Germinating from good stories – how GSEAMS is winning the content game

GSEAMS (Global Sports Entertainment And Media Solutions) is a Mumbai-based studio having its foothold in Maharashtra through its various business verticals spread across web-series, films, TV production, and satellite aggregation. The studio is further expanding its reach in the HSM market. GSEAMS produced its first web series, ‘Samantar’, for MX Player. In February 2022, GSEAMS produced a show, titled ‘Raktanchal Season 2’, which gained a lot of traction. In an interview with Adgully,Arjun Singgh Baran and Kartk D Nishandar dwell on the initial days of the company, the inroads GSEAMS has made into India’s content ecosystem, pan-India strategy and more. Excerpts:

How has the journey been so far?

Kartk D Nishandar: We started our journey in 2013. Before that, both Arjun and I used to work in Reliance Broadcast Network Ld. The last stint was where Arjun was heading the business for the entire television network, and I was also Marketing Head for 92.7 Big FM for all India. We started GSEAMS in 2013, focusing very categorically on marketing for various movies. We marketed close to 45-47 movies, mostly Marathi movies. Thus, we are the first marketing agency for Marathi movies in 2013 as well as the first talent management company managing a lot of Marathi actors in 2013-14.

We then established our studio business, where we started with producing a lot of content, primarily focusing on Maharashtra with Marathi content being a niche. We started our first movie, called ‘Fugay’, and have made around 15 films. The last movie premiered as an Amazon Original, called ‘Bali’, which was directed by Vishal Furia, who had directed ‘Chhorii’. We also did a show called ‘Nakalat Saare Ghadle’, which did around 600 episodes. It was a Marathi adaptation of the super hit show of Ekta Kapoor, called ‘Yeh Hai Mohabbatein’.

We started with a web series in 2020. Our first web series, ‘Samantar’ season 1, combined view of Hindi and Marathi is 160 (16cr) million plus on MX Player. Season 2 of the series also crossed around 180 million plus (18cr) views. We produced a Hindi series called ‘Naxalbari’, about the Naxalite movement across the country. ‘Raktaanchal Season 2’ is the second series that we have done in Hindi. It has just started streaming on MXPlayer and is doing very well.

Will you have more content for the Hindi market?

We have around four shows releasing this year itself. One of the shows, ‘Rafuchakkar’ (for Jio), has Maniesh Paul, and Priya Bapat in the lead, and is directed by Ritam Srivastava. After a super successful Season 2, we will be producing Season 3 of ‘Raktanchal’.

Apart from Marathi, do you have any plans to foray into the other regional languages?

Arjun Singgh Baran: As of now, we are focusing on Hindi and Marathi. We might also do a remake of our movie ‘Bali’ with a top actor from the Hindi industry, which we will announce soon.

What’s your content strategy? Did the pandemic affect your content strategy in any way?

Arjun Singgh Baran: In terms of content, we are trying to create good stories. Our content strategy is to find good stories, which we feel will turn into good web series and good movies, which has always been the same from the time we started production. We are always trying to know what is it that the people are going to like, want to see, and what is it that has not been told? That is our content strategy.

There are a lot of good stories from books that we always like. For example, when we did ‘Samantar’ Season 1 and Season 2, it was an adaptation of a Marathi book. We took the rights for that and created that into a web series in Marathi, Hindi, Tamil, and Telugu. We have our writers and we are trying to create independent new stories.

How do you test the viability of the products? Do you do market research?

Arjun Singgh Baran: As a production house, we have not started going to Ormax or any other research agencies. It is a trend that has started with a lot of OTT platforms and TV channels. OTT partners are insisting that our audio pilot goes to Ormax to get it tested. We are also doing it right now, but through the OTT platform.

The conventional notions of the box office have changed. The new matrices are coming to the place. What are your views on that?

Kartk D Nishandar: Five to six years back when digital was not part of the game, there were only three revenue streams for films – theatrical and satellite, and music. Now, music and digital have started playing a very vital role, because music is again sampled on a digital scale all across. In 2013-14, when we started making films, we used to have CDs, DVDs and audio CDs, which have now gone extinct. So, the sampling right now happens across various mediums like Saavn, Gaana and Apple Music, and similarly, the digital content gets sampled across OTT platforms like Netflix and Amazon. The dynamics have changed when it comes to the revenue model. So, theatrical takes care of 60-65% of the revenues. The remaining 35% and above is taken care of by satellite and digital revenues and music.

Arjun Singgh Baran: And a lot of people are now depending a lot more on your satellite and digital and music rights than on theatre, because people have not been coming to the theatre for the last two years.

What are the latest trends in the industry?

Kartk D Nishandar: Top shows like ‘Ashram’ or ‘Raktanchal’ on the MX Player have been catering to a lot of Hindi heartland audience, whereas a show like ‘Decoupled’, which is on Netflix, is catering to a lot of the metro audience. On the other hand, you have shows like ‘Mirzapur’ and ‘Family Man’, which have a universal audience across the country.

Arjun Singgh Baran: Look at the kind of shows that SonyLIV is doing. They are giving insight into typical cities like Jalandhar or Gujarati households with series like ‘Scam 1992’. MX Player is focusing on the master audience, because after YouTube, the largest OTT player right now which is viewed the most is MX Player. Then there are Netflix and Amazon Prime Video, which are more to do with the metros. Everybody has their own content strategies and they are sticking to that and trying to work into it. It’s a very good time for content creators.

How do you work with OTT platforms?

Kartk D Nishandar: We have got around 8-9 shows under development, and then we pitch. We keep on creating our own content. Then we go ahead and discuss it with the OTT platform and collaborate with them.

Arjun Singgh Baran: We do many high investments in the development of the concepts. And then we take it to the OTT.

What are the problems and challenges that you are facing at the moment?

Arjun Singgh Baran: Production is always an issue because of COVID. Second is the escalation of costs. Everything is becoming expensive. There is so much demand right now for artists, but their price has gone up.

Kartk D Nishandar: The government has already started giving subsidies in different states, including Uttarakhand and Madhya Pradesh. A lot of states are opening up their borders for producers and production houses and studios to come and produce content in their states. Obviously, the biggest issue which always comes across when you are producing on a different land are the local pressure points, but that’s part of the job.

What do you have to say about the streaming piracy which has increased?

Kartk D Nishandar: The only way of regulating it is that we have to keep on stopping it, through an outside external agency, whenever it gets shown on YouTube. YouTube right now has started getting a little supportive with the makers when they complain; but by that time, many times the damage is done. So many movies, before coming to theatres, have ended up on YouTube around the world.