M&E outlook for 2023 is exciting, already a lot of growth on linear TV & OTT: Deepak Dhar

Disney+ Hotstar recently launched one of its biggest shows for 2023, ‘The Night Manager’. A high-octane thriller wrapped in lavish drama and picturesque sights, the Hotstar Specials series brings together a power-pair – Anil Kapoor and Aditya Roy Kapur – in never seen before characters along with Sobhita Dhulipala, Tillotama Shome, Saswata Chatterjee, Ravi Behl, among others. Created and directed by Sandeep Modi and co-directed by Priyanka Ghosh, the series is produced by The Ink Factory and Banijay Asia.

In conversation with Adgully, Deepak Dhar, Founder & CEO, Banijay Asia, speaks about the outlook for the M&E industry in 2023, journey with Disney+ Hotstar, bring the Indian adaptation of the global series, ‘The Night Manager’, his content game plan for 2023, the OTT ecosystem, and more.

What is the outlook for the media and entertainment sector in 2023?

We’ve had a great 2022, and we obviously want to take that forward. I think the media and entertainment outlook is very exciting. We’re going into the first quarter, and there’s already a lot of growth on both sides of the business – on linear television and on the OTT side. There is a lot to be done in the early part of the year, which is always a good thing, because a good start is half the job done.

What are the key developments that you see impacting the content space in the year ahead?

I think the content space is really going to be populated with newer formats, new storylines, new characters. And we definitely want to push that into our upcoming pipeline. In my opinion, the content spends are going to be directly proportional to the kind of shows, the size and scale of the shows – both on the unscripted and on the scripted side.

The first big one is ‘The Night Manager’ that is launching on Disney+ Hotstar. It is one of the biggest shows of the Indian OTT space with a great star cast like Anil Kapoor, Aditya Roy Kapur, Sobhita Dhulipala and Tillotama Shome. The series is helmed by Sandeep Modi and Priyanka Ghosh, together with a fantastic team of showrunners and writers.

We are continuously trying to push the limits and keep bringing the best to the screens.

Which content genre is expected to see traction this year?

More than the genre being unscripted or scripted, I think shows that we, as audiences, feel are relatable will see a lot of traction. Shows that are very rooted and have a strong connect will appeal to the audiences and will undoubtedly see a lot of traction in the Indian space.

What is Banijay Asia’s content game plan for the year?

We are going on a war footing! 2022 was an exciting year, we produced ‘Ranveer vs Wild with Bear Grylls’ to give India its first interactive reality special and closed the year with ‘Dahan’, which was again unique, and the country’s first horror thriller. 2023 has already started with buzz on ‘The Night Manager’. And the aim remains to create unique content and keep pushing forward to deliver more of such content.

How was the collaboration with Disney+ Hotstar? And how was the process of adapting ‘The Night Manager’ for the Indian audiences?

It has been great! We’ve collaborated with Disney+ Hotstar on multiple shows, and ‘The Night Manager’ is one of the biggest that we are putting out together. The process of adaptation has been extremely fruitful along with our partners, The Ink Factory, Simon Conwell and Tessa Inkelaar. who brought this show from The Ink Factory library to us. Our showrunner and director Sandeep Modi has been adapting this along with his team of writers Shridhar Raghavan, Shantanu Srivastava and Akshat Ghildial. I think they’ve managed to make this a very rooted Indian story, which is what we were always visualising and imagining this to be. The process of adaptation has been very fruitful, very collaborative with The Ink factory and Disney+ Hotstar and ourselves at Banijay Asia.

OTT has been witnessing tremendous growth, especially during the pandemic time, with so many platforms now competing with each other and each platform offering a plethora of content. Where do you see the OTT ecosystem headed?

More than the OTT ecosystem, I see almost a content festival for our viewers and subscribers here on. There’s a grand celebration both on the television side and on the OTT side, there is so much to choose from, there’s so much to consume. Viewers are going to have a party watching all kinds of content – be it telenovelas, be reality shows or really premium, scripted dramas of different kinds, different genres. So, I think it’s going to be a great time for the end viewer.

While selecting content, what are the top ticking points for you?

Like I said, we are looking at content that is very relatable. Stories we feel could unfold in our home or close to our home or stories that could be something that we would be connected with. Something that could be rooted and Indian is what we are constantly looking for.

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