Pickle April 2016 -- 100th Issue

POWER LIST: MOST INFLUENTIAL IN INDIAN MEDIA & SHOWBIZ APRIL 2016 100th Issue

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THANK YOU We are thankful to all our well-wishers and supporters who have joined hands in our journey. This is our 100th issue, and hence, a special moment to acknowledge our gratitude to our market partners -- Toronto International Film Festival/Market, FICCI FRAMES - Mumbai, CII Big Picture Summit - New Delhi, MIPCOM, MIPTV, American Film Market, ATF Singapore, European Film Market and Berlinale NAB SHOW, Cannes Film Festival and Market and Annecy -- who made us what we are today -- to note this THANK YOU

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INDIAN ENTERTAINMENT BUSINESS GUIDE

MAKE YOURSELF VISIBLE IN PICKLE-MAY 2016 CANNES FILM MARKET ISSUE Pickle reaches out to audio visual companies in over 50 countries; Targets global buyers and distributors; Film Festivals and markets; Animation production companies; Global companies looking at offshoring from India; Co-production seekers and location service providers. Pickle business guide tracks the entertainment business in India.

INDIA AND BEYOND 48

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FROM THE EDITOR’S DESK

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e are delighted to present the 100th issue of Pickle on the special occasion of MIPTV at Cannes. We are thankful to all wellwishers and supporters who have joined hands in our journey. It is a great joy for us. A special thanks to MIPTV and MIPCOM (organised by REED Midem) -- We brought out two dedicated India focused issues every year to these markets since 2007. Cannes is very special and dear to Pickle as we launched the first issue of Pickle during May 2007 when India celebrated 60 years of Independence and that year also marked 60th Cannes Film Festival.

Undoubtedly, MIPTV and MIPCOM are the finest in the global media markets that empower delegates to network with the best business minds, capture emerging trends, listen to masterminds, create business for product and services and think innovation. It is a must attend for decision makers to grasp the new ecosystems in the media business.

Our congratulations to Punit Goenka, Managing Director and CEO, ZEE Group, and his brother, Amit Goenka, CEO – International Broadcast Business, for being honoured by MIPTV Médailles d’Honneur, at a ceremony at Cannes in France on April 6. We also extend

our wishes to other distinguished TV industry leaders who will receive the award at Cannes. They are Rola Bauer, Managing Director, Studiocanal TV GmbH, Germany, Ben Pyne, President, Global Distribution – Disney Media Networks, USA and Marcel Vinay, President, Comarex, Mexico.

It is the season of influential lists everywhere and we have brought out a comprehensive list of Indian power players who are the most influential in driving the media and showbiz. We have segmented it for easy classification and reference. We have devoted less than 60 words for power players, though their influence and contribution cannot be measured in these sentences. In a country of 1.2 billion, a list of 100 odd people is meaningless. But it is these names that come to our radar when we think about their contributions. We have added another set of emerging players to the power list as they are the most promising people to occupy the hot seat in the coming years.

India is the happening place now. Make in India and Show the World. It is time for some serious business. Please do get in touch with us if you have queries on engaging with Indian M&E business.

n vidyasagar pickle media nvidyasagar@picklemag.in, www.picklemag.com

Pickle Volume IX 6th edition Published by Pickle Media Private Limited Email: natvid@gmail.com O Mumbai O Chennai No.2, Habib Complex Dr Durgabhai Deshmukh Road RA Puram CHENNAI 600 028

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Pickle Business Guide 2016 Copyright 2016 by Pickle Media Pvt Ltd. All Rights Reserved.

Pickle is an ad supported business guide tracking the filmed entertainment business in India.

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MIPTV HIGHLIGHTS

The MIPTV conference theme, “The Power of Fans”, reflects the growing role that audiences, especially fans, are playing within the entertainment ecosystem Laurine Garaude

MIPFormats Presentation: For the first time this year, The Wit will be giving MIPFormats participants an exclusive insight into the latest trends in the marketplace, presented by CEO Virginia Mouseler. Two Fresh TV sessions will look at what’s hot in entertainment and game show pilots, and the newest in factual entertainment and reality shows. The presentations will also explore the main trends shaping the formats market in 2016.

Focus Germany: German companies have the fourth biggest presence at MIPTV and MIPCOM, and this country focus serves to underline the international reach of the German TV industry.

In terms of revenue, Germany is the world’s second biggest television market, with more than 40 million TV households. The market is showing growth across all sectors, in particular pay-TV and VOD, which grew by 7% in 2015 to reach some 2.6 billion. Coproduction partnerships involving German producers and broadcasters are increasing, as international demand grows for scripted and drama formats.

MIPDigital Fronts: It will showcase features new online productions, followed by on-stage interviews with the creative executives and online talent behind the content. These showcases are designed to foster partnerships within the entertainment industry with operators who are aiming to assimilate the new codes of content creation that appeal to youth.

4K Screening: Also part of the programme is MIPTV’s 4K World Premiere Screening of NHK’s new Asian Fantasy series, ‘Moribito: Guardian of the Spirit.’ Delegates will have the opportunity to watch the first episode of the series on Monday, 4 April during the MIPTV Opening Party.

Director of the television division, Reed MIDEM

Around 11,000 delegates, 1,600 exhibitors, participants from 100 countries and 4,000 buyers are here at MIPTV B

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BEST MINDS AT MIPTV

BESTSELLING AUTHOR HARLAN COBEN; DOMINIQUE DELPORT, PRESIDENT, VIVENDI CONTENT & GUILLAUME DE POSCH GLOBAL MANAGING DIRECTOR, HAVAS MEDIA GROUP; RICHARD DICKSON, PRESIDENT, MATTEL - Co-Chief Executive Officer, RTL Group TO EXPLORE “THE POWER OF FANS” AT MIPTV

MIPTV 2016 MÉDAILLES D’HONNEUR: FROM LEFT TO RIGHT: ROLA BAUER (TANDEM PRODUCTIONS/STUDIOCANAL), AMIT GOENKA AND PUNIT GOENKA (ZEEL- ZEE ENTERTAINMENT ENTERPRISES LIMITED), BEN PYNE (DISNEY MEDIA NETWORKS) AND MARCEL VINAY (COMARE)

Ronaldo Nazario, Football World Champion and Brazil’s Globo Sports Commentator, will take to the stage at MIPTV to keynote a spotlight showcase on Globo’s extensive sports broadcasting capabilities in lead up to world coverage of the Rio 2016 Olympic and Paralympic Games in Brazil.

Presented in partnership with Globo, Ronaldo, aka “the Phenomenon,” will address MIPTV on Tuesday 5 April from 9.30 to 10.00 in the Esterel conference room of the Palais des Festivals RONALDO NAZARIO Football World Champion

The MIPTV Focus on Germany will provide TV professionals from around the world with a unique opportunity to discover new German programming, meet top-level executives from the German TV industry, and forge new partnerships with German producers.

Lead partners, Red Arrow International and ZDF Enterprises, will host special conference sessions on international production and co-production of scripted and non-scripted TV programmes. Other German media companies confirmed as partners with the Focus on Germany programme include Deutsche Welle, Global Screen and WDR mediagroup. In addition, Beta Film will host an international screening on Monday 4 April. An enlarged German Pavilion will be back on the MIPTV exhibition floor with AG Dok, ARRI Media, German Films, SOLA Media, Spiegel TV, and Your Family Entertainment already confirmed as exhibitors.

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NEW LEADER AT ZEEL

Setting Eyes on New Frontiers As the Zee Group gears up to expand its global reach, Amit Goenka, CEO, International Broadcast Business, talks about the goals and strategies that would drive the group’s international ambitions in the next few years and what kind of challenges he expects to face Amit Goenka CEO, International Broadcast Business, ZEEL while entering new territories The geographical spread of Zee Entertainment is an amazing story. Now that you have set your foot to lead the international portfolio at ZEE, where do you see this going ahead?

With our Vision 2020 goal of becoming one of the top global media companies in five years, we have a very strong expansion focus in the international market. We want to go beyond the South Asian diaspora in other countries and reach out to the local audiences globally. While we have been mainly re-purposing our existing content — dubbing or sub-titling it in the local languages — we have also started with select local productions in international territories such as the Middle East, Russia and certain countries in Asia. Going ahead, we are focusing on Germany, Africa, Latin America, APAC and the Middle East as the key markets for expansion.

Expanding Indian content to new territories is pushing the soft power of India? Please share your comments.

There is a large reservoir of values in India that the world can benefit from.

We take it as our responsibility to share this around the globe in an entertaining way.

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Do you see visible changes happening around the media business today? The tide is towards digital...

The world is going digital in a very big way today. With consumers preferring devices with larger screens along with the availability of cheaper, faster bandwidth, we are seeing a lot of video consumption happening on second-screen devices such as mobile phones and tablets. Consumers, especially the youth, are displaying a preference for shorter, bite-sized video content which can be viewed and shared conveniently. With consumers wanting to consume content anytime, anywhere on their smart devices, all the big players in the Indian media industry are now massively expanding to digital.

The business models are changing rapidly in the global media space.

Many markets are giving way to SVOD and OTT. Where do you see ZEE grow global in this space both in content and platform?

Digital is a major focus area for us. Internationally, our Zeefamily.tv Application is already available in the US as well as in select Asia Pacific countries, where it has received wonderful traction since its launch. The Catch-up feature and the LIKE PICKLE IN FACEBOOK

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Skill sets and innovation are scalable and India is amongst the world’s best talent pools. Faster innovation is the key to reach new heights VOD option have found strong preference with our viewers. Our goal was to make ZEE’s extensive library of content available to our viewers wherever and whenever they want to watch TV. In India, we have recently launched OZEE, a user-friendly AVOD platform which will deliver the best of entertainment content from ZEE within minutes of its television telecast. Our other subscriptionled OTT platform, dittoTV, which was India’s first OTT platform, has received wide acceptance and has already started producing original content.

amongst the audience markets for us.

The Indian M&E industry has set an ambitious target to reach $100 billion from current $20 billion levels over the next five to seven years. How much of this can come from international markets? Do you see this happening?

This will depend on the regulatory framework being conducive for India in the foreign markets. The film, television and digital industry from India will certainly lead the foray in the international markets.

The global footprint of ZEE and its content distribution is spread across continents? Do you see growth focus in any particular region?

Our international growth and expansion is not limited to any particular region.

While our Germany launch is next on the cards, we are also looking at Latin America, parts of APAC and Africa.

What are the challenges of achieving this?

Local competition, established players, uncertainty of distribution platforms, volatile economic and socio-political scenarios as well as the audience shift to new devices and mediums are some of the main challenges.

India is one of the most liberal media markets in the world. Is there a level playing field for an Indian company like ZEE when going to new markets?

What are the challenges?

There are many challenges and differ in accordance with each market. Some markets are over congested, while some are saturated in penetration. With a move towards digital, this is changing. We also believe as a sincere and dedicated media enterprise, there is always place

Investment (primarily infrastructure), skill sets and innovation are critical elements in M&E growth going forward. All these three are insufficient/scarce in the Indian media space. How do we scale new heights?

Infrastructure is definitely the area where support is required from our own establishments. Skill sets and innovation are scalable and India is amongst the world’s best talent pools. Faster innovation is the key to reach new heights.

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MAKING A SONG AND DANCE OF IT Understanding Indian cinema’s global appeal and ‘soft power’

by Praveen Dass

Praveen Dass is an independent filmmaker and fine art photographer currently based in India jabberwonky@gmail.com

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o prevent this argument from going soft it’s perhaps best to start with a story, even if it’s an anecdote about an anecdote. Despite having never met the man in question, an acquaintance of mine from Mumbai once recalled how Amitabh Bachchan may have saved his life in the dusty valleys of Afghanistan. The storyteller, an Indian diplomat, who shall we say functions as part of the spear tip of Indian statecraft, was in the Central Asian nation soon after the Taliban’s ouster in 2002 and looking to make contact with a few leaders of the putative Northern Alliance. Suddenly besieged and presented to a different set of warlords he found himself unable to break the ice with them, and was soon gravely informed that they suspected him of being a Pakistani spook, the “enemy” they loathed.

That is until he spied a tattered poster of Bachchan’s 1992 hit Khuda Gawah (‘God is the Witness’, a film shot extensively in Afghanistan) in the next room and decided to talk Bollywood -- to immediate excitement among the Afghan warriors. Unable to recall any song from that film, however, he found himself back in the doghouse, until he started belting out ‘Mehbooba, Mehbooba’ from Sholay, the 1975 blockbuster that launched Bachchan to superstardom, and is perhaps the most famous Hindi film west of Amritsar. An agreement was soon concluded and the diplomat found himself warmly escorted back to his base with much fierce debate about the new “Khan ishtars” in Mumbai.

The tale might have perhaps grown longer in the telling but there’s no disputing how popular Indian films now are in many parts of the world. Clearly, going soft need not be inopportune. For

India, with its old civilisation and spiritual customs based on universalist traditions, has always had several cards to play in this game. Indian commercial cinema, with its distinct rhythms, is the latest addition to the pack

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Rajinikanth fans in Japan

Fans cheering up Shah Rukh Khan

A poster of Sholay

well over two decades now foreign policy wonks have waxed eloquent about the merits of ‘soft power’ for nations looking to find their places at the global high table. India, with its old civilisation and spiritual customs based on universalist traditions, has always had several cards to play in this game. Indian commercial cinema, with its distinct rhythms, is the latest addition to the pack. As a noted strategic affairs guru puts it: “Bollywood has done more for Indian influence abroad than all the bureaucratic efforts of the government”. But there’s still some way to go, for both industry and creative artists cynically churning out assembly-line movies in the country, and for the state making more concerted efforts to better push what is arguably India’s most exciting export goodie.

Masala Stardust Much water has flown down the Ganges since earlier generations of Indians were often told of how much Russians loved Raj Kapoor’s cloyingly Chaplinesque tramp from Awara, or of how

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Dilip Kumar was as much a heartthrob in Lahore and Dhaka as he was in Mumbai. Beyond old ties of cultural kinship in the subcontinent and bilateral arrangements between governments (which saw a handful of Indian films being regularly exported to ‘friendly’ countries like the Soviet Union or Mongolia), Indian cinema has struck out and conquered bold newer frontiers now.

Indian superstars like Aishwarya Rai and Aamir Khan regularly walk the red carpet at big film festivals like Cannes, Toronto and Venice and are recognised globally. Southern superstar Rajinikanth was a cultural phenomenon in Japan for a while, where local fans dubbed him ‘Dancing Maharajah” and landed up in exotic Indian costumes for his movie premieres. Bolly superstar Shah Rukh Khan was conferred a high Malaysian state honour which even stirred controversy there with many protesting that local actors were ignored. Several actors also increasingly pop up in the tabloid press when holidaying abroad in the West -- a surer sign of cross-cultural traction than any box-office grosses -and are now slowly experimenting with LIKE PICKLE IN FACEBOOK

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The spectacular results are there for the world to see. Indeed, whatever your cinematic inclinations you would have to admit, where would Indian cinema be without all that song and dance? The world agrees

taking up meaty roles in films in a more globalised Hollywood.

There’s no denying Indian movie stars’ graphs have seen increasingly steep rises from the last decade into this one.

If pirated videotapes in the 1980s kickstarted the revolution, the internet – and its endlessly cyclical streams of video content -- appears to have solidified this reach, taking Indian film to places as far afield as North Africa, Western Europe, Japan and South Korea. In fact there’s a reason Indian film distributors now delay releasing Hindi or Tamil films in many foreign markets, despite the lucrative business many films do there. Most pirated DVDs that land up almost immediately after film premieres on Indian shores come from these places.

Home is where the heart is In briefly analysing this trans-cultural appeal of Indian cinema two major factors must be noted. One, the size, breadth and rising cultural assertiveness of the Indian diaspora across the world has been a factor so huge it’s changed Bollywood in several noteworthy ways. The expatriate Indian’s outsize longing for identity and roots has helped reshape the country’s film trade. The foreign box office (BO) contributes so significantly to big movies in Hindi, Tamil and Telugu that several duds at the local BO actually go on to make profits from the diaspora dollar. Many films now have exclusive premieres in London and New York, unthinkable even a decade and a half ago. Pioneered by filmmakers like

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A poster of Sivaji Subash Ghai -- who was actually lampooned in the mid 1990s for ‘pandering’ to Non Resident Indian (NRI) audiences -- the size of this market has even led to the content changing in Bollywood. Indian films have got slicker, costlier and are now set in locales across the globe with many actors often playing NRI characters, echoing vaguely NRI concerns.

Film markets at festivals worldwide now see sizeable Indian delegations hawking new productions for distributors to pick up or producers to take up. Outside of Bollywood, Tamil film producers now tie-up ‘FMS’ (Foreign, Malaysia, Singapore) rights before they get down to haggling with local distributors about territories and sales, while Telugu producers line up small European and sizeable North American releases for their new films.

NRIs, it seems, just can’t get enough of the filmy glamour from their old country in any way possible. Many film stars now earn big bucks from performing at ‘Bollywood Nights’ abroad. These arena shows, staged almost exclusively in countries with large NRI populations, have also proven so lucrative that several stars either long in the tooth back home or relegated to the background now make their money purely from ‘touring’.

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Aishwarya Rai at Cannes Film Festival Business is booming overseas, yet as any big producer, distributor or cultural commentator will tell you, much remains to be done to increase penetration beyond the diaspora. The odd viral video of Europeans doing ‘Bollywood dancing’ for small audiences or weddings with a Bollywood theme are still too few and far between for Indian cinema to be labelled a widespread crossover phenomenon. Unlike, say, with the martial arts films that crossed over from Hong Kong and China to the West over three decades ago; or Japanese creature features, manga or ‘J-Horror’ genres. They influence Hollywood, still the gold standard for big feature film production. To change that requires tinkering with the old formula for Indian cinema. It would mean going more ‘arty’ (a despised phrase in Indian film production circles) and looking to imbibe and reconstruct in singular fashion genres, themes and narrative experiments from elsewhere. And not just in form.

Which is, of course, easier said than done.

A strong recidivist streak resides deep inside Indian filmdom. The formula may not be periodically dumped or retired for a new genre to rise to the top of the heap à la Hollywood. This in turn has a lot to do with why the formula is the way it is.

Why fix what ain’t broke? And besides, this formula is the second reason Indian films have such a large global reach. It’s why they speak in unmatched dulcet tones to several other developing societies that have much more in common with Indian audiences than they suspect.

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Think Local, Act Global There’s a reason India is referred to as a subcontinent. The sum of its many ethnic, cultural and linguistic parts is perhaps greater than the whole. With over 25 major languages spoken and over 700 hundred dialects, not to mention large ethnic, cultural and religious divisions, nation building and unity was a challenge the founders and early builders of modern India took very seriously indeed. Cinema was soon harnessed to the task in the 1950s. Filmmakers and writers took on matters of great national and social import and until the mid 1960s (when romances got mushier and a new generation of glamorous lovers and sex symbols appeared onscreen) and early 70s (when public anger against a dysfunctional state and crony capitalism exploded on screens across India) sought to craft a cohesive cinema that provided ‘wholesome’ family entertainment while dwelling on traditional Indian values and customs. These films had to crossover from one region of India to another that had about as much in common with each other as two European countries do. They had to transcend barriers of language, class, creed and ethnicity. They began doing that for almost every big Bollywood release in roughly the late 60s to early 70s. The seeds of a global formula were sown right there.

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Songs and dance are essence of Indian cinema (even if slightly flawed) tryst with liberal democracy, several theorists and historians have championed Bollywood in particular as a great force for national integration in what ought to have been a rather fractious country of infinite diversity. To put it a little simplistically, a template was slowly evolved and continues to form the basis of cinema to this day with very little variations on the theme, even if the forms have changed over time.

Also powered by audiences changing with a new liberalising India, new films from the mid 1990s began to be increasingly located abroad (and not just for the songs) while the melodrama remained firmly rooted in varying interpretations of ‘Indianness’. Over the year the characters got glitzier, the stars got shinier, the songs got dreamier, the love stories got mushier, the gangsters and vigilantes got nastier and the Hollywood-inspired action sequences got edgier, but the melodramatic tensions remained pretty much the same. It made -- and still makes -- for a heady mix. Yet at its core Indian cinema is still mostly all about family, culture, traditions and, of course, romance. And the increasing demands that modernity makes on each of those.

This is largely what appeals to audiences in countries that are grappling with the rapid changes wrought by the modern world and increasingly break-

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neck Westernization of societies. So from much of the Arab world to Central Asia and parts of South East Asia, from Africa and to many parts of Latin America, Indian films deal with societal tensions that people deal with on a daily basis. Despite the candyfloss glamour on top, which merely provides for the perfect escapism for such audiences.

And an alternate ‘warm’ escapism, one that comes straight from the heart; as opposed to what Hollywood provides, which for these audiences tends to be either too cerebral, too Western or merely a visceral rush. The neo-Shakespearean tragicomic genre that Bollywood has made its own is a different flavour to be savoured with everyone. No wonder it’s a hit.

Besides, there’s also one special secret sauce added into the mix. The one genre that India perhaps took and refashioned in singular fashion more than any other to make it its own more than any other: the old Hollywood musical format.

Which was quickly fused with classical Indian traditions of devotional and theatrical musical performance. The spectacular results are there for the world to see. Indeed, whatever your cinematic inclinations you would have to admit, where would Indian cinema be without all that song and dance? The world agrees. Come, sing along. Or better yet, dance.

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EMERGING TRENDS IN DIGITAL MEDIA LANDSCAPE Things are changing fast.

Consumption of infotainment is no more the same.

So, how to cater to the millenials

by Srini Vasan Srini Vasan is President & CEO of Quantum Ventura Inc, a social media analytics and twitter realtime analytics product company based in Los Angeles and Silicon Valley

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• Push notification is growing: People are no longer reading anything longer than a push notification on their mobile. Due to this trend of glanceable content , companies like Huffington Post have journalists who are just writing notifications. The headline writers are the next generation of the successful news creator. Even publishers like NY times have realized this trend and have set up a dedicated team to exclusively focus on creation and scheduling of notifications and push alerts without overly annoying and interrupting users. Research clearly shows increasing number of users will only engage with the publisher when they send a push and they will not read something on their own.

• Ubiquitous smartphones: Smartphones outsell PCs by 5:1 now and in the next few years they will raise to 10:1. Eventually, smartphones will end up becoming smarter and feature rich. TV viewing has dropped by 30% in the last 4 years for the 1824 segment - the most prized segment for advertisers. The millenials check their mobile phone every 10 minutes and 80% of their time mobile is always by their side and 80% of them check their mobile phone as their first activity in the morning.

• Vertical video formats: Vertical video formats are growing faster as they have better user experience. According to snapchat which is serving billions of vertical videos in a day, vertical videos outperform horizontal video upto 9 times. We see in the near future, all breaking news events will be covered with Live Video in HD on mobile with multiple angle views.

• Robo journalism: With technologies in areas like Natual language processing and pattern recognition from companies like Automated Insights and Narrative Science, are being used to creat automated earnings report for the Associated Press

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and sports reports for Yahoo. Readers couldnt tell the difference between reports generated by algorithms and journalists. Twitter bots are already generating thousands of bot updates everyday with Japan leading the way.

Next generation drones: Next generation drones will redefine breaking news production and will severely disrupt the traditional news gathering infrastructure. Washington Post and CNN are working on an experimental drone production system. Amazon Prime Air is yet another example of ecommerce and drone technology are married.

Virtual reality and augmented reality: will explode further and these will redefine the content production itself. Applications like breaking news, adventure, shopping, sports and entertainment segments will be the initial segments where VR will be deployed.

Shifting beyond clicks and views: Companies are shifting beyond from clicks and views to increasing levels of engagement as their top priority while balancing the need to driver greater reach. Today, consumers seek whatever they want, be it products, content or experiences, when they want it through the best means that is available to them at that present moment and circumstances. In this consumer journey, consumers are the king. Only those brands which recognize this gospel truth, can succeed in engaging the consumers long term.

Ad-fraud on the rise: With the explosion of digital advertising, the grwoth of ad fraud is also increasing at a staggering rate. In the US alone, the ad fraud amounted to US$6.3 billion ie 20% of total advertising in the US).

Research showed that software bots viewed 11% of display ads and 25% of video ads. This will be a serious challenge in the years to come.

Growth of social ecommerce: We will see more and more ecommerce applications be embedded into the social media pages. For example, Pinterest allows users to buy items that are shown on the page directly.

Television will see pain in the coming decade: In the coming decade, television will start seeing the pain that newspapers felt a few years due to loss of advertising revenue to digital.

Younger generation is increasingly starting to embrace “cord-cutting” , canceling their cable TV service or getting rid of channels they are not interested in. 50 million households in the US now subscribe to OTT like netflix. Such disruptions have forced com-

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panies like ESPN to lay off jobs in the wake of falling cable revenues and loss of advertising to digital. PayTV households is steady at 97 million whereas OTT is climbing up from 23 million in 2010 to 50 million in 2015.

In a startling statistics, median viewer age is 60 for MSNBC and CNN. Broadcast networks 62-64 and Fox News 68 and these networks have lost significant amount of ad dollars due to millenials deserting from TV to digital medium.

Old media will not die. Instead , old media will shrink further and become a niche player similar to print.

Explosive growth of OTT players: Due to explosive growth of OTT players, we will see companies like Netflix will start mimicking traditional content producers instead of just depending on others content. Netflix is planning to invest $6b in original content which is more than the entire budget of BBC and their revenue is expected to be $12.2 billion by 2020. Netflix is watched more hours per month than almost every other network in the US. Ad-blocking tech vs digital advertising: 198 million users have used some form of ad blocking technology which is threatening the digital advertising in a big way. If ads are blocked, free content will disappear as it will be economically not viable. This may lead to a compromise where users will choose which ads they would like to watch which in turn will force advertisers to produce better content and user experience for their audience.

Messaging apps beat social media apps: Top 4 messaging apps , whatsapp, FB messenger, Wechat and Viber have overtaken top 4 social media apps with 3 billion monthly active users compared to 2.5 billion users for social media apps. We will see messaging apps will grow further. Interestingly, facebook owns two top messaging apps and 2 top social media apps.

Brands cannot repurpose TV ads: Brands will have to recognize that repurposing TV ads for digital medium will not work and brands have to think ads specifically catering to each medium. What appears great in a TV ad will not look good in a vertical ad in samsung mobile. Brands will have to become technologically aware of the context and device of the consumer and shift to context based marketing from a traditional general purpose online and mobile digital marketing.

Smart marketeers will study the media mix of their audience and serve advertising accordingly.

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DIGITAL HIGHWAY

Cashing in on Digital Opportunities

Hiren Gada CFO, Shemaroo Entertainment

Digitization has opened up new opportunities for content companies. Hiren Gada, Director and CFO, Shemaroo Entertainment, talks about how his company is riding on the digital wave to reach out to its consumers

Can you give a perspective of where is action at this point of time in the industry? And, where is Shemaroo heading?

Shemaroo is a content owner aggregator and distributor. We are an agnostic content aggregator not linked to technology or a platform. Our target is to go where the consumers are. In films, our current focus is on re-issue of films. The second area of focus is television. We syndicate content to channels across categories, genres and platforms. The third place where consumer is headed and which is at a nascent stage is the digital media (Internet or mobile based digitally delivered content). We have created a space for ourselves in this medium. TV and new media are focus for us where the consumer is headed.

How does Shemaroo Entertainment see it ride on the digital now world?

We have been monetizing our content on many digital platforms. Anyone who wants to run a Bollywood service has to work at some level with Shemaroo. We are not exclusively aligned to any one platform. Our business model is to distribute content in as many platforms. It is something similar to home video days -- where we used to give DVDs to as many

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stores who would want to keep our DVD or content. Every new platform that comes in the market is a new shop front.

It is something similar to the product available in all e-commerce platforms.

At this point of time we do not know where the consumers will go. Working with various platforms will be the way we will look at it.

Tell us about your Miniplex product being offered by Tata Sky and Airtel to DTH subscribers.

Traditionally, after the theatrical window we had the home video window and television window. Now home video has shrunk and it is in the process of migrating to the digital store. But digital has not fully arrived. With Miniplex, we wanted to create a premium window to replace the home video window.

We offer one premiere every week. The consumer has the opportunity to watch four premieres in a month. Every Friday, we have eight shows. In a week we have 14 shows. The monthly subscription is Rs 60 and annual Rs 720. It is ad-free.

We will be adding more platforms. In a way, we are looking at movies which have lost out after the theatrical release and did not get the post theatrical market. It is a win-win for everyone. Film LIKE PICKLE IN FACEBOOK

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Anyone who wants to run a Bollywood service has to work at some level with Shemaroo producer is happy as he could see some monetization, while platforms are getting new films. Consumers who missed those movies in theatre can catch them at home. There is value to everyone in the ecosystem. It is not absurdly priced and we have priced it reasonably.

Cable digitization has pushed scale. DTH has created mindset to pay for premium services, the conducive mindset, ecosystem and environment to have these services. We are headed more in that direction.

Will you be looking at reaching Miniplex in global platforms?

At this point of time, it is primarily for India we have started on DTH platforms.

We are exploring other international platforms as well.

Is it a conscious decision that you have not started your own platform?

At the end of the day we are a content company. We are not a technology company. We decided to leverage existing technology platforms.

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Last year, of the 1,200 films only 600 films got released in theatres. Are you looking at releasing some movies directly on these platforms?

That is not in our thought process. At this point of time for Miniplex we are looking at films which are theatrically released.

Will you be looking at increasing the number of premier’s in Miniplex?

No. Do you fund films that you release in Miniplex?

We don’t look at anything pre-release.

The film is evaluated post release. Since the product has stabilised in both the platforms -- Tata Sky and Airtel DTH -- we will be looking at award-winning festival circuit regional movies. We are looking at the opportunity to have these films subtitled. But we have not explored this space.

Our immediate focus is to expand the presence of Miniplex and take the service to certain traction.

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NAZARA: GAMING VIA MOBILE

We understand Indian Consumer Very Well

Manish Agarwal

The Indian gaming industry is poised for a huge growth given the increasing penetration of mobile technology in the country, says Manish Agarwal, CEO, Nazara Technologies

CEO, Nazara Technologies

How is the gaming industry developing in India?

There are around 300 gaming developers in India and their number is growing.

Many are two or three-member teams.

Being a publisher, I think it is in our interest to have quality developers in the ecosystem.

Why do you focus only on mobile?

That’s the way to go. The hardware is getting cheaper with the time and phablets (5 -7 inches) are gaining popularity in India. We are purely focused on mobile gaming content.

What’s working for Nazara?

We run a subscription business and we understand the Indian consumer very well. Our consumers are not internet savvy so we have been trying to remove all frictions in gaming. We have created a daily pack (like HLL we have a sachet and a big bucket). The content is ad-free and there are no in-app purchases. You simply pay X amount and play as many games as you want.

We are interested in consumers who are playing games for the first time. They want simple games. They are watchful

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about spending money on downloading apps. So, we create game for not savvy gamers but casual gamers. That is what is working for us.

Nazara’s licensing deal with Green Gold seems to be a big hit among kids...

We have signed a deal with Green Gold for five year licensing of Chhota Bheem.

A large number of children see Chota Bheem as a super hero. We have created a game called Chotta Bheem Jungle Run, where kids can make him fly and bang into things. The casual game has been downloaded more than 10 million times.

We have another game based on Virat Kohli. Indian kids love to hit fours and sixes. This game challenges them to hit as many boundaries as possible in a given number of balls.

My view is to understand local consumer and have a strategy of what works for them instead of blindly copying the West.

Is your target age group is 14 years and below?

Yes that’s true. We understand that there are two types of gamers in India — kids

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under 14 and males in the age-group 1833. We have partnered with Tinkle games and are going to make games based on Supandi and Shambu Shikari. We have signed up with Hrithik Roshan and will be doing shooting games too.

What are the major challenges in India’s gaming industry today?

Not having a good developer ecosystem and access to right developers are majors challenges. Gaming can be so addictive when it involves multi players in real time. But it is yet to happen in India because of the slow Internet speeds. Another challenge is the lack of payment options. Mobile wallets can be the answer to this.

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Please share your experience of working with Nazara Technologies after your stint at Reliance Gaming At Reliance, I was focussed on gaming outside of India. I am a firm believer in the Indian smartphone market growth and wanted to be in a position to cash in on the new opportunities.

In 2006, I was running ecommerce in this country. But today when the ecommerce is witnessing a boom, I am no one in the ecommerce space. I don’t want the history to repeat itself.

Nazara is very focused on India. It has a very large distribution reach which attracted me to not start from scratch and make it succeed in India. The urge to be number one gaming player in India brought me to Nazara.

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M

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INDIAN &E SECTOR Industry veteran Amit Khanna, in a freewheeling chat with Pickle, says the Indian M&E sector needs massive investments, innovative thinking and greater emphasis on skilled manpower to grow its clout in the global market

T

he Indian Media and Entertainment industry needs $50 billion worth of investment in the next five years and the media leadership needs a complete mindset change to drive its growth on global scale, according to Amit Khanna, media veteran and former chairman of Reliance Entertainment.

“If you see the total investment in the last 10 years in the entire Indian media and entertainment industry, it would be less than what a Flipkart has invested. The reason why money is not coming in is because of the poor business model. People have been on an expansion mode without adequate planning,” said Khanna in an exclusive interview with Pickle.

The media veteran feels that the mindset among the top M&E players needs to change. “The media and entertainment industry is looking at the world with the wrong end of the binocular. Everything is far and looks unattainable. What you don’t realise is you need to inverse the binoculars.”

In terms of figures, only $20 billion is spent on the Indian media and entertainment sector, which is only 1 per cent of the country’s GDP. “Our share of the world market is less than 1 per cent in the $3 trillion global media and entertainment market,” Khanna explained, adding that India’s per capita media spend needs to go up drastically to ensure growth.

To increase the market share of India, there is a need of massive investment in trained professionals and innovation, which is not forthcoming.

Khanna, who is currently researching for his encyclopaedia on the

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No Indian M&E business in the last 20 years has grown beyond Rs. 10,000 crore. It is a sad story. It reflects on the inability of the industry to reinvent itself and grow Amit Khanna

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history of media and entertainment in India, said that no Indian M&E business in the last 20 years has grown beyond Rs. 10,000 crore. “It is a sad story. It reflects on the inability of the industry to reinvent itself and grow,” he observed.

He also feels that the Indian M&E sector is at least 10 years behind the curve in technology.

“It requires drastic steps. The government should get out of business and businesses need to get into business.”

However, Khanna is optimistic about investment coming from Reliance Jio, Netflix, Amazon and many other companies like them. “This is already happening in India. We will see changes happen soon,” he said.

Khanna admitted that even Reliance Entertainment could not sustain itself. “I was involved with Reliance Entertainment. We invested $1 billion. That was not enough. Then we stopped.

We needed investment to become a major player in all media verticals. We needed another $2 to $3 billion which we could not raise or invest.

That’s why we failed,” Khanna said.

Only Star India and Zee and to some extent, Sony Entertainment Televison, have invested in the M&E business, according to him.

“Though Star India and Zee are there, they are not innovating enough. They do one innovative show and think they are doing great work.

There is virtually zero innovation,” he noted.

Khanna maintained that India has not tapped the digital market sufficiently. “We keep talking about OTT. We should not talk about delivery or access technology. We should talk about what the audience will access in that. It cannot be repurposed content. Every broadcaster has started a digital platform and they are telecasting the same programme as on TV. The audience who are online are not interested in that content. Digital platform is not for repurposed content. “ Interestingly, he predicted that mobile would become an access device in future. “Everybody is not going to see movies on the mobile phone. We will use the mobile to download the film or connect it to a home TV. Already projectors are getting launched which projects a normal image from a mobile phone onto the wall,” he said.

The Indian M&E industry should produce less and earn more, according to Khanna. “Last year, out of 1,200 feature films only 600 got released.

The number of unreleased films is going to go up with only 300 to 400 films getting released in future. That’s the reality. Similarly, 850 TV channels are not viable,” he said.

The government cannot be blamed for everything. “The government’s role in this sector should be of benign interference. The government has no role in the industry except bringing out some broad legislations. The fact is there is lack of investment and trained professionals. In 30 years, we have come from untrained people to semi-trained people. We have plenty of halfskilled people. Fully-skilled people are very few,” the former chairman of Reliance Entertainment said.

pickle entertainment biz guide

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POWER LIST

107

Most Influential in Indian Media & Showbiz

MOST INFLUENTIAL IN INDIAN MEDIA & SHOWBIZ

TITANS MUKESH AMBANI Chairman, Reliance Industries The richest man in India is known for his astute business acumen. Under his guidance, India’s largest private company Reliance Industries has expanded its influence in a wide range of sectors.

In the media and entertainment sphere, his out-of-the-box swap strategy with the Network18 has catapulted him in a commanding position. All is set for Reliance Jio launch.

VINEET JAIN MD, Bennett Coleman Thinking ahead of times, the Vineet Jain has successfully transformed Bennett, Coleman & Co. Ltd. (BCCL) into India’s largest media conglomerate – setting the agenda for change and rejuvenation of India’s print industry. Despite the group’s relatively small size in the global league, it packs a huge punch and exemplifies what innovative marketing and branding can achieve.

SUBHASH CHANDRA Promoter & Chairman, Zee Group The appetite for taking big risks and forward thinking made him launch India’s first satellite TV channel, Zee TV, in 1992.

Today, his TV channels, numbering up to 70, reach millions of people. With interests ranging from theme parks, cinema multiplexes and newspaper, recently he announced entry into the international news space with an English TV channel, World is One News.

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RUPERT MURDOCH Chairman, Twenty-First Century Fox The media tycoon’s News Corp. is a global powerhouse across the board -- print, television and film. He has extensive media interests in India, including HarperCollins Publishers as well as its 21st Century Fox-owned satellite network, besides the successful STAR TV, which broadcasts 40 entertainment, movie and news channels in seven languages and reaches over 700 million viewers.

GOOGLE Sundar Pichai, CEO The Silicon Valley behemoth is far ahead of its competition when it comes to digital advertising revenue, which is expected to be $44b this year. Its premier property YouTube features some of the biggest stars who are considered more influential than Hollywood actors and actresses.

Such is the power of Google and its ecosystem. For youngsters, the platform has emerged as a lifeline for entertainment.

FACEBOOK Mark Zuckerberg, CEO The social network has completely changed the way we communicate. With its plan to show live sports events like NFL, it may seriously make inroads into traditional TV segment and redefine the future of TV. In future, we may expect more and more conventional media companies depending on the social network to distribute their content either by selling the content or licensing the content to it.

KALANITHI MARAN Chairman, Sun Group He is credited with redefining Tamil television entertainment. Despite the media baron’s businesses currently under siege, there is no doubt on his influence in the media business. With its TV channels including its flagship SunTV and cable/DTH business, 48 FM channels across the country, two daily newspapers, five magazines, an IPL franchise (Sun Risers Hyderabad), he continues to be a major force to reckon with.

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AVEEK SARKAR Proprietor & Chief Editor, ABP Group The influence of Aveek Sarkar, Kolkatabased media baron and chief editor of the Anandabazar Group of Publications, is not limited to the newspapers, magazines and television channels that he owns. It extends into the cultural sphere. Anandabazar Patrika, the group’s flagship is one of the most widely read dailies in India. It reaches virtually every Bengali-speaking home and sways public choices.

SHOBHANA BHARTIA Chairperson & Editorial Director, HT Media The first woman chief executive of a national newspaper, professionalism and readiness to let her team work on their own terms are the two outstanding qualities that let her catapult the fortunes of HT Media’s flagship publications. She holds the credit of raising Rs 400 crore via public equity launch of the HT Media group in 2005 and played a pivotal role in revamping the image of the Hindustan Times into a “bright and young paper”.

AROON PURIE Chairman & Editor-in-Chief, India Today Group A chartered accountant-turned publisher, who is the editor-in-chief of the Living Media group’s magazines, including the 40year-old influential India Today, has been the guiding force when it comes to editorial focus and revenue generation. Not a single page in his publications ever goes without him having gone over it with a fine tooth comb. The buck stops at his table.

DR. PRANNOY ROY Executive Co-Chairperson, NDTV Group The co-founder of NDTV is a well-known journalist and television personality, who is an idol to millions of young Indians aspiring to make it as TV journalists. A trained economist, Roy dabbled in psephology before hitting the big time in Indian television towards the latter half of the last decade. NDTV today remains one of India’s best news and current affairs outfit.

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MAHENDRA MOHAN GUPTA Chairman, Jagran Prakashan He is at the helm of the largest circulated Hindi dailies in the country. The flagship newspaper, Dainik Jagran, has gradually climbed up the ladder of success with over 200 editions and about 30 publishing centres having a whopping readership of about 5.5 crores. The group has plans to diversify into radio and television.

RAMESH CHANDRA AGARWAL Chairman, DB Corp Ltd He is at the helm of Dainik Bhaskar group of newspapers which has presence in almost all Indian cities and all major Hindi speaking states. He has more than four decades of experience in the publishing and newspaper business. Recently, the group has also diversified into other media verticals.

S. BALASUBRAMANIAN ADITYAN MD, Daily Thanthi Group The managing director of Daily Thanthi group, which runs ‘Dina Thanthi’, one of the largest circulated newspapers in India, has learnt the art of management from his father Sivanthi Adityan. Starting his internship at Maalaimalar, a Tamil eveninger from the group, he is credited with establishing Hello FM and Thanthi TV, and making them successful.

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MOST INFLUENTIAL IN INDIAN MEDIA & SHOWBIZ

EXECUTIVE POWER STAR INDIA

UDAY SHANKAR CEO, Star India

SANJAY GUPTA COO, Star India

‘The more you invest, the more you grow...’ That’s the success mantra of Uday Shankar who has taken the organisation to new heights in his ninth consecutive year as the chief executive. Star India is the largest investor in the entertainment sector in India. This being achieved by a journalist is commendable. Operationally aided by equally brilliant Star India’s COO Sanjay Gupta, this combo is a rarity in the media sector -- and also in corporate leadership. But it is yet not clear why they decided to put all their money into sports and little into entertainment.

TEHCNICOLOR INDIA

BIREN GHOSE Country Head for India, Technicolor

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Ghose is a rare combination of creativity and business leadership in one person. As the country head of Technicolour, he has expanded the company’s India operations in such a way that he could open up thousands of new jobs to animation and visual effects. No one markets India as passionately as Biren, and at the same time contributing his time to the growth of locallyproduced animation.

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VIACOM 18 MEDIA

SUDHANSHU Design

RAJ NAYAK Design

VIACOM 18 xxxxxxxxxxx SUDHANSHU VATS

RAJ NAYAK Group Viacom18 Pvt. Ltd CEO, Colors Channel The inflCEO uence of AveekMedia Sarkar, Kolkatabased media baron and chief editor of the Anandabazar Group of Publications, is not limited to the newspapers, magaColors -- the flagship money spinner In less than three years, Sudhanshu zines and television channels that he owns. It extends into the cultural sphere. among all other group verticals ever Vats as the group CEO of Viacom 18 Anandabazar Patrika, the group’s flagship is one of the most widely read dailies since its launch -- has continued to has successfully led the group into a in India. It reaches virtually every Bengali-speaking home and sways public have audience on its side. Raj is among profitable growth phase while expandchoices in the dovery few CEOs who have witnessed the ing the channel network, driving growth of television for over two decontent-led cinema and entering expecades and continue to innovate to keep riential entertainment across genres at audience engaged with the channel. the same time.

DISNEY INDIA As the managing director of the Walt Disney Company India, Siddharth has taken on the mantle of driving the strategy and growth for it in one of its most important markets. The India business for Walt Disney spans across broadcasting, movies, consumer products and licensing, interactive, digital and games sectors through multiple brands namely Disney, UTV, Bindass, Marvel, Indiagames, Lucas, Pixar and ABC.

SIDDHARTH ROY KAPUR MD, Walt Disney Company India

NETWORK 18 Rahul Joshi, who is at the helm of Network 18, has brought the much-needed stability to the shacked up company. All eyes are now on him to find out how the news factory would shape up post the Reliance Jio launch with an integrated mobile and TV newsroom. But it is for sure that news via mobile will reach far flung places where newspapers cannot penetrate.

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RAHUL JOSHI CEO, News, NAME Design Network18 Media

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MOST INFLUENTIAL IN INDIAN MEDIA & SHOWBIZ

THOUGHT LEADERS

AMIT KHANNA

SAM BALSARA

A media and entertainment futurist, he believes that immersive technology is going to be the driving force for the next decade and the next generation internet is about customisation and curation. Most of his time is now spent in research for his ongoing encyclopaedia project tracing the History of Indian Media & Entertainment.

PRASOON JOSHI

One of the pioneers and thought leaders in Indian advertising, he has seen it and done it all in his nearly four decades old career. He has worked with companies like Sarabhai, Cadbury, Contract Advertising and Mudra Communications before starting Madison in 1988. Under his guidance, Madison today has 26 units across 11 specialized functions.

A brand builder, this advertising and communication specialist is also a prolific writer, who has penned 4 books — the first one coming out when he was just 17. He has been twice selected for the prestigious National Award by the President of India. Winning laurels for his work at Cannes, D&Ad, Clio, Media, Adfest, and plethora of others, he is a house-hold name which is deeply respected.

SHYAM-BENEGAL He is Hindi cinema’s most respected elder statesman.

His first four films – ‘Ankur’, ‘Nishant’, ‘Manthan’ and ‘Bhumika’, all made in the 1970s – marked the birth of the parallel cinema in Mumbai. The Dadasaheb Phalke Award winner currently heads the committee appointed by the I&B Ministry to suggest ways to revamp the film censorship system in the country.

ASHOK MANSUKHANI Over four decades in the media space, his valuable insights to the industry makes him the walking encyclopaedia of media regulation in the country. An ardent supporter of new technologies, he has his focus fixed on emerging digitisation of cable and is presently whole-time director of M/s. Hinduja Ventures Limited.

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SANOTOSH DESAI

PIYUSH PANDEY

He is a leading ad professional and heads Future Brands. An out-of-box thinker, his thought leadership in understanding the relationship between culture, brands and consumer as a product is reflected in his weekly columns.

Ad guru Piyush Pandey’s influence is his simplicity. He says in his own words: Keep it simple. Flesh out a complicated brief into a simple idea. And communicate from your heart. It should come from your heart and touch the heart.

A digital pioneer, he is managing director of Hungama Digital Media – the largest digital media company in South Asia – and a firm believer in the spurt of digital consumption in the next one or two years.

He has given a clarion call to the regulator to block access to 200 odd pirate sites which will result in monetisation for companies.

ARUNA HAR PRASAD

S RAGHUNATH

ASHISH S K

One of the leading authorities in management strategy, the post doctoral fellow from Stanford, has predicted the explosive growth of Indian media and strategies needed to succeed in the 21st century. He has done extensive research on the Indian M&E industry with specific focus on sustaining high growth through value innovation.

Ashish S K has taken the major task to work with various state governments & I&B Ministry to formulate an effective industryfriendly policy for animation, visual effects, gaming and comics (AVGC) sector. A firm believer in the Indian IP creation, he has his ambition set to create Mary Com Jr, the first girl super hero.

Establishing KAS Movie Makers with Kalyan Mukherjee in 1988, she pioneered the path of production companies in India and masterminded more than 500 shoots.

With offices in Delhi and Goa, KAS has been producing documentaries, feature films and commercials. After working on several international feature films, she continues to cheerlead India as a dramatic shooting location in the world.

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pickle entertainment biz guide

NEERAJ ROY

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MOST INFLUENTIAL IN INDIAN MEDIA & SHOWBIZ

BUSINESS MAVENS KISHORE LULLA Chairman, Eros International Kishore Lulla’s Eros has been spearheading India’s soft power in creating a global platform for Indian cinema by presenting it in 50 countries. It is the first Indian media company to raise capital and be listed on the New York Stock Exchange. Eros is set to co-produce four films with two Chinese studios over the next three years.

PUNIT GOENKA CEO, ZEEL Punit Goenka has been professionally managing ZEEL — one of India’s leading television M&E companies. It is amongst the largest producers and aggregators of Hindi programming in the world with an extensive library housing over 210,000 hours of television content and rights of more than 3,500 movie titles. Through its strong presence worldwide, ZEEL entertains over 959 million viewers across 169 countries.

KARAN JOHAR Producer, Dharma Productions He has delivered monster hits like ‘Kuch Kuch Hota Hai’, ‘Kabhi Alvida Na Kehna’ and ‘Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham’ in his more than two decade old career. His banner, Dharma Production, is among the industry’s top players. He has produced several films directed by former assistants.

Recently, the producer-director featured in a major role in Anurag Kashyap’s ‘Bombay Velvet’.

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RAJAT SHARMA Chairman, Editor-in-Chief, India TV A prominent and influential media owner, Rajat Sharma is the chairman of Hindi news channel, India TV. He is best known for his show ‘Aap Ki Adalat’. He has been a familiar face on TV for over two decades. Before joining television, he was the Editor of Onlooker, SundayObserver and The Daily. Currently, he is the president of the News Broadcasters Association of India (NBA).

MAMMEN MATHEW Chief Editor & MD, Malayala Manorama Hailed as the most read daily newspaper in Malayalam, it started as a weekly more than a century ago. It currently has a readership of over 20 million. Mammen Mathew is present Chief Editor and Managing Director of Malayala Manorama. He is one of the senior most journalists in India with 46 years of experience. He served as president of the Editors Guild of India and the Indian Newspaper Society.

N. RAM Chairman, Kasturi & Sons Ltd. Kasturi & Sons Ltd (KLS Media) owns The Hindu, one of the reputed and leading newspapers in the country. Known for strong editorial values, The Hindu Group now has a Tamil daily in the same name, Business Line, Sports Star and Frontline. The family-owned company, whose bosses are strong in both editorial and administration, is making its presence in the web too.

RAMOJI RAO Founder and Chairman, Ramoji Group A leading media and entertainment entrepreneur, Ramoji Rao gave Indian cinema a new outlook in terms of its outdoor locations. He founded Ramoji Film City, the largest film production facility in the world and also one of South India’s most popular tourism and recreation centres.

He established Eenadu group of newspapers and TV channels.

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RAGHAV BAHL Co-Founder, Quintillion Media After exiting Network 18, Raghav Bahl co-founded Quintillion Media Pvt Ltd with wife Ritu. A television journalistturned-media entrepreneur, Bahl’s new venture shows all signs of success in the digital news media. Media reports doing rounds suggest that he is set to tie up with Bloomberg to develop digital video properties. Only time will tell whether he will return back to news broadcast business.

JAWAHAR GOEL Chairman, DISH TV Goel is India’s first DTH service provider launching Dish TV as an alternative to a cable connection. He is a wizard in satellite and cable distribution business and technology and very few people can match his knowledge in cable, DTH and emerging new media tech. Always innovative, Dish TV’s breakthrough product on Dish on Wheels provides innovation in TV viewing on the move through mobile dish.

RAJJAT A. BARJATYA Managing Director & CEO, Rajshri Entertainment His company is India’s leading digital entertainment studio. It is the new media arm of the 68-year- old Rajshri group, one of India’s oldest, largest and most successful film and TV studios. Barjatya has turned around the company’s digital media arm as its most successful venture, which users worldwide consume entertainment content on-demand anytime, anywhere and on any device!

ADITYA CHOPRA Producer, YRF Films He is the chairman of Yash Raj Films (YRF), which is regarded as Bollywood’s biggest banner known for consistently churning out blockbusters. Chopra as a director and screenwriter has helmed three films in over two decades – ‘Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge’, ‘Mohabbatein’ and ‘Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi’ — all of which took the box office by storm. He is now making a comeback as a director with ‘Befikre’.

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RAMAN MAROO MD, Shemaroo Entertainment He is the guiding force behind Shemaroo Entertainment, which is one of India’s most reputable names in the digital content aggregation space. He helped his brother run a book library in 1974 and established India’s first video library in 1987 and today leads Shemaroo’s journey in the digital highway. Privately held for decades, Shemaroo has had a successful IPO in 2014 and going strong.

BHUSHAN KUMAR Chairman, T Series Taking reins from his father, the late Gulshan Kumar, Bhushan Kumar turned around T-Series into one of the most successful music and film companies of India. With his impeccable knack for music, drive and determination, he set new limits for T-Series to achieve growth. Today the music company is not only into acquiring soundtracks, but also new media revenue streams along with producing movies.

SAJID NADIAWALAH Producer A prolific mainstream producer, he made his directorial debut in 2014 with the Salman Khan starrer Kick. His filmography is dominated by commercially-oriented action dramas and slapstick comedies. He has also funded the films of directors like Imtiaz Ali (‘Highway’ and ‘Tamasha’).

One of his upcoming productions is the Vishal Bhardwaj-directed period drama Rangoon.

MADHU MANTENA Producer, Phantom Films Mantena is among the most successful entrepreneurs known in the business today. He has built a media entity with various companies operating across the entertainment and media verticals, with each specializing in talent management, content development, content production and content distribution. He is master craftsman in nurturing talent and coowns talent agency Kwan.

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AJAY BIJILI Owner, PVR Cinemas Ajay Bijli is the man behind the multiplex revolution in India. He has transformed the movie-watching experience of Indians with his chain of PVR Cinemas.

From five screens in 1997, PVR Cinemas today has nearly 60 million patrons, 501 screens, 111 properties in 45 cities across the country.

EKTA KAPOOR Joint MD, Balaji Telefilms Aptly called the reigning queen of the Indian television, everyone is hoping her to recreate the magic in digital formats.

Balaji Telefilms has built a SVOD platform, ALT Balaji, which is scheduled for launch later this year. It is set to offer 300 hours of original programming. The company is professionally run by Group CEO Samir Nair, a well-known media professional.

SANJAY GAIKWAD MD, UFO Moviez UFO Moviez is India’s largest digital cinema distribution network and in-cinema advertising platform in terms of number of screens. UFO operates India’s largest satellite-based, digital cinema distribution network using its UFO-M4 platform, as well as India’s largest D-Cinema network. They have so far enabled release of over 10,000 films in 22 languages and conducted over 21 million shows till 18th December, 2015.

SENTHIL KUMAR Co-founder, Real Image and Qube Cinema Chennai-based Real Image Media Technologies has pioneered several technology revolutions over the last 30-odd years.

With its Qube Cinema end-to-end digital cinema product line, Real Image has made an impact worldwide. The company has found ways to cut 80 percent cost in releasing a film. The one question that always comes to mind is why Qube has not gone public.

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SANJAY WADHWA MD, AP International He knows the pulse of distribution of South Indian films in the international market, especially in Asian region. The managing director of AP International is credited to have created space for Tamil and Malayalam movies in the overseas market. His company has the largest film software for new digital media.

SURESH BABU Producer. Suresh Productions Son of veteran producer D Ramanaidu, Daggubati Suresh Babu runs the highly successful Suresh Productions. Having bankrolled most of his younger brother and popular actor Venkatesh’s movies, Suresh has several blockbusters to his credit, including the recent Gopala Gopala and Drushyam.

His son Rana Daggubati shot to fame as the menacing ‘Bhallala Deva’ in last year’s magnum opus Baahubali: The Beginning.

SABBAS JOSEPH Director, Wizcraft International Along with Andre Timmins and Viraf Sarkari, Joseph launched the IIFA awards (by Wizcraft International) to promote Indian cinema globally and use its softpower to reach out to millions. That was 15 years back. Now IFFA property has mastered the craft taking it throughout the globe.

IIFA creates momentum for Indian cinema globally and spreads the country’s creative might in the showbiz sector.

P SATHYANARAYANAN Founder, Puthiya Thalaimurai He ventured into the media business with Puthiya Thalaimurai magazine and then with a television channel, penning a new chapter in Tamil news channels’ history with its news and views. He successfully laid to rest any apprehension that people might have about him repeating the success of his father-led SRM empire in many fields, especially education. The rest, as they say, is history.

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V A SHRIKUMAR MD & CEO, Push Integrated Communications He has over two decades of experience in the field of advertising and communication. He has been solely responsible for the turnaround of brands like Kalyan Jewellers Manappuram Gold Loan. For the first time, Push will manage UDF Party in the forthcoming state election in Kerala.

RAJIV CHILAKALAPUDI CEO, Green Gold Green Gold Animation is an industry pioneer and has to its credit many original properties, including hugely popular animation show “ Chhota Bheem�. With over 13,000 minutes of quality animation content, their shows and movies draw an active daily viewership of close to 40 million kids on TV.

TAPAAS CHAKRAVARTI, Chairman, DQ Entertainment He has over two decades of international corporate management experience and has helped to shape the success story of his creation DQ Entertainment group. No other Indian media and entertainment company would be engaged in European co-production activities as is being driven by Tapaas. He champions India in the global markets.

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MOST INFLUENTIAL IN INDIAN MEDIA & SHOWBIZ

ICONS AMITABH BACHCHAN Actor He is Hindi cinema’s longest serving superstar with phenomenal following. In a career spanning almost half a century, he has influenced entire generations of fans.

With the time the megastar has essayed a wide variety of awe-inspiring roles setting a benchmark for other actors to follow. He is loved by the public not only for his on screen persona but also for his humbleness.

RAJINIKANTH Actor He is currently the highest-paid movie actor in India. Although seen mainly in Tamil films, his fame transcends geographical boundaries. The hugely popular larger-than-life heroes that he plays on the screen, makes him the country’s most bankable movie star. He enjoys almost God-like status amongst his fans, who love his inimitable mannerisms and flashy dialogue delivery.

SHAH RUKH KHAN Actor The ‘Badshah of Bollywood’, as he is lovingly called by his fans, the megastar made inroads into our minds by playing some unforgettable romantic roles in his nearly 25 years of career. His rise in the Hindi film industry also signifies beginning of a new era, where an actor could venture into less-explored areas — like he did in ‘Swades’ and ‘Chak De India’.

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AAMIR KHAN Actor The high quality mass entertainer has broken the mould of the formula narrative rut. His last release, PK, is the biggest box-office grosser ever in the history of Hindi cinema. The host of Satyamev Jayate TV show was able to successfully mix entertainment with social cause, making him one of the most revered artists of our times.

KAMALHASSAN Actor The multi-talented actor is known for his bold experiments and playing characters that go beyond the conventional. Also a successful screenwriter and director, his work is keenly followed by cineastes. One of India’s most awarded film actors his ventures attract nationwide attention on account of their unusual approaches to storytelling.

CHIRANJEEVI Actor Tollywood’s very own ‘angry young man’ of the 1980s, Chiranjeevi is one of Indian cinema’s biggest superstars. Redefining commercial cinema, Chiranjeevi had mesmerized an entire generation of moviegoers. He is now all set to return with his 150th film. His son, Ram Charan Teja, who entered filmdom in 2007, is now an accomplished actor and a successful entrepreneur.

MAMOOTY Actor A force to reckon with in contemporary Malayalam cinema, he came into the limelight in 1980 with his first starring role in the film Mela. Since then, he has been part of some of the most acclaimed Malayalam films of the last 30 years. He has over the years acted in films in the Tamil, Telugu, Kannada and Hindi languages as well.

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MOHANLAL Actor About a decade younger than Mammootty, the impressively versatile Mohanlal made his mark as a lead actor in the same year as the latter, 1980. By the mid-1980s, he had attained superstar status. He has featured in over 320 films. Among Mohanlal’s best known screen roles is that of a kathakali artist plagued by personal setbacks in Shaji N Karun’s Vanaprastham.

GULZAR Writer, Lyricist The lyricist, poet and filmmaker shared one of the two Oscars that A.R. Rahman bagged for ‘Jai Ho’ in 2009. But his claim to fame does not by any means rests on that golden statuette. The much-respected Mumbai movie industry figure wrote his first song in the early 1960s and made his first film (Mere Apne) in 1971. He continues to be an integral part of the industry.

A R RAHMAN Composer The Mozart of Madras has redefined Indian film music by combining the strains of traditional Eastern classical sounds with influences borrowed and absorbed from around the world. The Oscar and Grammy-winning music composer has, over the past two decades and a bit, blazed a trail like no one else. ‘Jai Ho’ in Danny Boyle’s Slumdog Millionaire fetched him two Academy Awards.

ADOOR GOPALAKRISHNAN Director The fastidious filmmaker has steadfastly operated outside the confines of the commercial movie industry, crafting masterpieces that stand the test of time. He led the new wave in Malayalam cinema. In the 44 years that have elapsed since his debut, he has directed only ten films, but each of them has achieved cult status.

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PATH BREAKERS

RAJAMOULI He dreams big. Going where his imagination takes him, he pulls out the stops in the execution of his grand cinematic vision. The ‘hit’ director tag sits pretty on him. With his last outing, Baahubali – The Beginning, he too the fantasy action epic genre to a completely different plane aided by eye-popping CG imagery.

Audiences can barely wait for part two of the Baahubali experience!

KANGANA RANAUT

MANISH MUNDRA

She has steadily risen up the Bollywood ranks without the crutches of the industry’s big male box-office powerhouses.

With heroine-centric films like ‘Tanu Weds Manu’ and ‘Queen’ under her belt, Kangana is perceived as an actress capable of carrying an entire film on her slender shoulders.

Up ahead for the fans of the actress is the Vishal Bhardwaj period romance ‘Rangoon’.

A film producer by accident, he has an unfailing eye for cinematic gems.

A tweet by actor-director Rajat Kapoor expressing his frustration at not finding funds for ‘Ankhon Dekhi’ caught his attention and he offered to produce the critically acclaimed film. Since then this one-time soft drinks seller in Deoghar, Jharkhand, has backed extraordinary films like ‘Umrika’, ‘Dhanak’, ‘Masaan’ and ‘Waiting’.

Q (QAUSHIQ MUKHERJEE) An irrepressible agent provocateur, Kolkata-based Q is known the world over for his controversial cult film, ‘Gandu’. He has since adapted a Rabindranath Tagore dance drama, ‘Tasher Desh’, into a typically revisionist film; ‘Nabarun’, a documentary on the late Bengali litterateur Nabarun Bhattacharya; and the horror film ‘Ludo’.

VETRIMAARAN Since 2007, he has just three films to his credit. But his all three (‘Polladhavan’, ‘Aadukalam’ and the recent ‘Visaranai’) directorial ventures have left a huge impact in Tamil cinema, besides catapulting him into the league of India’s most respected filmmakers. His approach to filmmaking is marked by a rare level of meticulousness.

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RESUL POOKUTTY

ANURAG KASHYAP

This envelope-pushing sound designer and editor has won an Oscar and BAFTA award for his work on Danny Boyle’s ‘Slumdog Millionaire’.

In a career spanning almost two decades, he has collaborated with directors like Sanjay Leela Bhansali, Rajkumar Hirani and Imtiaz Ali and has also worked on the sound design of blockbusters like ‘Ghajini’, ‘Enthiran’ and ‘Ra.One’.

The inspiration behind many young directors to push the boundaries of Mumbai’s independent cinema, he is continues to challenge the hegemony of Bollywood, eschewing entertainment—fantasy, pleasure, happy endings—and offering instead harsh and edgy stories about life in contemporary society. His films make him stand apart.

He is probably India’s best-known filmmaker globally. But ironically, he is barely known in India. But that isn’t surprising. He is a fiercely independent filmmaker who lives in the hills and makes rigorous films about zones of experience and consciousness. His films have few parallels in Indian cinema.

UMESH KULKARNI

VARUN GROVER

SANAL KUMAR SASIDHARAN

This FTII alumnus is one of the finest Marathi filmmakers of his generation. He directed several acclaimed short films before making his first feature film, ‘Valu’ (The Wild Bull). His films, steeped in the ethos of Maharashtra and informed with a deeply personal vision, are lucid comments on social and cultural issues of the times.

This gifted stand-up comedian, lyricist and screenwriter is a talent that stands apart from the crowd with the sheer uniqueness of his output. Besides writing lyrics for ‘Gangs of Wasseypur’, ‘Ankhon Dekhi’ and ‘Dum Laga Ke Haisha’, he scripted Neeraj Ghaywan’s ‘Masaan’, which garnered accolades in Cannes last year. Grover has written lyrics for the upcoming SRK Film, ‘Fan’.

A lawyer by training and a passionate film society activist, he made his directorial debut in 2014 with the crowd-funded ‘Oraalpokkam’ based on man’s indiscriminate assaults on the environment. He followed it with ‘An Off-Day Game’, a disturbing look at caste dynamics in Kerala against the backdrop of an election. His third film, a social satire provocatively titled ‘Sexy Durga’, is already in the making.

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AMIT DUTTA

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MEGA ENTERTAINERS SALMAN KHAN Actor A Bollywood crowd-puller who has no peer, he thrives on the loyalty of his fans. No matter what kind of film he acts in, they pack the movie halls and ensure bumper collections. His previous release, Sooraj Barjatya’s ‘Prem Ratan Dhan Paayo’, which saw the star make a departure from his action-hero persona, mopped up a neat pile at the box office.

Bollywood cannot do without him.

PRIYANKA CHOPRA Actor The first Asian actress to play a lead role in an American television series, she is steadily building on the breakthrough.

The actress has now been cast as the baddie in the film version of ‘Baywatch’, featuring Dwayne Johnson and Zac Efron in key roles. The past year and a half saw her transformation complete with breathtaking performances in ‘Mary Kom’ and ‘Dil Dhadakne Do’

DEEPIKA PADUKONE Actor Debuting in 2007 with ‘Om Shanti Om’, she took a while to find her footing in the industry. She came into her own in films like ‘Cocktail’, ‘Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani’ and ‘Chennai Express’. Her transformation into a dependable actress was complete in ‘Piku’ and Bajirao-Mastani. She will be seen next sharing screen space with Van Diesel in the Hollywood film XXX: The Return of Xander Cage.

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HRITHIK ROSHAN Actor He is one of Bollywood’s most saleable superstars. Known especially for his dancing skills, he has acted in the superhero film franchise ‘Koi… Mil Gaya’, ‘Krrish’ and ‘Krrish 3’. Besides featuring in the period film ‘Jodhaa Akbar’ in the role of the Mughal emperor, he has achieved success in both action films and romantic and social dramas.

AJAY DEVGN Actor An actor who made the transition from being an out-and-out acting star to bagging National Awards for his performances in films like ‘Zakhm’ and ‘The Legend of Bhagat Singh’, he has over the years starred in films virtually of every genre.

He continues to be a major box office draw.

In recent years, many of his releases have been commercial successes. He is also a producer and director.

AKSHAY KUMAR Actor One of Bollywood’s most bankable stars, he is a prolific actor who has featured in over a hundred feature films in a career spanning a quarter century. He specialises in action films and comedies, but has also, in recent rimes, made a mark with dramas like ‘Special 26’ and ‘Airlift’, which was released earlier this year to an enthusiastic reception.

RANVEER SINGH Actor Making his acting debut in the 2010 romantic comedy ‘Band Baaja Baaraat’, the 30-yearold quickly established himself as a box office force. Although some of his films may not have lived up to expectations in commercial terms, the two films that Ranveer has done with Sanjay Leela Bhansali – ‘Goliyon Ki Rasleela Ram-Leela’ and ‘Bajirao Mastani’ – have enabled to pull ahead of other Bollywood actors of his generation.

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AJITH KUMAR Actor Carving his own destiny, he remains boxoffice king for more than a decade. ‘Thala’ (head) to his fans, theatres turn festival grounds whenever a film of his releases and traffic jams on roads housing cinema halls are a common scenario. Despite his stature in Tamil cinema, he is extremely humble and always open to do something awe-inspiring that other celebrities might not consider doing.

VIJAY Actor One of the few front-runners to the numero uno slot of Tamil cinema, Vijay has his own box-office records. He has carved a niche for himself with colourful commercial entertainers and has a faithful fan following among the youth. Even in his 40s, his dance movements remain unmatched by even those in their 20s. ‘Ilaya Thalapathi’ to fans, Vijay is successfully marching towards his 60th movie.

SURIYA Actor He might have come to the field with the tag of Sivakumar’s son. But his growth is certainly not because of it. Suriya equipped himself as an actor par excellence with his dedication, sincerity and hard work. Groomed by the likes of directors Bala and Ameer, he is now one of the top stars of Tamil cinema, who has a bankable, and enviable, box-office and performance record.

DHANUSH Actor Dhanush won a National Award at a very young age. Though a performer par excellence, he has left a mark on the box-office too. His films (such as ‘VIP’, ‘Polladhavan’ and ‘Anegan’) set the cash registers ringing. A lyric writer, or ‘poetu’ in his style, the song ‘Why this kolaveri...’ penned by him went viral all over the world. He made his presence felt in Bollywood through ‘Raanjhanaa’.

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NAYANTARA Actor From a humble beginning in ‘Ayya’, the growth story of Nayanthara begs to be made a case study for aspiring actresses.

Despite being in hibernation for some time, she made it to the top again, not just in Tamil cinema, but also in Telugu and Malayalam industries. Her colleagues hail for her simplicity, sincerity and professionalism, the three ingredients that are apparently the secrets of her success.

AKKINENI NAGARJUNA Actor Nagarjuna, is a rare actor of the last generation who is still a force. Son of veteran actor Nageswara Rao, he, with consecutive hits, continues to give the current crop of actors a run for their money. He and his wife, popular actress Amala, are referred to as the industry’s ‘power couple’. Nagarjuna’s sons Naga Chaitanya and Akhil Akkineni made their movie debuts as solo leads in 2009 and 2015 respectively.

MAHESH BABU Actor A combination of good looks and innate talent, Mahesh Babu is box office dynamite. Son of yesteryears superstar Krishna, Mahesh, referred to as ‘Prince’ by his fans, is a principal reason why Telugu cinema enjoys a huge overseas market today.

A philanthropist and the voice of several public service campaigns, Mahesh’s popularity soared to an all-time high, after he adopted a village in Andhra Pradesh.

JUNIOR NTR Actor A scion of the famed Nandamuri clan, Tarak Rama Rao’s entry into tinsel town was inevitable. But little did the industry know that this was to be no ordinary journey of a star kid. Junior NTR, as he is popularly called, has time and again wowed the audience with his on-screen exploits. A dancer par excellence and an actor who breathes life to any character, Tarak is today one of the most sought-after leading men in Telugu cinema.

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PAWAN KALYAN Actor Pawan Kalyan is one of South India’s biggest movie superstars. Starting out two decades back as the younger brother of actor Chiranjeevi, he has carved out his own magnificent niche, earning a huge, committed fan following. Known to be a producer’s actor, Kalyan is also a martial arts expert, choreographer and stunt coordinator.

APARNA SEN Actor Making her acting debut in Satyajit Ray’s ‘Teen Kanya’, she has been one of Bengal’s most abiding cultural icons. She went on to build a hugely successful career as a director with films like ‘36 Chowringhee Lane’, which paved the way for a series of acclaimed cinematic essays. She continues to appear occasionally in films, as she did in Srijit Mukherji’s ‘Chatuskone’ in 2014.

DEV Actor The highest paid movie actor of Bengal is also a Trinamool Congress Member of Parliament. Although he made his debut in 2006 with ‘Agnishapath’, his second film, ‘I Love You’, produced by Shree Venkatesh Films, set him on the path to super-stardom. On the back of hits like ‘Challenge’, ‘Paglu’, ‘Romeo’, ‘Khokhababu’ and ‘Challenge 2’, he has become one of Bengali commercial cinema’s most bankable stars.

PROSENJIT CHATTERJEE Actor Few actors in the history of cinema in Bengal have had as long and as fruitful an innings as him. Since featuring in the cast of Rituparno Ghosh’s ‘Chokher Bali’, he turned his attention to artistically meaningful films, many of which have gone on to win big at the National Awards, including Srijit Mukherji’s ‘Jaatishwar’ and Rituparno Ghosh’s ‘Dosar’.

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IRRFAN KHAN Actor He is widely regarded as one of India’s finest actors. Known for his understated approach to acting for the camera, he is a National School of Drama graduate. In 2001, his performance in British director Asif Kapadia’s ‘The Warrior’ fetched him global attention. He hasn’t looked back since. Among his best-known films are ‘The Namesake’, ‘Slumdog Millionaire’, ‘Life of Pi’, ‘Paan Singh Tomar’ and ‘The Lunchbox’.

ROHIT SHETTY Director Son of character actor and action director Shetty, Rohit Shetty is among the Mumbai movie industry’s most successful hit makers. His potboilers aimed at the masses never fail to mop up big box-office returns.

He has delivered a string of hits since he stumbled upon the money-spinning ‘Golmaal’ franchise in 2006. Since then, Rohit has made two more ‘Golmaal’ comedies as well as ‘Singham’ and ‘Singham 2’.

S SHANKAR Director He dreams big, thinks big and makes big things with consummate ease and elan.

In Tamil cinema’s dictionary, the word ‘grandeur’ means Shankar. From ‘Gentleman’ to ‘I’, his films set new trends in Kollywood in terms of budget and collection.

He is currently busy with ‘2.0’, starring Rajinikanth and Akshay Kumar. The film is tipped to be the costliest ever movie in Indian cinema.

A.R. MURUGADOSS Director A youngster with full of dreams in his eyes, A R Murugadoss made his debut in cinema with the Ajith-starrer ‘Dheena’.

Since then, success is the only thing he has tasted, be it Kollywood (‘Ramana’, ‘Thupakki’ etc), Tollywood (‘Stalin’, ‘Tagore’) or Bollywood (‘Ghajini’). In association with 20th Century Fox, he also produces movies and focuses on backing young and promising talent.

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SANJAY LEELA BHANSALI Director Grandeur is the keyword in Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s cinematic vision. With sweeping epics like Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam, Devdas, Goliyon Ki Rasleela Ram-Leela and Bajirao Mastani under his belt, he enjoys the reputation of being a filmmaker who paints on big canvases and narrates larger-than-life tales. Bhansali has also made Hindi films that have sought to break the established commercial mould.

RAJKUMAR HIRANI Director Blending commercial viability with an individualistic sensibility, the writerdirector-editor has delivered a string of megahits since making Munnabhai MBBS in 2003. He has since helmed films such as Lage Raho Munnabhai, 3 Idiots and PK, each one of a huge box office hit.

His career has moved only one way – up, up and away.

VISHAL BHARDWAJ Director He is one of Bollywood’s more adventurous directors and works with narrative raw material that demands auteur-like control. As a screenwriter and director, he has crafted several thought-provoking films that reflect a mind that is clued into both classic literature and contemporary reality. He is best known for his Shakespeare trilogy – ‘Maqbool’, ‘Omkara’ and ‘Haider’.

KAPIL SHARMA Stand-up comedian, actor, TV host He is a comedian and television show host who was the face of the super-successful ‘Comedy Nights with Kapil Sharma’. He has transformed himself as one of India’s biggest showbiz stars outside of the mainstream movie industry. A new TV show hosted by him —‘The Kapil Sharma Show’ – is due to go on air on Sony in the third week of April.

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MOST INFLUENTIAL IN INDIAN MEDIA & SHOWBIZ

EMERGING PLAYERS

SONAM KAPOOR

THENANDAL FILMS

Actor

Distributor, Producer

Once seen largely as a style icon known more for her fashion statements than her film roles, she has evolved into an actress of substance in her own right with the success of her latest release, ‘Neerja’, the story of a real-life flight attendant who died fighting terrorists aboard a PanAm aircraft. Her previous release, Prem Ratan Dhan Paayo, starring Salman Khan, was a commercial success.

If Sri Thenandal Films is now a respected name in international film markets, it’s because of Murali.

Son of late director-producer Rama Narayanan, he acquired the hot seat after his father’s demise and since then, there is no looking back. Murali not just knows the knack of acquiring and bankrolling the right movies, but also to market them globally.

VENKATESH FILMS

AYANANKA BOSE

Producer

DOP

Two men who have been major gamechangers in contemporary Bengali cinema are cousins Shrikant Mohta and Mahendra Soni, the brains behind Shree Venkatesh Films (SVF), an integrated M&D company. Described as the YRF ofBengal, their banner produces movies, TV shows and music. Not a year passes without SVF figuring on the roll-call of the National Awards.

The director of photography has had a meteoric rise in Bollywood in the past decade. One of the busiest cinematographers in the world of TV commercials, he trained under director and cameraman Rajiv Menon. After serving as an assistant on the sets of ‘Dil Chahta Hai’ and ‘Kannathil Muthamittal’, he then went on to earn his spurs as an independent DOP.

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YoBoHo

NAZARA

NAAGAA

HITENDRA MERCHANT Founder and CEO

TECHNOLOGIES

ENTERTAINMENT

NITISH MITTERSAIN Managing Director Nazara is a leading mobile games developer and publisher focused on the huge mobile consumer base in India and world-wide. In addition to developing a range of branded and original mobile games, the company operates unique services such as ‘Games Club’.

V. NAAGARAJAN CEO Naagaa Entertainment Media Pvt Ltd is a Chennai-based firm and is one of the leading media syndication businesses in India catering to the content requirement needs of international television channels. The company has dedicatedly built and consolidated its reputation as a highly reliable entity.

YoBoHo is the world’s no. 1 digital-first content producer for kids, and home to the massively popular Hooplakidz brand. YoBoHo is now part of BroadbandTV (BBTV), which puts the Hooplakidz brand alongside the company’s key media brands. YoBoHo generates a total of three billion views per year.

CHU CHU TV

OGLE

YouTube Channel

Video Streaming

ChuChu TV is one of the most popular YouTube channels catering to kids. Since debuting in early 2013, CHU CHU TV has racked up millions of subscribers and billions of views for its videos, which aim to engage and educate children through colourful animations, set to wellknown nursery rhymes and upbeat original songs.

Ogle is India’s premium on-demand entertainment service. Ogle streaming service comes with features such as buffer-less and ad-free streaming.

It enables online streaming across various connected devices and also caters to low bandwidth issues. It provides an array of online content across genres.

YUPP TV

MOBIOTICS

Video Streaming

OTT

YuppTV is one of the world’s leading Over-The-Top (OTT) South Asian content providers. Founded in 2006, YuppTV started with two channels and has grown to deliver more than 200+ TV Channels today. YuppTV is accessible on more than 25 internet enabled - Connected Vs, Internet STBs, smart Blu-ray players, PCs, smartphones and tablets.

Mobiotics offers white-labelled OTT technology platform to broadcasters, operators, and content producers to launch their own OTT TV and TV Everywhere services globally. Built using the best of cloud and mobile technologies, the solution is customizable, scalable and reliable while providing the best in class user experience across devices.

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SIVANIVIN PAULY KARTHIKEYAN Actor

PRITHVIRAJ Actor

Actor Sivakarthikeyan’s rise to stardom is one of the fastest in Tamil cinema’s history. From a TV anchor to a comedian to protagonist of small budget films, he is now an Alist actor of Kollywood.

His rating and remuneration, if sources are to be believed, have surpassed those of even some biggest stars of the industry.

One of the young faces of Malayalam cinema, Nivin, after the release of ‘Premam’, is described as the next Mohanlal in the social media and got a “superstar” tag too. In 2015, he received the Kerala State Film Award for Best Actor for his performance in ‘Bangalore Days’ and ‘1983’.

A blend of looks and talent, Prithviraj is received the Kerala State Award for Best Actor at the age of 24. He has also acted in a number of Tamil, Telugu and Hindi films. Son of actors Sukumaran and Mallika, Prithviraj made his debut in ‘Nandanam’ (2002) at the age of 19.

G V PRAKASH KUMAR K.U. MOHANAN Composer

Cinematographer

The shrill voice of ‘Chikku bukku chikku bukku rayile...’ is now a successful music director and fast rising actor. That’s G V Prakash Kumar to you. Emerging from the shadow of his Oscar-winning uncle A R Rahman, GVP carved niche of his own.

His songs are chartbusters and films starring him are blockbusters.

He is one of India’s most accomplished cinematographers beginning his career with outstanding documentaries like ‘Manjuben Truck Driver’ and ‘John and Jane’. He then made a name for himself in the world of advertising films before branching out into the mainstream and independent Hindi cinema space.

RAVI VARMAN

SPULL

Cinematographer

Video Streaming

He wears many hats, one of which is that of a writer of Tamil fiction and non-fiction. But his popularity rests primarily on his work as a cinematographer who brings a unique sensibility to the craft of filming. He has shot films in various languages – Malayalam, Hindi, Tamil, Telugu and English – blending a poetic vision with a keen sense of reality.

Spuul is designed to be a one-stop destination for Indian content and was one of the first companies to enter the video streaming business in India. Spuul enables its users stream and download full-length movies in Hindi, Tamil, Malayalam, Telugu, Punjabi and other Indian regional languages.

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MAKE YOURSELF VISIBLE IN PICKLE-MAY 2016 CANNES FILM MARKET ISSUE Pickle reaches out to audio visual companies in over 50 countries; Targets global buyers and distributors; Film Festivals and markets; Animation production companies; Global companies looking at offshoring from India; Co-production seekers and location service providers. Pickle business guide tracks the entertainment business in India.

INDIA AND BEYOND 48

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DUBBING FACTORY SHABNAM

Bridging Language Divide

Manish Dutt MD, VR Films Pvt Ltd

With major ďŹ lm production houses trying to reach out to new audiences, dubbing studios are witnessing phenomenal growth in India. Manish Dutt, MD, VR Films, talks about how he is helping bridge the language gap aided by technology and what future may hold for the industry

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Manish Dutt runs India’s biggest dubbing factory, managing over 900 artistes who lend their voices in several languages to keep his pipeline engaged. Even after clocking 50,000 hours of dubbing and witnessing 80 percent year-on-year growth, Manish’s VR Films is hungry for more.

“India is emerging as a hub to dub for Hollywood and European language films,” says Manish, Managing Director, VR Films. “We are positioning ourselves to be a one-stop shop for all dubbing and sub-titling requirements. Our dubbing factory is making Hollywood in India.”

“We have done a number of Chinese films to English, Tamil, Hindi and Telugu. Also, when we dub Chinese films into English (neutral English) it is accepted globally,” says Manish.

Recently, a major studio asked VR Films to dub their library catalogue in Marathi and Bengali besides Hindi, Tamil and Telugu. Soon, you will see Hollywood dishing out dubbed films in West Bengal and Maharashtra to engage with new audience.

The cloud has opened up new business opportunities. “If anyone wants to send

1600

HOURS DUBBED FOR TV EVERY YEAR

their films for dubbing, then all they need to do is to provide an online link and tell us to localise content. We have the capability to do dubbing in 50 languages. We can deliver the product in 10 days and the end product can be retrieved from the cloud.”

The regionalization of TV channels further improved bottomlines of dubbing studios. VR Films dubs all Discovery Channels English feed to Hindi, Tamil and Telugu. “We do around 1600 hours of TV dubbing every year.”

Interesting local dialects and nuances play a major part in work process and that is the reason for their footprint in state capitals. “We don’t dub Bengali in Mumbai. We dub it in Kolkata. Similarly, we do Tamil dubbing in Chennai. The authenticity, nuances and local idioms will be felt when you dub locally,” notes Manish.

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FILMS DUBBED BY VR FILMS

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LANGUAGES DUBBED AT VR FILMS

He spent four years (1992 to 1996) working with UTV and started his own venture doing films for Channel V. Manish is aided by his brother Krishi Dutt. They belong to a family of cinematographers who worked in Mumbai in sixties and seventies.

Set up in 2000, unlike other studios VR Films doesn’t let out their studios for rentals. Its 36 studios are spread across Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata. They have done over 500 dubbings for Hollywood films.

Twentieth Century Fox’s ‘Beyond Enemy Lines’ was their first Hollywood project. “It was a major challenge and our dubbing was cleared in first take. We did Steven Spielberg’s ‘Minority Report’ and there is no stopping since then,” says Manish, who is well-known in the film market circuit (at Cannes, Berlin and Hong Kong).

The closing down of single screen has had a major dent in import of films, especially ‘C’ grade films, which once formed a major chunk of business for VR Films.

“The market is getting tougher for small Hollywood films because regional language films are doing well. There is no space for small Hollywood films in India.

The product has to be big to get screened

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in theatres today,” says Manish.

The entry of players like Netflix and Amazon has, however, brought excitement to VR Films. “The change is happening right now. The digital is going to explore and throw new work on us,” says a confident Manish.

In 2000, a chance meeting with CEO of Warner Brothers opened up big biz opportunities for Manish who dubbed an entire animation catalogue for the company. That was followed up with Cartoon Network and later Pogo.

He feels that Indian film producers are satisfied and very averse to risk. “The world is talking of $1 billion revenue from a film and we are still talking of Rs 200 or Rs 300 crore. I am waiting for a day when a Shah Rukh Khan film will get released on a Friday in 20,000 cinema halls in 40 languages. It can happen.

That should be our vision,” says a confident Manish.

“We will see a global impact when we release our films in dozen languages outside India. We are talking 4,000 prints.

The world is talking 20,000 prints today.

Our mindset has to change,” says Manish.

Any takers for Manish’s wish?

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