India’s IN10 Media Network Launches MovieVerse Studios, Reveals Diverse Slate (EXCLUSIVE)

Naman Ramachandran After a successful launch at SXSW earlier this year, the South Asian House initiative, which aims to highlight, recognize and appreciate South Asians in film and television, is set to debut at the Tribeca Festival, New York, on June 16. Brainchild of producers, curators and programmers Rohi Mirza Pandya (Box Office Guru Media and Desipina), Monika Samtani (Ms. Media and The Fem Word), Jitin Hingorani (Jingo Media and DFW South Asian Film Festival) and Kirtana Banskota (Banskota Productions and Nepal America Film Society), the event will showcase programming focused on the funding, creation and distribution of South Asian stories for a global audience. The day will consist of two panel discussions focused on content creation in the diaspora and the Indian film industry and will be part of the AT&T Untold Stories Lounge at Spring Studios.

Naman Ramachandran South Asian focused streamer ZEE5 has unveiled a 111-strong 2023 slate on the occasion of its fifth anniversary. The lineup is across the Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam, Bangla, Punjabi and Marathi languages. The content is from top producers including Dharma Productions, Salman Khan Films, Oscar winner Guneet Monga’s Sikhya Entertainment, Bhanushali Studios, The Viral Fever, Applause Entertainment, Rose Audio Visuals, Vikas Bahl, Vivek Agnihotri, Nagraj Manjule and Sudhir Mishra. A-list performers in the shows and films include Manoj Bajpayee, Pankaj Tripathi, Huma Qureshi, Arya, Parambrata Chatterjee, Vijay Sethupathi, Nawazuddin Siddiqui and Radhika Apte.

Naman Ramachandran Indian auteur Aribam Syam Sharma’s “Ishanou,” which screened at the Un Certain Regard strand at Cannes in 1991 is returning to the Croisette in a restored version. The Manipuri-language film is the only Indian film at the festival’s Cannes Classics section this year. “Ishanou” (“The Chosen One”), follows Tampha, a young woman with a loving husband and a small daughter, who leads a tranquil existence in the Manipur valley and is occupied with the mundane details of life. Suddenly she begins to behave in a strange manner, talking to flowers, becoming afflicted with dizzy spells and wandering out of the house in the dark of the night. The family tries to find a cure for her malady and finally realize that she does not have a sickness, but rather is responding to the call of a deity who has chosen her.

Naman Ramachandran India’s Richa Chadha and the U.K.’s William Moseley will headline the cast of India-U.K. co-production “Aaina.” The film, set between London and India, is a drama about the impact of the cycle of violence, both within cultures and on human beings in the form of PTSD. It marks the feature directorial debut of Markus Meedt, who previously directed several acclaimed shorts, including “Shelter” and “Anonymous” and episodes of mini-series “Let’s Get Macho.” Chadha starred in “Gangs of Wasseypur” and “Masaan,” both of which debuted at Cannes. She was most recently in Disney+ Hotstar series “The Great Indian Murder.” Moseley made a mark as a child actor in the Narnia franchise. He was one of the leads in “Land of Dreams,” which debuted at Venice, and was also in Indian film “Margarita With A Straw,” which had festival play at Toronto, Busan and London.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent On the heels of his acclaimed stage performance at London’s National Theater for “Phaedra,” Assaad Bouab (“Call My Agent!,” “Bad Sisters”) is set to team with filmmaker Benjamin Ross (“The Frankenstein Chronicles”) and European production banner Asacha Media Group on “Voyager.” “Voyager” will star Bouab as legendary Medieval explorer and philosopher Ibn Battuta who went on pilgrimage to Mecca and ended up travelling for over twenty years and over 76000 miles across Africa, India and Eurasia, more than anyone in pre-modern history.  Battuta logged his experiences of the people, places and cultures he encountered along the way, writing one of the world’s earliest and most famous travelogues, The Rilah, and earning himself legendary status in history. The project is being developed as a series.

Naman Ramachandran Indian multiplex chains PVR and Inox, which merged earlier this year, have launched a combined distribution arm PVR Inox Pictures, formerly PVR Pictures, “to increase investments in content acquisition to streamline high quality content for the Indian market, generate further opportunity for underrepresented storytellers and independent creators, and deliver a robust content slate to the Indian audience.” PVR Inox operates a network of 1689 cinema screens in 361 properties across 115 cities in India and Sri Lanka, and holds 43% share of multiplex screens in India. PVR Inox Pictures is the largest independent distributor of foreign language films and a prominent distributor of Indian films, in India.

Indian exhibitor PVR Inox, recently formed by the merger of the PVR and Inox cinema brands, has launched a new motion pictures arm, PVR Inox Pictures, which will ramp up acquisitions of international content for the India market. 

JioCinema Premium has revealed an annual subscription plan of INR999 ($12.13) for Warner Bros. Discovery content. Billionaire Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) is behind Viacom18 and JioCinema. Warner Bros. Discovery and Viacom18 signed a multi-year agreement recently making JioCinema India’s new streaming home for HBO, Max Original and Warner Bros. content from May. The WBD content had previously been carried on the Disney-owned Star TV platform. But the deal with Star expired at the end of March.  Television series will premiere on JioCinema on the same day as the U.S. The deal includes current and future seasons of HBO’s “House of The Dragon,” “The Last of Us,” “Succession” and “The White Lotus,” and returning seasons of “True Detective: Night Country,” “Euphoria,” “Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty” and “Perry Mason.”

Naman Ramachandran Prolific Indian actor Anil Kapoor will star in “Subedar” for Vikram Malhotra’s Abundantia Entertainment. The film will be directed by Suresh Triveni, who previously directed T-Series’ comedy-drama “Tumhari Sulu” (2017) and T-Series and Abundantia’s Prime Video original thriller “Jalsa” (2022), both headlined by Vidya Balan. “I have done a lot of action films, but this is a pure action film, a dramatic action film,” Kapoor told Variety. “I’m excited about it.” The plot is under wraps at the moment. Principal photography will commence Sept. 15. Kapoor also confirmed that he is on board and will play the lead in the Hindi-language adaptation of 2019 Malayalam-language hit “Android Kunjappan Ver 5.25,” where a father-son relationship gets an endearing twist when an AI humanoid enters their lives.

India Amarteifio is all everyone is talking about after the debut of Queen Charlotte on Netflix.

Naman Ramachandran Indian studio Excel Entertainment has promoted business head Vishal Ramchandani to the newly created position of CEO. An MBA by qualification, Ramchandani joined Excel in 2008, in the marketing division. In 2013, he was entrusted with the duties of heading the division, where he spearheaded award-winning marketing campaigns for films such as “Fukrey,” “Baar Baar Dekho,” “Gold” and “Gully Boy.” In 2018, Ramchandani was elevated to the position of business head. In this role, he played a pivotal role in transforming Excel Entertainment from a creative production house to a studio that self-funds, markets and distributes its films. Under his leadership, the company’s distribution business diversified with the K.G.F. franchise, which became a nationwide blockbuster. He was also instrumental in Excel expanding into different verticals such as a talent division and co-production deals, as well as facilitating new media ventures.

Naman Ramachandran The next decade will belong to Indian stories, according to Sushant Sreeram, country director of Prime Video India. Sreeram was delivering a keynote at the ongoing FICCI-Frames 2023 convention in Mumbai. “The coming decade belongs to Indian stories, with streaming enabling expansion of linguistic palette and content diversity,” Sreeram said. The executive also highlighted the impact of streaming services on the Indian media and entertainment industry, noting their role in taking Indian stories to a global audience. “By offering convenient and easy access to the finest Indian content, OTT [streaming] players have made Indian entertainment accessible to viewers worldwide,” Sreeram said.

Naman Ramachandran The Indian media and entertainment industry grew 20% to reach INR2.1 trillion ($26 billion) in 2022, 10% above pre-pandemic 2019, according to the annual EY report released during the ongoing Frames conference in Mumbai, organized by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry. The report collates data from television, digital media, film, animation and VFX, out of home media, live events, music, radio, online gaming and print. Overall, the M&E sector is projected to grow 12% to reach $28.6 billion in 2023, the report says. While television remained the single largest component of the M&E sector in 2022 with a valuation of $8.6 billion, it shrank 1.5% from 2021 levels, despite advertising revenues growing 2% to reach levels just behind 2019. The reason for the shrinkage is that subscription revenue continued to fall for the third year in a row, reducing 4% due to a reduction of five million pay-TV homes and stagnant average revenues per user. Linear TV viewership declined 7% over 2021. Television is projected to grow slightly to $8.8 billion this year.

Naman Ramachandran India is the fastest growing market market in the world for giant streamer Netflix and Monika Shergill, VP, content, for the country, has a clear plan to keep the trajectory going. “A healthy streaming business, according to us, has to be built on the strong fundamentals of engagement, where we are doing very well, and revenue and profit as a global service. We are a profitable service – in many of our markets, we are on the path to profitability,” Shergill told Variety. Earlier this year, Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos had said that content watching grew by 30% last year in India and revenue grew by 25%. In a subsequent earnings call, Sarandos addressed the importance of pricing in India, saying: “We’ve got to get pricing and the main payment methods right.”

Naman Ramachandran India’s official entry to the 2023 Oscars, Pan Nalin’s “Last Film Show,” and Rima Das’ acclaimed 2017 festival favorite “Village Rockstars,” are amongst the films screening at the inaugural Nirvana – Festival de la Culture et du Cinema Indiens. Taking place in Saint-Tropez May 26-28, the festival will also screen Shubhashish Bhutiani’s 2016 Venice winner “Hotel Salvation” and Rajat Kapoor’s “RK/RKAY” (2022). On the occasion of the 75th anniversary of India’s independence, the director’s cut of the international version of Ketan Mehta’s freedom fight themed “The Rising” (2005) will be screened. Indian filmmakers Sundaram Tagore, Deepa Sahi, Surina Narula and Sanjay Bhutiani will speak at a roundtable on Indo-French cinema.

Sony Pictures Entertainment saw operating income dip by nearly $1BN for the fiscal year to March 31, 2023, as a lack of tentpole franchise launches bit.

Naman Ramachandran Indian streamer Sony LIV and production house Applause Entertainment have extended their existing partnership with two new series and renewals for four more. Among the new series, “36 Days,” produced in association with BBC Studios India is a suspense thriller, directed by Vishal Furia, featuring an ensemble cast including Neha Sharma, Purab Kohli, Shruti Seth, Chandan Roy Sanyal, Amruta Khanvilkar, Sharib Hashmi, Shernaz Patel, Faishal Rashid, Chahat Vig and Kenneth Desai. “Kafas” (“Cage”) is a social drama series starring Sharman Joshi, Mona Singh, Vivan Bhathena, Preeti Jhangiani and Mikail Gandhi in lead roles and directed by Sahil Sangha.

Shirley Halperin Executive Editor, Music Rocío Guerrero, global head of Latin music at Amazon Music, has collected many professional accolades over her career. If there’s a power list of women in the industry, she’s on it. Latin leaders? She’s there, too.

Naman Ramachandran A galaxy of senior Indian content creators shared their insights on burning topics dominating the local landscape. They were speaking at at Indiantelevision.com’s annual industry event, The Content Hub, in Mumbai on Tuesday. At the Content Creation: No More Formulas panel, Shobha Sant, head of content alliances at Jio Studios, broke down the process behind the selection of its 100-title slate. Sant said that the selection was the result of five years of very a definite plan in terms of understanding audience segmentation and what people are watching.

Naman Ramachandran Gaurav Banerjee, head of content at Disney+ Hotstar, India, has revealed the streamer’s growth strategy in the country. Banerjee was speaking at Indiantelevision.com’s annual industry event, The Content Hub, in Mumbai on Tuesday, in conversation with the organization’s founder, CEO and editor-in-chief Anil Wanvari. The thrust is to expand original programming in languages beyond Hindi, Banerjee said. “We recognized early on that massive growth in India is going to come by thinking about our content strategy and multiple languages, and not just in Hindi,” Banerjee said. The streamer currently commissions in the Hindi, Tamil and Telugu languages and also programs in the Malayalam language.