Popular reality show producer Endemol Shine India has chalked out an elaborate game plan to grow its scripted business over the next three years. The company has signed a host of contracts ranging from original contents for OTT platforms, acquired book rights for series adaptation and tied-up with directors for theatrical films in regional languages.

Endemol Shine India, a joint venture between Endemol Shine group and CA Media, is a major player in the non-scripted entertainment business which includes reality shows, game shows, music and dance, and quiz shows. Some of its popular shows are: Bigg Boss , So you think you can dance India , Master Chef India and India’s Next Superstar .

“Currently, 80 per cent of our business comes from non-scripted space. We are planning to grow our scripted business to reach a 50-50 revenue between scripted and non-scripted business by 2022,” said Abhishek Rege, CEO, Endemol India Private Limited.

Endemol India is currently working on multiple web series in Hindi for various over the top (OTT) platforms. The company is doing the second season of its 2017 web series ‘The Test case’ for ALTBalaji. It is also working on two other Hindi series titled Dhanbad and Mission Mangalyaan for the OTT platform.

In partnership with Ram Madhvani, director of Hindi movie Neerja , Endemol India is doing a show for Hotstar.

“In the last 12-18 months, we have invested a lot of time and efforts in putting together ideas and intellectual property (IP) in developing our scripted business,” Rege said.

To further augment its business, the Endemol Group has also acquired the book rights of Amitav Ghosh’s IBIS trilogy: Sea of Poppies, River of Smoke and Flood of Fire.

The web series adaptation of the book will be co-produced by Endemol India along with its UK label in association with director Shekhar Kapur and Pirates of the Caribbean writer Justin Pollard. The proposed 3-plus season English series will be produced in an international set up and will be sold to international streamers and broadcasters.

Regional movies

Endemol India has also ventured into the regional movie market. The company has signed two movie projects with Tamil director Pandiraj, out of which production for the first movie will commence by the end of the year. “We will probably be doing one Hindi movie as well and we are looking to hit the floor tentatively by January 2020,” Rege said.

On the third season of Bigg Boss Tamil, which went live last Sunday, Rege said the reality show was once frowned upon as against Tamil culture but has now become part of every household and has created a lot of buzz.

So far, Endemol India has produced about 30 seasons of Bigg Boss show in multiple languages such as Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Kannada, Marathi and Bangla.

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