Jungle co-founder Shai Samtaney on her plans to foray into OTT space

Storytelling is a key aspect when it comes to brand engagement. Even though the frontiers of new media keep changing; the cinematic canvas is still a crucial aspect.
Jungle is one such Mumbai-based production house which taps the pulse of pop culture, social satire, art and aesthetics, fashion—be it haute couture or prêt-à-porter, sports, music and everything that is trending on social media. In one word, they help you stay relevant—by creating, producing and directing motion pictures that are at the cutting edge of cinema.
In conversation with Adgully, Shai Samtaney, Co-founder, Director, Jungle shares the journey of Jungle so far, some notable work and outlook of Jungle for 2023.
As the co-founder, Shai Samtaney faced challenges in her initial days. “Obviously the general issues of reaching out to agencies and clients as a new production house and winning their trust, trying to cut all possible corners to make sure our creative vision came through within spartan budgets, trying to get a foothold in as many diverse categories as possible etc etc. And the mother of all challenges to compound this all – we started right before the lockdown. So all of the aforementioned challenges, and waves of complexities added due to the ‘unprecedented’ circumstances everywhere”
Shai also shed some light on the growth of Jungle in the past two years. “The need for work from home has allowed for so much collaboration online. What seemed like a technological leap just a couple of years back has now allowed artists, directors, musicians, clients, agencies, everyone to collaborate – all from the convenience of their homes. Of course the real magic still only takes place once people come together physically.”
She added: “There’s more hunger and need for interesting content formats across ads as well as platforms. With data and tech driving consumer conversations, the next couple of years should be extremely interesting in terms of content creation.”
On Jungle’s outlook for 2023, Shai mentioned: “We’re in the process of creating new ad formats for some of our client and agency partners. Additionally, since we’ve spent the last year slowly building a bank of formats, films, shows and scripts, we’re definitely looking at entering the OTT space as content creators in 2023.”
She says that Jungle’s visual style is what makes it stand out. “We’ve got a unique visual style when it comes to our films, which is what sets our work apart from other studios. We’ve been called ‘unexpectedly Indian’ by some of our agency and client partners, as they can’t believe that an Indian content studio is making the kind of slick stylized films the way we are. Since our work is pretty eye-catching and visually interesting, that also allows brand partners to come to us to help them define a visual aesthetic for their brand or story.”
Shai shares some of the notable work done by Jungle studio. “We have helmed the NBA campaign for their India launch where we created a film with NBA players, dancerts, actors & musicians. We recently have been executing women centric campaign’s with Mia Tanishq’s ‘This is Me’ featuring a host of young independent women and Bhima Brides which is a beautiful take on young brides in the South.”