Adgully Exclusive | Abhimanyu Singh and the tale of Contiloe

Contiloe Entertainment Private Ltd was started in 1995 by Abhimanyu Singh, and it recognizes itself as "producers of factual and non-factual programming". The production house was started with a thought to provide content for television channels, non-profit organizations and government agencies.

In the span of 15 years, Contiloe Entertainment has provided the viewers with many shows across genres ranging from comedy, horror, documentaries etc. Some of the leading shows produced by Contiloe Entertainment are- Ek Veer Stree ki Kahaani... Jhansi Ki Rani, Maniben.com, Maharshtrache Nach Baliye, Aajaa Mahi Vay, Comedy Ka King Kaun, The Great Indian Love Challenge, Kashmeer and Krishna Arjun.

Recently the production house announced its latest project which is a courtroom drama starring Ronit Roy. The show went on air on 20th November at 8 pm on Sony Entertainment Television. The show will only be telecast on every Saturday.

Adgully caught up with Abhimanyu Singh, CEO and Founder, Contiloe Entertainment Private Ltd., to find out more about the production house's expectations and ambitions with the latest launch.

Talking about the challenges of coming out with its latest show, Singh says, "The story and the main character was the biggest challenge. Luckily we have got a great actor like Ronit to play the lead role, but getting the story right was the biggest challenge."

The show has been made relevant to the Indian context and has homegrown sub-plots. Singh further adds, "It is not about Indian or international, it is about story telling. It is about how your people accept the stories put across to them. Our story telling is very Indian in nature, it's the way the Indians like a story to unfold."

Singh says that he doesn't ever draw parallels with the success of other shows and only concentrates on the content. Since, success or failure for a show is driven by the success or failure of the content.

Talking about telecasting the show every Saturday, Singh says, "The audiences' mind is more relaxed towards the weekends and so the consumption pattern changes. So a different genre based show of this nature is received better on these days."

Singh adds that the credit for bringing together the right star cast should go to the channel- Sony Entertainment Channel (SET). "They were the people who had accommodated the fact that whatever happens we have to get Ronit on board. Besides Ronit is a busy actor so we had to be very careful with his time constraints, in that space the credit goes to SET. Moreover Ronit is a very professional and an involved actor. He deliberated over the story and his character, he spent time to understand his character," he adds.

Elaborating on the production house's key USP, Singh says, "We believe in doing everything to which we can do justice to and so we like to be fair with the way we conduct our production. We have always tried to take on more challenging shows and we have done long running shows."

He has an urge to create more historical shows, and he believes that there are many stories within India which still haven't been told. "It is definitely my ambition to make an inspirational series on Mahatma Gandhi," he adds.

He believes that production is a very challenging space as it gets fragmented with more and more producers coming in. "To think about content for next two years is very difficult, because the people are changing very fast, the profiles are changing very fast. The very fact that we have survived as a TV production company and grown progressively is a great accomplishment," Singh adds.

"I think the future is bright for all production houses. I think our ability to be able to think alternate content, put shows together and give quality to broadcasters sets us apart from other production houses," he signs off. | By Prabha Hegde [prabha(at)adgully.com]