As Indian studio Applause Entertainment enters its eighth year in business, it is gearing up for an ambitious slate of projects.
Led by Managing Director Sameer Nair, an Indian Television pioneer with experience working with Star TV, NDTV Imagine, Turner General Entertainment and Balaji Telefilms, the company looks to build on its established success while expanding into new genres and formats.
Leading the way is courtroom drama Nyaya, produced in collaboration with Mangata Films. Directed by Nithya Mehra, Karan Kapadia and Heeraz Marfatia, the fictional series is based on true events and follows a 17-year-old girl’s search for justice against the powerful “godman” – leader of a religious cult – who raped her. The project has a strong cast that includes Fatima Sana Sheikh, Aneet Padha, Arjun Mathur, Mohammed Zeeshan Ayyub and Raghubir Yadav.
“When this opportunity came up, we really jumped at it,” Nair told Variety. “They shot it really well.” He highlighted the procedural nature of the show, which focuses on the workings of the criminal justice system, and praised the performance of up-and-coming actor Aneet Padha (Prime Video’s “Big Girls Don’t Cry”), who plays the victim.
Applause’s upcoming slate is diverse and ambitious. Black Warrant, based on a bestselling internal account of Delhi’s Tihar Jail, is directed by Vikramaditya Motwane. Gandhi, a series about the Mahatma, based on Ramachandra Guha’s book, stars Pratik Gandhi and is directed by Hansal Mehta. The first episode of Modern Masters, a documentary series featuring RRR director SS Rajamouli, is currently streaming on Netflix. Meanwhile, Assassins: The Hunt for the Killers of Rajiv Gandhi is a crime drama directed by Nagesh Kukunoor. A remake of A+E Networks’ Peabody Award-winning series Unreal, about the behind-the-scenes of reality TV, has just wrapped filming. Additionally, Applause is reviving new seasons of popular shows like Criminal Justice, Tanaav, City of Dreams and Undekhi.
Applause is a part of the $65 billion conglomerate Aditya Birla Group and was launched on August 16, 2017. Over the past seven years, the company has built a strong reputation with critically acclaimed and popular series, most notably the “Scam” series on streamer Sony LIV, which began with “Scam 1992: The Harshad Mehta Story” and continued with “Scam 2003: The Telgi Story.” The success of these shows paved the way for the upcoming “Scam 2010: The Subrata Roy Saga.”
“Our focus has been and will continue to be on contemporary history – business, nation-building, crime,” Nair said. “While ‘Gandhi’ is a true prestige and passion project, our other shows seek to tell the stories of recent contemporary history that have made our country what it is today.” This focus is reflected in Applause’s deal with Amar Chitra Katha, a well-known Indian graphic novel label that specialises in telling Indian history in comic book format, to adapt over 400 titles as animated content.
The company’s other hits include “Criminal Justice,” “Rudra: The Edge of Darkness” starring Ajay Devgn and “City of Dreams,” all of which are available on Disney+ Hotstar.
Looking back on Applause’s seven-year history, Nair reflected on the company’s ordering philosophy. “Our biggest driving force is entertainment, and creating diversity in that entertainment field,” Nair said.
As the streaming market evolves, Nile sees an opportunity for expansion. “For the first seven years, the streaming market was more upscale and premium. For the next seven years, that’s going to become even more so,” he predicts, noting that while mass-appealing content will grow, niche content will coexist. “You’re going to see more mass and dramatic content on streaming, which is a good thing, because the market has expanded and the audience is much bigger.”
Applause has adjusted its strategy accordingly, developing longer-form content and exploring new genres. It is branching out into romance dramas aimed at young people and is also considering shorter versions of daily soap operas, which are expensive to produce. The studio is also branching out into unscripted content, with plans for game shows and comedy shows. Nair expressed particular interest in food-related shows.
International collaborations are on the horizon, too. Applause recently finished filming “Apex,” a detective drama it co-produced with “Criminal Minds” co-creator Simon Mirren and producing partner Benjamin Anderson. The company also has a development deal with a U.S.-based company. “It could be something they have in comic book form or a series they’ve done. We’re working together, but we’re not just acquiring a format, we’re co-developing,” Nair said.
In the film category, Applause’s “The Rapist,” directed by Aparna Sen and starring Konkona Sen Sharma, premiered in Busan and won the prestigious Kim Ji-seok Award last year. “Zwigaat,” directed by Nandita Das and starring Kapil Sharma and Shahana Goswami, premiered in Toronto and was also screened in Busan, while Tahira Kashyap Khurrana’s “Sharmajee Ki Beti” was released on Prime Video in June.
“We aspire to become a major film studio producing theatrical releases with streaming as a core part of our strategy,” Nair explained. Applause’s upcoming Tamil film “Bison,” directed by Mari Selvaraj and starring Dhruv Vikram, is a step in that direction.
As for the company’s business model, Applause licenses content to platforms on a multi-year basis, and Nair sees this approach as a win-win, as the studio handles early development and the platform has the option to have a say before production begins.
Looking to the future, Nair outlined Applause’s vision for the next seven years: “What we’ve done is we’ve built a really great network of creators and producers and platforms that we work with. What we want to do is build on what we’ve built and really let it blossom from here on out. We want to produce big films, we want to produce shows, we want to have more collaborations.”
“We want to do all of this profitably,” Nair added. “While we’re creating these great entertainment brands, we think profitability is a big focus area for us.”