‘The variety of content is adding to the change’

NEWDELHI:MORE than a decade ago, when Indian television was all about daily soaps, Deepak Dhar brought reality shows to the country. Spearheading Endemol Shine India, he introduced shows like The Great Indian Laughter Challenge and Bigg Boss to the small screen.

Having quit the independent production house last November after an 11-year stint, Dhar moved to Parisbased content creation company Banijay Group last week. The latter, which plans to expand operations to India and South-east Asia, has entered into a 50:50 joint venture with Dhar, as part of which he will head the company’s operations as founder and chief executive officer of the newly created Banijay Asia.

In an interview, Dhar talks about Banijay’s plans for the subcontinent, grappling with the evolving film, television and over-the-top (OTT) space in India, and the learnings acquired at Endemol. Edited excerpts:

What are Banijay’s plans for India and south east Asia?

India is at the centre of this evolution where content is really amplifying and exploding. Banijay had been waiting to enter the Indian market and we’d been talking for a long time. The idea was to bring its entire catalogue and all the IPS (intellectual property rights) which are rightly poised for India and for the south east Asian region.

There are classic hits like Survivor and Temptation Islands but there are also a whole lot of newer game shows, reality shows and dating shows which are the flavour right now (that we plan to bring to India).

Are there plans to create local content?

Absolutely. The emphasis really is on original content which shall have appeal for the television broadcasters and all other (OTT) platforms besides the traction to travel to international markets. A lot of it would definitely be in the reality show area, a lot of new formats are being created and curated by the teams here in India for the larger international markets. And of course we are looking at a lot of original scripted stuff that we feel has the potential to go into international markets and bring business back into the country.

Where will you showcase this content?

Earlier, we had an outlet with broadcasters where we could tell certain stories of certain length. But now, the vocabulary and medium have changed. It has only worked well for stories that couldn’t find space on the broadcast platform but are now making it to television broadcasters and all other platforms.

We’ve kick-started production and development of scripts so very soon there will be announcements for a couple of television and digital projects. We’re also in the process of developing a couple of film scripts.

Is there a target group in mind for the kind of content you will produce at Banijay?

There’s no target group as such. It really depends on what our partners want, the time slots, media and platforms. The times have changed enormously and the variety of content is adding to the change.