ratu, is about an accomplished badminton player and virgin who discovers she is pregnant, shocking her family and her community. But she has never had sex. Amanda Rawles and Ahmad Al Ghazali star.
“These kinds of originals are something we will continue to look at while still maintaining producing series from proven IPs,” Rudijono says.
Originals are one part of Vidio’s superpower, with its mix of local, li censed, production and sports properties.
“Indonesians still enjoy local content more than they do internation al,” Rudijono says. “So this is one of our big advantages... the combi nation is what attracts subscribers”.
Sports is a key differentiator. “We are the only OTT in Indonesia that offers sports in a significant way,” she adds. Rights include local leagues, NBA basketball, volleyball, F1, tennis, and, the crown jewel, the Premier League, which shifted platforms to Vidio from this year.
Rudijono says Vidio was determined to surround its Premiere League presentation with world-class commentary and content of its own, including bringing in former England footballer Michael Owen as pun dit for the Manchester United vs Liverpool match in August. “With the Premiere League we exposed ourselves to a more premium audience and we want to make sure that when we bring content that is world class that everything we do around it is also world class,” she says. “We want to make sure that fans and football lovers feel that Vidio is really serious, that we understand what they want and we understand what they need.”
In 2022 alone, Vidio’s paying subs increased from two million to 3.5 million, according to analysts Media Partners Asia (MPA). Is it possible to attribute the 75% increase to sports? Or drama? Or anything else?
“What we have seen in the last year is that premium Vidio original pro duction is increasingly contributing to our subscription,” Rudijono says. “In previous years, we have depended a lot on sports to bring in subscribers. And in the past, a lot of our original production served as retention rather than hook content. Starting last year and especially this year, we see that people are coming onto our platform to watch a Vidio original series. And Vidio original titles are sometimes neck and neck with sports titles, in terms of how much subscription they’re bringing into the platform. This is something that made us very, very happy.”
24 NOV 1 1 D E C 2022
Asia’s flagship festival for the media industry returns! Join top content creators and key industry players at the 9th Singapore Media Festival as we celebrate the best of Asian storytelling.
Celebrate the best of Independent cinema at Singapore International Film Festival
24 Nov – 4 Dec 2022 Selected Venues
Take a front-row seat at Singapore’s premier showcase of international and regional films. Join filmmakers and industry leaders as we celebrate cinema excellence with a spotlight on talents from across Asia and ignite the transformative spirit of cinematic culture. Discover more at sgiff.com for programme line-up and venue details.
Explore opportunities at Asia TV Forum & Market and ScreenSingapore
7 – 9 Dec 2022 Marina Bay Sands
Explore opportunities at Asia TV Forum & Market and ScreenSingapore. Meet at Asia’s leading entertainment content market and conference where the world gathers to trade, collaborate, share the best-in-class ideas, and champion the next generation of Asian content.
Geek out at Singapore Comic Con
10 & 11 Dec 2022 Marina Bay Sands
Be at the heart of Western and Asian pop culture. Immerse yourself at the region’s leading pop culture event for all things comics, toys, gaming, esports, cosplay, and more!
Paramount+ rolled out in Korea in June 2022 in partnership with CJ ENM-led domestic platform TVing, kicking off a new era in Asia for the U.S.-based global streamer. Catherine Park, Paramount’s SVP, Head of Office and Streaming for Asia, talks about go-to-market strategies.
Global SVOD streamer Paramount+ rolled out in Korea in June this year in partnership with domestic platform TVing, kicking off a new era in Asia for the U.S.-based streamer. Other markets in Asia will follow, as has Korean sci-fi original, Yonder, the first co-production with Korea’s CJ ENM/TVing that is part of a global partnership announced at the end of 2021.
Priorities in Korea, says Catherine Park, Paramount SVP, head of office & streaming for Asia, are not different from other regions – a market-by-market focus on content that resonates with different demographics. No dates have been announced for Paramount+’s roll out in Asia outside of Korea.
Paramount+’s approach is “something for everyone”, delivered via Paramount’s own brands as well as multiple content collaborations and a focus on local content in every market, Park says.
Futuristic drama Yonder, which premieres on TVing in Korea on 14 October after its debut at this year’s Busan International Film Festival, adds to a growing body of Korean TV series that go beyond the mass of romantic drama/romcoms. Park says Yonder – although perhaps more of a risk – was interesting for this very reason.
Directed by filmmaker Lee Joon-ik in his first TV project, the six-episode series is the story of a man (played by Shin Ha-kyun) who receives a message from his dead wife (Han Ji-mi), who recorded her memories before she passed and invites him to join her in the afterlife. The TV series, set in the near future, is based on Korean writer Kim Jang-
hwan’s novel, Good-Bye Yonder
“Yonder was a very interesting project to us because normally, when people talk about Korean drama... it’s mostly romance or romantic comedy, or family drama... we are not really known for sci-fi although we are trying,” she says. At its heart, Lee Joon-ik’s series is about happi ness, no matter how long you live. “It’s a very universal story... we think it is something we can market internationally”.
Other content trends in Korea are the focus on developing TV series from existing IP, particularly webtoons, which adds to the country’s long-held tradition of prioritising writers and their original stories; devel oping Asian franchises, with all the multi-platform facets this involves; and building out universes that can be continuously exploited.
The alliance with TVing is something of a blueprint for Paramount+’s roll out in Asia.
“The important part of the go-to-market strategy is having a partner where we can access local talent and/or local content,” she adds, highlighting the benefits of bringing more relevant content to markets in Asia and the potential to take local content and co-productions to international markets.
Although it’s early days, Paramount+ will be on the market in Asia for third-party local content rights, not least because originals take time to de velop. That’s not, right now, the primary focus of local rights holders’ atten tion, although no one is turning away from a potential new buyer. A more common question is: Is Paramount+ too late to Asia’s streaming game?
No, of course not, Park says, highlighting Paramount’s content depth and breadth through, among others, Viacom International Studios (VIS) and CBS International Studios, and its experience with FAST (free adver tising-supported TV) service, Pluto. The ability to offer a whole lot in one place is a strength that will grow as markets fragment. While multiple smaller services may be worthwhile, “at the same time, economically, I think for consumers, they want just the ease, just one stop”.
And then there’s this, the product of early and ardent efforts by play ers who have paved the way for SVOD: subscriptions. “People are get ting used to paying for content”, despite still rampant piracy in some markets, and they have become familiar with the convenience of ondemand entertainment, Park says. “Once you are used to this, it’s hard to go back”.
By providing various touch points for content, including linear chan nels, “we can be very competitive”. Add local partners and content, and the lure of being able to offer creators a path to international mar kets, “I think we are very competitive,” Park says.
The important part of the go-to-market strategy is having a partner where we can access local talent and/ or local content.”
Catherine Park, ParamountShin Ha-kyun in Yonder
Viu debuted its latest four Asia originals in August – two from Korea, one from Thailand and Malay drama, AI.5YA. Another eight at least will go to air in the last quarter of this year. The regional streamer also continues to build out its alliances with Asian leaders, such as ABS-CBN Entertainment/Dreamscape out of the Philippines, which brought titles such as the Philippines adaptation of Korean thriller Flower of Evil to the platform in June. And that not even the half of it.
Coming up to the first anniversary of his arrival at Viu in September 2021, head of originals Felix To says 2022 was a “critical year for the development of new original production”, with multiple drama series across multiple countries under multiple teams, some of which are new. The agenda and tasks are“tall”, and, he adds, sharp focus by each team on specific projects is a priority.
To says his own priority list is building a production culture across Viu’s broad Asia/Middle East footprint. “This is the single most important thing that will be invaluable for our future maturation and expansion,” he says.
The projects under way are varied, and To’s expectations are not over-exuberant. “This is the first year we have so many projects in progress at the same time... we aren’t expecting hit after hit... but we’ve done pretty well in gathering production teams together and bringing a good variety to the Viu platform”.
In January this year, Viu said it would have more than 30 original productions in six languages in Asia by the end of 2022. Heading into the final quarter, To says the target is in sight, any release timetable adjustments will be minor, and he predicts an “even more eventful” few months ahead. “Right now, production is speeding ahead at an
unprecedented rate,” he adds.
Viu’s new Thai dramas are led by Finding the Rainbow, an ambitious multi-country project spanning three decades, including the 911 attack in New York. The series, starring Nichkhun Horvejkul of K-pop band 2PM, premieres on 9 Nov. Out of Thailand too comes the 12-episode Real Fake, which was announced in January this year and premieres on 10 October. The aim is to “bring a new perspective to Thai drama as we know it,” To says.
From Indonesia, there’s teen school-room drama, Bad Boys Vs Crazy Girls, starring rising idols Devano Danendra and Megan Domani in a Wattpad-based TV show directed by Josephine Lidwani Winardi and Emil Heradi (Pretty Little Liars Indonesia). Bad Boys Vs Crazy Girls dropped on 14 October.
There is also a first of its kind drama out of the Philippines, which To describes as a bold contemporary “eye-opening comedy” backed by internationally trained Filipino filmmakers; the series is inspired by the Philippines’ love of Korean drama.
And from Malaysia, there’s mythology-based supernatural thriller, Hilang, which drops on 17 November.
Under the sprawling, multi-market Viu originals banner is also Hong Kong’s first original, #lovesignal, which debuted on 7 October, kicking off the platform’s Q4 new drama slate. The series, a collaboration with Local Production, is followed on 13 October by Malaysian romcom Ijab Kabut (I Have A Plan) starring Fadlan Hazim and Azira Shafinaz in the story of a woman whose life falls apart when her fiance pulls out of their wedding at the 11th hour.
The wide variety is, of course, deliberate. “We want to expand our
A year after he joined Asia-based streamer Viu, Head of Originals, Felix To, talks about creating a production culture, adaptations, content alliances, and why 2022 has been the most critical year.
scope and... attract a very wide spectrum of audiences to our plat form,” To says.
New development areas include unscripted, especially in Viu’s Southeast Asian stronghold, where the population is young, social change is fast, and neighbours share at least a few social and cultural characteristics.
Scripted adaptations – in the tradition of the two seasons of U.S. se ries Pretty Little Liars that Viu has already made for Indonesia and Ko rean drama Black in Malaysia – will continue to be part of the mix.
“We need good stories and we have to develop our own IP as well. There is no replacement for that. But at the same time, we want to bring more titles to our audience, local titles, locally relevant produc tion. And adaptation is a very good way to expand the number of titles we can do in a given period of time,” To says.
Navigating sensitivities across Viu’s 16-market footprint, including the Middle East, goes without saying, even if moves such as exclud ing LGBTQ characters draw heat. Woke or not, To says that’s exactly what adaptations are all about. “We can’t just use a foreign script and shoot it exactly... we do a lot of creative work to make sure it becomes a locally relevant drama,” he says in response to a question about changing the Emily/Alison roles in the U.S. version of Pretty Little Liars. An example he offers is Viu original, She Was Pretty, out of Ma laysia. “We made culturally relevant adjustments to the character and expressions to make sure that it fit Malaysian society better. It follows the same storyline, but the characterisation is very different.”
Viu also participated in ABS-CBN’s Philippines adaptation of Korean drama, Flower of Evil, earlier this year, followed by The Broken Mar riage Vow (the local adaptation of U.K. drama, Doctor Foster). Part of the streaming world’s elastic interpretation of originals, the Flower of Evil rights acquisition (and the right to call the show an original) gave Viu a streaming window 48 hours ahead of the domestic TV broad cast. In the same vein, Viu won original naming rights to JTBC’s Reborn
Rich, starring Song Joong-ki (Descendants of The Sun), as part of a global rights deal (excl. Korea).
The logic behind every project is the same – an interesting story, To says. Flower of Evil Philippines was a go because “we know from the storyline, from the relationship depicted in the story, we know there is a wow factor”.
Is he concerned at all that Viu’s huge Korean drama audience in the Philippines is already familiar with the story line? No. The reasons go beyond just story. “When we do the story in Philippines, we make sure that it is actually Filipino, but also recognisable as the same story line. That will allow audiences to have all these discussions about the changes and how characters are depicted,” he says.
At the same time, he acknowledges the danger of familiarity, particularly with how stories end. “People watch dramas to be surprised. If we do noth ing but IP adaptation, of course we are pretty much in this kind of danger... we are trying to bring good stories with surprising new elements to the audi ence. So, be it an adaptation or original IP, this will be the test... That’s why, whenever we decide on an adaptation, we have to make sure that we have added enough twists in the characters... that will make the story reso nate better in that local market on top of the original.”
Co-production is high on his radar, “not only just because of sharing the cost, but also because it means we are doing something more ambitious than just doing it alone”. More important right now is establishing Viu’s credentials and market position as a producer. “The better we perform and the more productions we release means the market will be able to understand us bet ter as a producer. That will become a basis for co-production and we look forward to working with some prestigious parties in the region or beyond. But first, we have to show the world that we are able to do very decent produc tion, with good storytelling”.
Scan for the full interview
12 years after it went live with a mobile app offering accurate prayer times for Muslims around the world and with 130+ million downloads in 190 markets and counting, Singapore-based Bitsmedia has upsized its Muslim Pro platform with a global SVOD service offering a wideranging library of lifestyle content celebrating Muslim identities and cultures. The new platform, Qalbox, soft launched to Muslim Pro users in the middle of July, followed by a commercial launch on 4 October. Bitsmedia co-CEO, Nik Emir Din, talks about video content strategies, programming acquisitions & what the company is hoping for from its first foray into premium video services.
When Singapore-based tech company, Bitsmedia, decided to add video to its widely used Muslim Pro app in mid-2022, the global plat form expanded its long-held mission to “celebrate Muslim identities and cultures worldwide”. A few months later, on 4 October, Bitsmedia, encouraged by the response to its first video titles and now with vet eran TV exec, Junaidah Khan, on board, hit go on the commercial version of global SVOD platform, Qalbox.
The new video platform went live with a content agreement with Malaysia’s Astro – where Khan worked for 17 years – as well as an al liance with Malaysian actor Bront Palarae’s Pixel Play for global rights to a slate of Indonesian and Malaysian films, including Seandainya Kau Ada (2021) and Aku Bunga (2020). Rights acquired for Astro titles exclude Malaysia, Singapore and Brunei.
Qalbox costs S$99.98/US$69.90 a year. The monthly plan costs S$12.98/US$9 and the two-year pack is S$178.98/US$125.
The SVOD platform also has its sights set on original production –eventually. “Original production is definitely part of our longer-term strategy,” Bitsmedia co-CEO, Nik Emir Din, said during the ContentAsia Summit in August, adding that work had already begun on titles
scheduled for release on Qalbox in late 2022.
Din said Qal box’s early efforts would, “like many of our peers”, be powered by licensed content. The ac quired slate covers educational and entertainment content, including feature films, stand-up comedy, travel programmes and documentaries, as well as Quranic recitations and supplications.
Titles on the platform include Maz Jobrani: Pandemic Warrior (High point Productions); documentaries such as Tehran Stories (Lucky You), Hidden Algeria (Espresso Media) and A Goal for Freedom – Women’s Football in Kabul (Autentic Production); and animated kids series, Ibn Battuta (allrites). Early shows also include Peabody-award winning Pakistani animated series, Burka Avenger (2013), Canadian series
Little Mosque on the Prairie (Westwind, 2007), and The White Mughal (2014), among others.
Din emphasises content diversity and says rights are being acquired from all parts of the world, with careful consideration on their value to Bitsmedia/Qalbox’s reason for being. “We are trying to stay away from deciding to be prescriptive or to provide a particular viewpoint on a topic,” he says. “What we try to do always goes back to our founding mission, which is to celebrate Muslim identities and cultures”.
As a precursor to rolling out Qalbox, Muslim Pro offered short-form video content, which Din says was well received and supported the decision to expand into long-form programming. He describes the move into video as a “natural progression” for the Muslim Pro app, which launched 12 years ago and now has more than 130 million downloads from users in 190 countries. Muslim Pro’s top markets are the U.S., Europe, U.K., France, Malaysia, Indonesia and South Asia.
“Our aim is to be the digital home for all Muslims,” he says, adding: “What we hope one day is that there will be many Muslims and even non-Muslims who would be attracted to our platform as an opportu nity to learn about the Muslim community”.
Bitsmedia has zero ambition to join the world’s streaming wars. “We intend to complement, rather than compete,” Din says. “We are a global platform... trying to link the global Muslim community through content. We always have this in mind.” This means surfacing content relevant to Muslims everywhere in the world that they might not other wise be exposed to.
Qalbox’s content strategy is fluid. Din talks about going after “any content that offers a different perspective... It’s not about bucketing a very rigid, very specific interpretation of what content works, especial ly for us as a very new, very young service. Instead, our goal is to have as much variety as possible, to push the boundaries in terms of having a wide range of content... and then seeing how our users react to it, see what they like, what they don’t like. And from there, we’ll be in a
better position to say, ‘okay we want to focus on this format and we want to focus on this specific area’.”
For now, Qalbox content will be predominantly English, “because English is the most widely used language on our [Muslim Pro] app”. Other languages will be added, beginning with Bahasa Malaysia, Ba hasa Indonesia and French with English subtitles”.
Ultimately, Din believes Qalbox will start customising for specific groups within its global audience, rather than delivering very localised libraries for each countries. “At the end of the day,” he says, “you can’t escape that”.
What we try to do always goes back to our founding mission, which is to celebrate Muslim identities and cultures... what we hope one day is that there will be many Muslims and even non-Muslims who would potentially be attracted to our platform as an opportunity to learn about the Muslim community.”Nik Emir Din, Co-CEO, Bitsmedia Seandainya Kau Ada
Like everywhere, kids content consumption online has soared. That doesn’t mean programmers are buying less. Or that free-TV consumption in every market is equally impacted. Malena Amzah spoke to kids specialists from across platforms & around the region about their habits and activities.
Kids content consumption in Asia continues to grow online/on-demand... and linear lives on, stronger in some markets than others but alive and viable alongside ramped up digital offerings. That’s the strong message from programmers across Asia in the run up to this year’s Mip Junior (15/16 Oct).
“FAST is showing that linear is far from dead,” says Fabien Lotz, COO of digital brand, Pops Worldwide.
The sentiment is echoed across the region.
“I don’t think Japanese kids have moved completely away from broadcast. Yet, I agree that more and more children turn to PC, tablets and smartphones to watch NHK content,” says Takako Hayashi, senior producer at Japanese public broadcaster NHK’s Content Value Development Center. NHK caters to more diverse viewing habits by updating services such as VOD “while continuing to programme to best suit viewers’ daily activities,” she says.
In Malaysia, Media Prima Television Networks, which operates the country’s biggest free-TV networks as well as online service tonton, also doesn’t believe broadcast has become irrelevant to young audiences.
CEO, Khairul Anwar Salleh, strongly disagrees with blanket statements about kids having abandoned anything that’s not streamed/online. “Of course there has been an opportunity for streaming services to capitalise on kids content, understanding that children can be very influential. Having said that, kids still watch broadcast as the numbers are still high. TV will always be a safe bet because parents know everything is curated and it’s going to be family friendly and safe,” he says.
In Singapore, where Mediacorp has followed a multi-platform agenda for years, “broadcast TV continues to reach a sizeable audience, and as such, remains for us an important channel for engaging our young viewers,” says Barry Toa, the national network’s assistant lead, strategic partnerships.
At the same time, Mediacorp has significantly ramped up kids content on streaming platform meWatch and on the Mediacorp Entertainment YouTube channel, following the shift in content consumption from broadcast to online/VOD, especially among kids aged 7-12, Toa says.
Mediacorp’s acquisitions strategy is shaped by Singapore’s four official languages – English, Chinese, Malay and Tamil – rather than by geography. “We are open to sourcing content from around the world, as long as it resonates with our audiences,” Toa says.
Mediacorp also has a keen eye on investment in original content, such as animated series Lil Wild, Leo The Wildlife Ranger and The Deep, targetting 4-12 year olds. Live action, such as sci-fi comedy drama series What on Earth, is another key genre within the commissioning mix, along with experimenting with durations and formats for online audience. Toa points to non-dialogue comedy animation, The Misadventures of Cubemelt (2021), with each episode slightly under three minutes long, for meWatch and YouTube.
Like Mediacorp, regional programmer Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) focuses on fans and ecosystems rather than delivery platforms.
“This ecosystem spans the entire portfolio, including both linear pay-TV channels and direct-to-consumer services,” says Christopher Ho, WBD’s head of kids in Southeast Asia & Korea. In Southeast Asia, YouTube is also part of the mix, with kids destinations such as DC and Cartoon Network, as well as consumer products.
No one is admitting to cutting kids content acquisitions, but they’re not ramping up in a significant way either. At best, acquisition volumes are level with the previous two years across online, streaming and broadcast.
The obvious exceptions are newcomers, including new blocks from famil iar brands, and distributors eyeing an opportunity for educational content in an environment no longer constrained by linear broadcast schedules.
There’s more slot availability and a rising appetite for educational con tent, says Mariani Abdullah, head of acquisitions for DM Don Square Enter tainment, based in Brunei.
For the first time in Asia, Cartoon Network – through its new Cartoonito programming block – is on the hunt for pre-school content. “While origi nal content like Batwheels and Bugs Bunny
Builders are pillars of the schedule, we’re looking to com plement these titles with preschool show acquisitions
lbox’s Muslim-focused general entertainment promise, which is “to cele brate Muslim identities and cultures” and aims to deliver “a comprehensive, curated, and diverse scope of genres for the global Muslim community”.
“Many Muslims believe that family life is the foundation of human soci ety, providing a healthy and nurturing environment for growing children,” Khan says. “Through children’s programming, parents/families are able to pass on, develop and reinforce human virtues such as love, kindness, mercy and compassion. This is why expanding partnerships in the acqui sitions and production community of the children’s genre is crucial”.
So far, a significant portion of Qalbox’s children’s content originates from Asia, including Malaysia, Pakistan and the UAE. Khan is, however, looking everywhere for all content, including kids. Titles acquired so far include Men Around the Prophet, Oriental Scholars and Lantern’s Tales. “Editori ally, it’s important that the characters and stories are relatable to and re flect the values of the Muslim community,” Khan says.
Mobile platform Pop TV, promising a relaunch, is also buying more, par ticularly non-dialogue, says director Ben Heng.
The biggest difference in acquisitions in Asia is, perhaps, the expansion of rights requirements. “Like all content deals, the demand for securing all rights for kids content – linear and streaming – for regional or global exclu sively continues to increase,” WBD’s Ho says.
Malaysia’s two major platforms – Astro and Media Prima, the home of Malaysian superhero, Ejen Ali – are maintaining acquisitions levels.
Media Prima caters for 4-12 year olds within daytime/early evening slots, focusing on local animation and non-dialogue/non-verbal cartoons as these have “measurable cognitive benefits for kids development and growth, says Media Prima’s Salleh. About 80% of Media Prima’s kids acqui sitions are local. The other 20% comes from Indonesia, Korea and France.
Astro also moves into 2023 with similar acquisitions levels than in the pre vious couple of years, and with an eye out for anything new and fresh from Asia or elsewhere . “Kids content has been a key differentiator for Astro in Malaysia covering both local vernacular and international kids content/ IPs, and we will continue to build on this proposition for our customers,” says Sharmin Parameswaran VP, VOD/PPV and international.
Japan’s NHK also moves into 2023 with similar levels of acquisitions as the past two years, with a keen awareness on delivering diversity from around the world. “We are looking for content that let Japanese children learn about the diverse cultures and values of the world,” says Hayashi. NHK’s acquisitions are split evenly between Asia, Oceania, South America, Middle East and Africa, with the other half from Europe/North America.
Like programmers in Malaysia and Japan, Singapore is also keeping ac quisitions similar with the past few years. “However, there is a shift towards more VOD content, in line with the preferred platform and consumption patterns among kids,” Mediacorp’s Toa says.
AVOD monetisation challenges have driven down kids content acquisi tions in some quarters.
From top, clockwise: Junaidah Khan, Bits media/Qalbox; Christopher Ho, Warner Bros. Discovery; Mariani Abdullah, DM Dom Square Entertainment; Fabien Lotz, Pops Worldwide; Sharmin Parameswaran, Astro; Barry Toa, Mediacorp; Khairul Anwar Salleh, Media Prima Television Networks & Primeworks Studios
regionally in Asia Pacific, in addition to other kids and family content,” Ho says. About 40% of WBD’s kids acquisitions come from Asia.
Kids content for the entire age group, from pre-school to tweens, is a key pillar for streaming newcomer, Qalbox, which launched commercial services inside the global Muslim Pro app this month. “We are ramping up our efforts to acquire kids content”, with priority given to animation and puppetry, says operations head, Junaidah Khan.
Children’s programming is more than an expected component of Qa
Pops Worldwide’s Fabien Lotz says monetisation of kids content on AVOD platforms such as YouTube was struggling anyway, and was further dented in August this year with the guidelines’ update on users between 13 and 18 years old.
Lotz says he’s always looking for edutain ment programming. About 50% of Pops Kids content comes from Asia, primarily Japan, including Doraemon
For all the other changes, kids program mers are as staunch as they ever were on safety. As Lotz says: “As a popular kids chan nel in Asia Pacific and the top kids brand in Vietnam, Pops Kids is “committed to build ing a safe environment for our children.”
Scan for more on kids content in Asia
“Kids will tend to gravitate towards relatable infotainment that will inspire and allow them to be imaginative and think logically.”
Khairul Anwar Salleh, CEO, Media Prima TV Networks and Primeworks Studios, Malaysia
“The exponential growth and availability of digital services such as SVODs, AVODs, FAST channels, and hybrids of the same will bring more choices to the consumers on every level.”
Junaidah Khan, Head of Operations, Qalbox
“With kids, the popular content/IPs continue to do well with high engage ment, however it is hard to predict a break-out/hit content or platform. We will just need to continue having a pulse on the audience.”
Sharmin Parameswaran, VP, VOD/PPV & International, Astro Malaysia
“Diversity and inclusion – how we can present these important yet dif ficult subjects in kids’ content and make them attractive would be the key to increase kids programming consumption.”
Takako Hayashi, Senior Producer, Content Value Development Center, NHK Japan
“For Vietnam, it could be the launch of other heavyweight SVOD or hy brid kids content offers, but 2023 may not be as important as 2024.”
Fabien Lotz, COO, Pops Worldwide
“We have observed a recent trend in which media companies are in creasingly collaborating with online content creators and social media influencers to develop and produce fresh content that appeals to kids.”
Barry Toa, Assistant Lead, Strategic Partnerships, Mediacorp Singapore
“Availability in streaming and other popular platforms. Plus narrative and storyline.”
Mariani Abdullah, Head of Acquisitions, DM Don Square Entertainment
“More creative, diverse and innovative stories from great storytellers for the next generation.”
Christopher Ho, Head of Kids – SE Asia & Korea, Warner Bros. Discovery
“The hope is that kids’ content will help instill good moral values and life lessons so that kids grow up happy and hopeful. Good values and expo sure will help influence how kids navigate life as they will learn about their surroundings, issues and how to manage their emotions.”
Khairul Anwar Salleh, CEO, Media Prima TV Networks and Primeworks Studios, Malaysia
“I hope that the creative community and the content providers stay fo cused on the audience. More than any other content genres, the influ ential nature of children’s programming brings with it a heavy responsibil ity – nurturing and shaping the minds of next generations.”
Junaidah Khan, Head of Operations, Qalbox
“It’s an extremely creative space, and we hope to see more new con tent/IPs being introduced and breaking into the market.”
Sharmin Parameswaran, VP, VOD/PPV & International, Astro Malaysia
”Our big hope for 2023 is to discover and deliver diverse content that gives children hopes for the future.”
Takako Hayashi, Senior Producer, Content Value Development Center, NHK Japan
“More revenue streams for quality educational content, TikTok is creating an offer for the kids that cannot be ignored and should be countered.”
Fabien Lotz, COO, Pops Worldwide
“I hope to see more locally produced kids content make their mark on the international stage.”
Barry Toa, Assistant Lead, Strategic Partnerships, Mediacorp Singapore
“Content creators to develop more kids friendly contents; engaging ideas for more educational and entertainment; and to keep enthusiasm as creators for more fascinating and awesome stories to tell.”
Mariani Abdullah, Head of Acquisitions, DM Don Square Entertainment
What do you think will have the biggest influence on kids content consumption in Asia in 2023?The Misadventures of Cubemelt, Mediacorp
Indian studio Applause Entertainment celebrated its fifth anniv August 2022. Vanita Kohli-Khandekar spoke to CEO, Sameer Nair, scale, quality, discipline, a new breed of storytellers and why now flat.
There seems to be a cosmic cycle at work here. Back in 2000, as head of content for Star India (now Disney Star), Sameer Nair brought Kaun Banega Crorepati (KBC), the Indian version of Who Wants to be a Millionaire, to India. KBC and about half a dozen dailies centred around kitchen politics changed Star’s fortunes, transforming it into one of India’s largest media companies. It also shaped the course of the Indian media business.
Now as the head of Aditya Birla Group’s Applause Entertainment, Nair is doing the same thing, albeit, for streaming platforms. Criminal Justice on Disney+ Hotstar (BBC Studios India) and Scam 1992 on SonyLIV (Studio Next) are among Applause’s 40-odd shows. Within five years, top line has hit US$31 million, making the company one of the most successful content providers in India’s rapidly growing OTT ecosystem. How did Applause, which celebrated its fifth anniversary in August this year, scale up so quickly? And where is the company going from here? Vanita Kohli-Khandekar asked...
Applause has released 40 shows in five years. What’s next? We have released 40 TV series to date, there are 15 in production and we have produced eight movies, including Aparna Sen’s The Rapist, which jointly won the Kim Jiseok award at the 26th Busan International Film Festival in October 2021. There is a big show on Gandhi based on Ramchandra Guha’s book with Pratik Gandhi (Scam 1992) playing the lead. Another big one is Tanaav (Sudhir Mishra, Sachin Mamta Krishn), the local version of Fauda, for SonyLIV. There is Nivedita Das’ Zwigato with Kapil Sharma. Scam 2 (based on the Telgi stamp paper scam in 2003) is in production, as are Criminal Justice 3 and City of Dreams 3. Our team has grown from eight-10 people to 65-70. We also have big plans for animation with Amar Chitra Katha (in 2021, Applause acquired the license to comic book publisher Amar Chitra Katha’s
catalogue of over 400 titles).
Our plan is to invest and reinvest about Rs3,000 crore/ US$375 million in content over the next few years.”
“Epiphany is a trick word. The original assumption was that content can’t get scale because it is a creative business, dependent on a single person and there are limits. The scale business has always been the broadcaster or platform, never the content creator. We set out to try and to create scale. So we chose to work in a hub-and-spoke model like a studio, where we work with a variety of creative forces. The idea is not to impose our creative vision. We work with everyone in a collaborative manner. We have done comedies, a Bhojpuri show, Tamil show, we did Taanav
in that manner to work with all kinds of creative people. The ability to work with diverse set of people is Applause’s USP.”
What do you think are the most significant changes emerging from India’s expansion into streaming? “Filmmaking was always a passion project. It doesn’t have a release date. Even if there is one, it can always be shifted. There is a lot of discipline in TV. If we say something will be launched in the festive season it has to launch then. A lot of that discipline is what we bring in how we budget and schedule. Of course making a 10-episode series is very different from 250 daily soaps. Making a series is like making two or three films. Also, TV built
a lot of brands by sticking to things. OTTs tends to look at data and react quickly. So sometimes brands don’t get built. If you take shows like Seinfeld, Friends and The Office in today’s streaming environment, they would never have been made. They were too off the charts. But the original broadcast pioneers made sure that they were made and went on to become seriously legendary shows. The Sopranos is a very distinctive show. I don’t know if it would have had a chance in the streaming environment of today.”
What are the ecosystem challenges? “In the early 1990s, very few people were exposed to international content. I would go on about Seinfeld but nobody had seen it. By the time streaming came a whole generation of people were connected globally. When Netflix arrived in India, the creative community had already seen The Sopranos, Game of Thrones... The creative community knows what we are talking about. Also we have a 100-year-old legacy of filmmaking. For local content to go global, you need well-told local stories with international standards. We are getting better at writing, more collaborations are happening, scripts are run past script doctors. In the next five-10 years, Indian content should be of global quality.”
What are the most significant changes you see in audience behaviour in India? “We always talk about content evolving and our business (TV, OTT, theatre) evolving. But the one thing that is happening is that the audience is evolving at a faster pace. As a studio, we make X amount of content but the audience I am talking to is consuming 100X content from across the world, across platforms, genres and different age groups. The consumer in general is becoming a connoisseur of content. They have a far better appreciation and understanding of storytelling and good content because they are seeing so many different stories in so many different languages. Consumers are better story listeners than we are storytellers and they have lifted the bar. You might say ‘I am making a very complicated crime procedural show,’ but he (the consumer) has seen so many of those across languages and is far more discerning than the creative community. With streaming we are in a flat earth, single global stage. Somebody in Fiji can see your show and say kya bakwaas hai (what nonsense is this).”
content should be of global quality.”
Sameer Nair, CEO, Applause EntertainmentScam 1992 –The Harshad Mehta Story
BBC Studios is behind some of the biggest hits on Indian OTT. The gripping two seasons of Out of Love (India’s adaptation of Doctor Foster), Criminal Justice (two seasons) to The Office (three seasons) and Rudra (the Indian version of Luther) all on Disney+ Hotstar have done well. At over 35 million viewers, Rudra is the most watched show on OTT in India currently, according to Ormax Media data. Jhalak Dikhla Ja (Strictly come Dancing) on linear channel, Colors, is its other big show.
The Family Man (Amazon Prime Video) is the superbly written and produced story of the everyday life of intelligence officer, Srikant Tiwari. Season two of the Raj (Nimodri) and (Krishna) D.K. show topped 26 million viewers within a few weeks of its 2021 debut. Raj and D.K.’s penchant for a quirky mash up of genres is evident in another success – horror comedy Stree (2018). D2R Films signed a multi-year, creative partnership deal with Netflix in August 2022.
Banijay Asia, launched in 2018 as a joint venture between France’s Banijay group and Deepak Dhar (former CEO of Endemol Shine India). Banijay titles include Hostages season 1 and 2 (Disney+Hotstar) in association with Applause, the critically acclaimed Undekhi (SonyLIV), Call My Agent (Netflix) and The Kapil Sharma Show (Sony).
Endemol Shine India – a joint venture between Banijay, Singaporebased CA Media and SOL Productions – has been active in unscripted, including Bigg Boss (an adaptation of Big Brother in six languages on Colors and streaming platform Voot), MasterChef India and Fear Factor Some part of its success comes from Endemol Shine, and some from the Mumbai-based SOL Productions’ unscripted production strengths.
Sphere Origins has given Indian television blockbuster series such as Balika Vadhu (the show that made Viacom18’s Colors) and Saat Phere (which resuscitated Zee TV in 2005), among many others. Its OTT beginnings have been slow but steady. Your Honour, now in its second season on SonyLIV, is the story of an upright judge whose morals and integrity take a beating when his son is involved in a hit and run. Then there is the political thriller Dark 7 White on Alt Balaji and Zee5, and Silsila Badalte Rishton Ka on Voot.
Two young people are found on a highway in Delhi. The girl has been brutally raped and her boyfriend badly beaten. Deputy commissioner of police, Vartika Chaturvedi (played with gut-wrenching precision by Shefali Shah) and her team starts trying to track down the six perpetrators. Delhi Crime (Netflix) is the only Indian show to have won an International Emmy for best drama series in 2020. Poor Man’s Productions’ Richie Mehta created, wrote and directed the sevenepisode series, along with Golden Karavan, Ivanhoe Pictures and FilmKaravan. Mehta’s next show is about the 1984 Bhopal gas tragedy.
TVF, or The Viral Fever, started off in 2010 as an irreverent site for a not-into-TV generation. Over 12 years, it has morphed into a quirky albeit top-notch content producer. Panchayat (Amazon Prime Video), a slow-paced look at a city boy’s travails as secretary of a village council deep in rural India, came out of nowhere to become one of India’s top streaming shows. Almost 30 million people binged on season two, according to Ormax Media data. Top TVF titles also include Kota Factory (Netflix), set in the town where millions of Indians come to prepare for competitive exams, and the heart-warming Gullak (SonyLIV).
Pritish Nandy Communications (PNC) is nowhere near any of the others on this list on scale and revenue. But given its penchant for the ‘different’, which fits well with the OTT world, it’s definitely one to watch. The outfit behind films like Pyaar Ke Side Effects (2006) hit the jackpot with its first scripted show; Four More Shots Please! was nominated in the 2020 International Emmy Awards for best comedy and has won several Asian and Indian awards. Over its two seasons so far, the show follows four unapologetically flawed women and their bloopers in life and love.
Prakash Jha Productions has just one streaming series to its name; Aashram (MX Player), now in its third season, is among the top shows across platforms with a viewership of 34.5 million, according to Ormax. The story of a crooked guru has maintained its position since the first episode dropped in 2020. Jha, a critically acclaimed and muchawarded filmmaker, has several hit films, such as Gangaajal, Apharan and Mrityudanad, under his belt.
Applause Entertainment is a key player in India’s red-hot production environment. Vanita Kohli-Khandekar snapshots another nine on our production hotlist*.
