ContentAsia Awards Focus: Talking to 2024’s Best Directors –Tushar Hiranandani, Hadrah Daeng Ratu, Lee Myungwoo, Lee Thean-Jeen, Patha Thongpan, Sidharta Tata & Fajar Martha Santosa
PLUS Taiwan’s series of the moment, Max breakdown, Asia’s place in Netflix viewing & more
New arrivals
Formats available now COME MEET US AT THE ATF STAND E24 TO FIND OUT MORE
A subscription version of Chatgpt helped us to proofread this magazine. So when I asked the platform to “write 500 words on the state of the TV production industry in Asia” for this editor’s note, I should not have been surprised – and I wasn’t – when it gave me back a grammatically correct summary of challenges, laced with a bit of optimism, sprinkled with a fact here and a name there, just enough for ‘authenticity’ but not enough to bamboozle lazy readers or the shortcut-crowd.
Were the 500 AI-generated words useful? As always, that would depend on need. Were they interesting? Bird’s eye, general, corporate, Cliff Note-y. So really, it depends on what you’re looking for. Will they set the world on fire? Not my world. Could I have printed it here? Sure. Would anyone know it was AI-generated if I had, heaven forbid, been unethical and not declared the use of AI? With minor adjustments, probably not, or at least not anyone who knows me even a little bit.
The piece sounded like it had been through the corp comms mill and come out the other end safe, sanitised, accurate but with nothing actionable and zero that’s going to get me in trouble... and very little to hold onto, but not complete garbage. It sounded like a piece that could be posted on LinkedIN as an “insight” and generate ego-massaging flattery from people ‘investing’ in their network against a rainy-job-day. Or like the executive who turns up to an interview with notecards that say [‘we’re great, our plan is great, gamechanger, so much growth, etc]’. Sometimes, in a throw-back to the 1990s and the beginning of pay-TV, they even talk about the population of Asia and how great that is. The human version of my Chatgpt-written note. The lipstick-on-a-pig tactic.
And then there were the answers to this request – suggest solutions to Asia’s TV production industry problems – from my paid-AI best friend. Challenge: “Addressing Budget Constraints” Solution: “Increase Co-Productions and Regional Collaborations”. Not exactly a eureka moment. A follow up question about the obstacles to increasing co-productions and regional collaborations in TV production pointed out differences in cultural, financial (unequal funding contributions), logistical and regulatory aspects across the region. Plus creative and language barriers. Censorship. Infrastructure disparities. Travel and visa restrictions. Also part of the solution suggested by Chatgpt is to repurpose exiting assets, like sets, props and costumes, and using tech, such as virtual production. Is this useful? Not to anyone who has spent 10 seconds actually doing the work.
Chatgpt then suggests avoiding over-reliance on one platform by licensing to multiple buyers, and developing multiple revenue sources. At this point, I’m wondering if I’m wasting my $20 a month on this subscription. And then I remember that common-sense is not so common, and that part of the industry’s current problems were created exactly by not following sage pieces of advice they could have got from their grandmothers for free.
The best part of the exercise was the fun I had playing with AI in the name of work. What did I learn? (1) That I love AI, which actually I already knew; (2) That Chatgpt is much more politically correct than I will ever be (and that could have its benefits); and (3) I need to find time for Claude.ai.
The Chatgpt attempt at an Editor’s Note and at generating solutions to current problems is at www.contentasia.tv. Search for “AI & Me”. You be the judge.
Editorial Director Janine Stein janine@contentasia.tv
Events Manager CJ Yong cj@contentasia.tv
ContentAsia Marketing & Awards Heather Berger heather@contentasia.tv Production Rae Yong Research
Rhealyn Rigodon iyah@contentasia.tv
Associate Publisher (Americas, Europe) and VP, International Business Development Leah Gordon leah@contentasia.tv
Assistant Publisher (Asia/Middle East) Malena Amzah malena@contentasia.tv
ContentAsia is an Asia-based multi-platform information resource that refines today’s info-deluge into usable, digestible and reliable intelligence about video content creation, funding, financing, licensing, & distribution across the Asia-Pacific region.
To receive your regular free copy of ContentAsia, email contentasia@contentasia.tv
I can think of little bigger bliss than for AI to replace me. So I tried. And then I tried to get AI to identify (and solve) the Asian TV industry’s woes. And it tried. Was the result useful? Depends on how low your bar is. But the exercise was, if not perfect, definitely worth the $20 a month subscription in entertainment value.
9 Asian titles made it to Netflix’s top 100 TV shows for first half 2024. Korean drama dominated the 2.1 billion viewing hours that the nine attracted during the six months, with one drama each from Japan and India.
Premium movie platform, CinemaWorld, enters 2025 with an expanded film slate, a bigger focus on Asian hits and an even stronger commitment to on-ground engagement. At the same time, the original vision, set more than a decade ago to connect the world through film beyond Hollywood’s narrative, stands firm.
Eight teams take to the ATF stage in Singapore as part of the “Masters Meet Masters” pitching session. The pitch is the grand finale of a nine-month cross-border journey that involved Taiwanese creators, Korean mentors and international creative ambitions.
The creative duo behind Born for the Spotlight say recognition of women and opportunities are expanding in Taiwan’s TV Scene. Patrick Frater spoke to the Netflix series’ director, Yen Yi-wen, and producer, Olive Ting.
Global viewing of Asian content on Netflix’s weekly non-English TV top 10 could reach 4.1 billion hours this year – accounting for 53% of all non-English-language TV viewing on the streaming platform’s top 10 from January to December 2024, according to ContentAsia’s estimates based on Netflix’s published weekly rankings.
The goal is to expose Taiwanese creators to top variety and reality show producers, inspire them to innovate, bridge networks for funding and monetisation, and ultimately take Taiwanese productions to international markets.”
Anne Chan CEO, AR Asia Productions
Cheryl Yang (楊謹華) in
for the
Indonesian series, Cinta Pertama Ayah talks about sexual violence, justice and support systems wrapped in a family story. James Moore spoke to Indonesian director, Hadrah Daeng Ratu, one of six nominees for Director in the ContentAsia Awards 2024, about her Sky Films’ miniseries for streaming platform, Vidio.
, Best
It is important to show how crucial the development of a support system for rape victims is. Hopefully, if there is another opportunity to discuss this issue, I can delve deeper into the concept of ‘surviving’ deep trauma and the process of ‘healing’. Everyone needs hope in their life.”
Hadrah Daeng Ratu, Director, Cinta Pertama Ayah
Korean drama Boyhood builds bridges between past and present in the story of a boy in a time before social media when life may have been more simple but had a violence of its own.
Director Lee Myoungwoo speaks about The Studio M production for streaming platform, Coupang Play.
Sidharta Tata and Fajar Martha Santosa drew on lived experience on the streets of Jogja to create the world of Pertaruhan
The two directors, who also have writer credits, talk about layering gambling and loans onto the story of a family struggling to survive in a chaotic world.
Singapore drama 128 Circle, by Weiyu Films for Mediacorp, is a slice of life story that sidesteps high-concepts in favour of real people with relatable lives in authentic situations. Lee Thean-jeen, director of all three seasons, talks about the series.
Thai drama Enigma balanced romance, horror, coming-of-age, drama, fantasy, action and more. Thai director Patha “O” Thongpan – nominated in the ContentAsia Awards 2024 Best Director category – talks about the most challenging project of his career so far, as well as moving into his first second season ever.
Budget is always a big issue in the Thai series industry, especially when we aim to meet international standards.”
38
Enigma
“I like biopics with a little tadka”
Patha “O” Thongpan Director, Enigma
ContentAsia Awards 2024 Best Director, Tushar Hiranandani, talks to Vanita Kohli-Khandekar about a career that pretty much kicked off when the clapper boy fell ill.
46
Asia’s formats environment has changed dramatically in the past three years. The response, industry leaders say, is flexibility, collaboration and to solve for different problems. Plus a breakdown of formats in the region from January to September 2024.
There’s all this new, interesting YouTube content that’s exploding, and that makes regular TV formats challenging on many levels. These digital shows are short, they’re fun, they’re very easy to entertain and engage audiences.”
Linfield Ng, VP Formats Distribution and Production, NBCUniversal Formats
Formats is one of the answers. Not the only one, but one of the ways to reduce risk. That’s what we have been working on with our clients.”
It has definitely been a challenging time... I wouldn’t view it from just a formats perspective... But I also think that this entire piece is evolving. The market is slowly shifting towards being okay with risk, at least in India.”
Mrinalini Jain, Group Chief Development Officer, Banijay Asia and Endemol Shine India
Sabrina Duguet, Asia Pacific EVP, All3Media International
The second season of Taiwanese drama, The World Between Us, pushes the envelope on story and production scale as well as special effects, demonstrating what the local content industry is striving for. The production team behind the new series talks about resurfacing a blockbuster after a five-year break.
From the moment we received the script, we knew this production would require every ounce of our past experience, and more.”
Jayde Lin, CEO, DaMou Entertainment
A market-by-market breakdown of Warner Bros Discovery’s (WBD) Max in five Southeast Asia markets, plus Hong Kong and Taiwan. Max launched in the seven markets on 19 Nov.
66
Premium movie platform, CinemaWorld, enters 2025 with an expanded film slate, a bigger focus on Asian hits and an even stronger commitment to on-ground engagement. At the same time, the original vision, set more than a decade ago to connect the world through film beyond Hollywood’s narrative, stands firm.
CinemaWorld launched in 2012 to bring non-Hollywood hits from around the world to Asian film lovers. Thirteen years on, the premium movie network – available in linear and SVOD formats through more than 90 distribution partners in 22 territories across Asia – has refreshed its curation and expanded engagement efforts. The premium service has also committed to a short films initiative to support Asian filmmakers.
Moving into 2025, CinemaWorld continues to expand its priorities. The slate is more than 90% first and exclusive to Asia, and the line-up includes more true stories, twisted tales, films that reflect social and cultural issues of today’s world.
There’s also a high focus on titles, such as Germany’s Elaha (2023) and Iran’s Empty Nets (2023), that illuminate different cul tures.. Elaha is about young Kurdish-German woman’s struggle with her womanhood, patriarchy and tradition. Empty Nets is a heartbreaking Iranian love story that confronts social hierarchy, tradition and corruption.
“We are echoing our audiences’ preferences for conversational and introspective works,” says CinemaWorld’s chief executive Suarina Chua. “Elaha opened up the dialogue about gender expectations and female emancipation experienced in different cultures... Such stories will remain a staple in our curation,” she adds.
Tentpole titles for 2025 are Finnish box office hit, Stormskerry Maja (2024), a breathtaking epic about a young girl’s experience of life and death, love, lust and grief, and Canadian drama Temporaries (2023), about a woman who becomes an advocate for migrant workers.
True stories scheduled for the first six months of 2025 are Ann, a film documenting the last 13 hours before the death of a 15-year-old Irish girl during childbirth in 1984; and Subuk, the story of a mother’s love for her autistic son that led to changes in the Polish education system.
Chua says CinemaWorld has evolved from its original focus on festival films and award winners/nominees to a more diverse curation, now including popular genre films such as romance, action, psychological thrillers and horror, to cater to a broader audience of film lovers.
This shift is reflected in box office hits like Norway’s Victoria Must Go (2024), premiering in December 2024 for the festive season; Colombian action-thriller Timeline (2023); Germany’s top box office title
Manta Manta Legacy (2023); and the Polish hit Hard Luck (2023).
CinemaWorld has also adapted to shifting viewer tastes, particularly the rising demand for horror films, over the past two years. “We recognise the growing popularity of horror films and differentiate ourselves within the genre by offering a selection of psychological horrors with unique stories and strong accolades,” Chua says. Titles catering to this expanding audience include Natatorium, Hunters On A White Field, and A House in Jerusalem, with Goodnight Mommy set for release in the first half of 2025.
In 2024, the line-up expanded to support Asia’s rising filmmaking environment. This included the Asian Filmmaker Spotlight, which showcased Asian filmmaking talents from East Asia (Confetti and Intimate Stranger), South Asia (Gaadi – Children Of The Sun) and Central Asia (Paralympian). Chua says the Spotlight highlighted emblematic stories from across the region, adding diversity to the channel’s film curation.
Gaadi – Children of The Sun by Sri Lankan director Prasanna Vithanage tells the story of Tikiri, an outcast noblewoman in 1814 Kandy,
Ceylon, who battles to preserve her identity and dignity; Confetti by director Ann Hu, follows a mother who travels with her nine-year-old daughter from a small town in China to New York City, in search for a school for dyslexic children; and Intimate Stranger by Mayu Nakamura is a thriller featuring a twisted Oedipal relationship between a grieving mother and a young man who claims to know the whereabouts of her missing son.
In July, August and September 2024, the channel added exclusive interviews with the directors Intimate Stranger, Confetti Gaadi – Children of The Sun to its line up. “We hope to provide more value beyond the viewing experience, to allow audiences a peek into the creative minds behind these Asian stories,” Chua says.
As part of its expanded entertainment landscape, CinemaWorld is also committed to boosting film community
engagement. This involves partnerships with film events around Asia, including the Jakarta Film Week in September 2024, the Mystery Film Screening in Singapore in April 2024, and a special screening in Taiwan in September 2024.
Asian tentpoles for the first half of 2025 are Japan’s All The Songs We Never Sang, a coming of age story about a rebellious Tokyo teenager who arrives on a small island to meet her aunt and learn the art of pearl diving (but secretly to find a treasure she was told about as a child); and cross-cultural romcom, Tokyo Fiancée (2014), about a young Japanophile Belgian woman in Tokyo in a whirlwind romance with a Francophile Japanese student.
Besides providing more value to the viewer experience on its main channel, CinemaWorld’s venture into the Asian Short Film space through its brand extension, CinemaSHORT has been eventful. In 2022, the CinemaWorld Film Fund was established in collaboration with regional film schools to support young, budding filmmaking talents.
“CinemaSHORT is committed to promoting diverse storytelling, and fostering emerging talent from underrepresented communities. Our goals are to help budding filmmakers gain exposure...and to monetise their shorts,” Chua says. The shorts are showcased on CinemaWorld’s linear channel as a lead into the Sunday premieres and are presented at regional events.
“For all its evolution in the past 13 years,” Chua adds, “CinemaWorld’s original vision holds firm—to connect the world through films.”
Global viewing of Asian content on Netflix’s weekly non-English TV top 10 could reach 4.1 billion hours this year – accounting for 53% of all non-English-language TV viewing on the streaming platform’s top 10 from January to December 2024, according to ContentAsia’s estimates based on Netflix’s published weekly rankings. Non-English viewing hours for the 34 weeks between 1 April 2024 and 17 November totalled 5 billion; 2.7 billion of these were Asian titles, led by Korea and Japan. The percentage of Asian titles on the global top 10 ranged from 19% to 80%, with an average of 53%. Non-English TV viewing peaked at 240 million hours in April, driven by Studio Dragon’s Korean drama Queen of Tears, which spent 15 weeks on the global non-English Top 10 but only one week at #1.
Source: Netflix Top 10 1 April 2024-17 November 2024. Chart: ContentAsia
JANUARY – JUNE 2024
9 Asian titles made it to Netflix’s top 100 TV shows for first half 2024. Korean drama dominated the 2.1 billion viewing hours that the nine attracted during the six months, with one drama each from Japan and India.
Nine titles from Asia were included in the top 100 shows watched on Netflix in the first half of 2024, ContentAsia’s analysis of the platform’s “What We Watched” engagement report shows.
Seven of the nine titles were from Korea, with one each from Japan and India. Together, the nine attracted just over 2.1 billion viewing hours (15% share) of the total 13.9 billion hours spent on the top 100 shows.
The top three Asian titles from January to the end of June 2024 were all Korean dramas, led by Queen of Tears at #14 with 682.6 million hours viewed/29.2 million views; Parasyte: The Grey at #20 with 126.8 million hours viewed/25.4 million views; and Korean romcom My Demon at #46 with 311.2 million hours viewed/17.7 million views.
Those were the only three Asian shows in the top 50 of the 6,800+ titles listed.
The other six from Asia on the top 100 included Japanese action thriller, House of Ninjas at #56 (112.9 million hours viewed/15.9 million views) and the only Indian title on the top 100 – Heeramandi: The Diamond Bazaar – at #67 with 108 million hours viewed/14.8 million views.
In the first half of 2024, Netflix titles were watched for more than 94 billion hours.
Four of the 10 biggest shows were from the U.K. – Fool Me Once (108 million hours), Baby Reindeer (88 million hours), The Gentlemen (76 million hours) and One Day (39 million hours).
Non-English stories – led by Spain’s Society of the Snow with 104 million hours –made up nearly a third of all viewing.
11 Asian TV series appeared on Netflix’s top 100 TV titles for the second half of 2023. Korean drama dominated the 1.847 billion hours that the 11 attracted over the six months. Eight of the 11 titles were Korean and the other three were from Japan.
Eleven titles from Asia made it to Netflix’s top 100 shows watched in the second half of 2023, according to ContentAsia’s analysis of the streamer’s “What We Watched: A Netflix Engagement Report”.
The top Asia title was JTBC’s Korean drama, King The Land, which streamed in Korea on TVing. The series drew 630.2 million hours viewed (33.2 million views) on Netflix in the second half of 2023. In second place was kids’ show Bebefinn, part of Korea’s The Pinkfong Company, at #40.
Mask Girl, produced by BonFactory for Netflix, was #3 at #48 on the top 50, with 127.3 million hours viewed (18.5 million views), followed by Korean series Celebrity at #49, with 164 million hours viewed (18.3 million views).
The four were the only Asian titles on Netflix’s top
50 for the second half of 2023.
Japanese live action series, Yu Yu Hakusho, was at #60 with 16.5 million views (69.2 million hours viewed), followed by Korean drama, My Demon (14.9 million views/151.8 million hours viewed)
Squid Game, which remains Netflix top show of all time, was 79th, followed by Baki Hanma
The other three Asian titles on the top 100 were My Happy Marriage at #89, Destined With You at #97 and Doona! at #99.
Netflix’s non-English TV shows and movies made up nearly a third of all viewing in second half 2023. Korean titles took 9% of non-English-language viewing, following by Spanish (7%) and Japanese (5%).
The top show globally for second half 2023 was One Piece, with 541.9 million hours viewed (71.6 million views).
Eight teams take to the ATF stage in Singapore as part of the “Masters Meet Masters” pitching session. The pitch is the grand finale of a ninemonth cross-border journey that involved Taiwanese creators, Korean mentors and international creative ambitions.
Eight standout teams from the final of the 2024 LEAP Co-Development Program: Variety Show project will pitch their innovative concepts at the upcoming Asia TV Forum (ATF) on 4 December 2024. This exclusive pitching session, titled “Masters Meet Masters”, will see the teams present their unique ideas for variety shows, following a rigorous ninemonth development process.
From 50 to 8: The LEAP Journey The journey began in February 2024, when LEAP kicked off with over 100 participants across 50 teams. After an intensive selection process, eight teams emerged as the finalists. The programme, which ran to November, aimed to expose Taiwanese creators to industry veterans and global trends while helping them refine their concepts for international markets.
Workshops and Mentorship The participants first gathered in Taipei for a three-day workshop (10-12 April) led by nine experienced producers from Korea. Among the mentors were some of the biggest names in the industry, including Miyeon Kim (Running Man), Junghee Jang (The Voice, Shooting Stars), Mingoo Ko (Korea No. 1, Siren: Survive the Island / CEO of Studio Modak), InSoon Kim (EVP & head of content for Something Special), Jongyeon Jung (Society Game, The Genius), and Sangho Shin (Long Time No See, Underdog Kids). These seasoned professionals guided the teams through the process of developing engag-
ing, marketready formats.
After the Taipei workshop, 16 participants from eight teams were selected for phase two of the programme, which included a three-day intensive workshop in Seoul (17-19 June). Phase three saw each team paired with a Korean creator, who mentored them through a series of online sessions, with monthly check-ins for five consecutive months. The online phase was split into two parts: the first focusing on Creative Development (three months, three meetings), and the second on Packaging (two months, two meetings).
The goal is to expose Taiwanese creators to top variety and reality show producers, inspire them to innovate, bridge networks for funding and monetisation, and ultimately take Taiwanese productions to international markets.”
Anne Chan, CEO of AR Asia Productions
Final Pitching Session The culmination of this comprehensive development process will take place at the ATF in December, where each team will present their variety/ reality show concept in a five-minute pitch followed by a five-minute Q&A session. The eight concepts represent a range of genres, including dating, competition, LGBT+, music, survival, food, game show, and fantasy.
The initiative helps creators connect with top producers and commissioners, as well as providing exposure to potential buyers and sponsors, Chan adds.
The 2024 session will feature a panel of five to six industry experts and platform commissioners who will provide feedback on the projects and potentially open doors for future collaborations.
Each year, LEAP aims to foster innovation in Taiwan’s entertainment industry while promoting the country’s growing presence on the international stage.
Bridging Networks and Expanding Global Reach The goal of the LEAP programme is not only to develop highquality variety and reality show formats but also to bridge networks, inspire creativity, and enable Taiwanese productions to reach global audiences, says AR Asia Productions’ chief executive, Anne Chan.
LEAP is a variety/reality show development initiative under the Taiwan Creative Content Agency (TAICCA), co-organised with Hong Kong-based regional production company, AR Asia Productions, and Something Special, a Seoul-based independent international format agency.
Save the Date!
Date: 4 December 2024 (Wednesday)
Time: 10.00am - 12.00pm
Location: ATF Pitch Pit, Room 4412
Language: English
The creative duo behind Born for the Spotlight say recognition of women and opportunities are expanding in Taiwan’s TV Scene. Patrick Frater spoke to the Netflix series’ director Yen Yi-wen and producer Olive Ting.
Born for the Spotlight, a 12-part Taiwan drama series that premiered in November and shot immediately to Netflix’s #1 show in the country, is an entertaining tangle of aspirations, over-inflated egos and bitchy barbs framed in a narrative about women seeking careers in the TV business.
The show’s multiple characters –who include a naïve newcomer and an experienced talent agent crudely named Ms. Chubby – seem to risk almost daily heartbreak as they navigate (or choose to avoid) a greedy and unforgiving industry.
Central to the story are a retired star known for her beauty, but who is now indulging in binge drinking and casual sex hook-ups, and her former best friend whose ascendant producing career threatens to overtake that of her once successful director-husband.
If the themes sound familiar, retro or stereotypical, the show’s director Yen Yi-wen says most of the elements are absolutely real. “Some of the storylines come from my lived experiences, some are the contribu-
there
Ageism
and sexism are not as
prevalent
as in the past when
was more emphasis on romance stories and every discussion would prioriti s e appearance over performance ... Now that we have a wider range of genres there’s more diversity. And you can be an actor in Taiwan even if you don’t have the perfect look or body shape.”
Yen Yi-wen, Director, Born for the Spotlight
tions of other actresses,” Yen says. “I discovered that we share many frustrations and anxieties.”
Yen has been working as an actress for some 20 years and, after two previous nominations, won a Golden Bell Award in 2015 for Angel’s Voice Recorder. “Finally, I’d got the recognition that I’d sought. But the next morning I had to return to another set and participate in a mediocre story. I felt not only helpless and hopeless, but also that I wasn’t doing justice to myself or to the audience,” Yen says.
“That same day, after I’d finished work, I returned home and cried. Then I turned on the computer and started to write a ridiculous story about an actress who gets an award, but whose hair starts to fall out immediately after, who gets allergies and has other mishaps, but still can’t cry about it,” she says.
In the intervening years, Yen co-wrote and codirected family drama series, The Making of an Ordinary Woman, which released in 2019. But the memory of that post-award depression
appears to have stuck with her through to the much larger Born for the Spotlight In the glossy new show, only A-listers are allowed to cry.
Significantly, Born for the Spotlight is created and enabled by women. The series’ producer is Olive Ting (Secrets in the Hot Spring) and it was greenlit at Netflix, where the head of Chinese-language content is Maya Huang, a Taiwan-based screenwriterturned-commissioner.
The involvement of international streaming platforms in the Taiwan production scene has helped women creators shift to what Ting calls “a new paradigm”.
“In the past, in Taiwan, if you wanted to get a green light from distributors or television companies, you’d have to pitch a romance story. The streamers are open to different
ideas and we are not faced with the same group of decision makers,” Ting says.
“That’s why we are now seeing shows like The Making of an Ordinary Woman or Wave Makers happening. [Streamers] also have more abundant financial resources, so we can be more ambitious and bolder in the writing process.”
Wave Makers was a 2023 Koko Entertainment series for Netflix that was set in the milieu of election workers. It touched on multiple themes, including Taiwan’s robust democracy, women politicians, ethnic minorities and capital punishment, but will especially be associated with its through-line of workplace sexual harassment. Several commentators have credited the show with invigorating Taiwan’s real-world #MeToo movement, provoking a round of public allegations and causing a grovelling apology to women from the ruling Democratic Progressive Party.
The targets in Born for the Spotlight are less elevated than a presidential election race, but they are probably more immediately relevant to a greater number of viewers. There is a painfully frustrating scene in the show’s first episode where several mid-level executives are casually discussing casting options. Again, Yen says she based this on lived experience.
“Everyone in the meeting is eating their lunch. Or having fun. Certainly, not paying attention or relating to the real lives they are dealing
If I looked at this show only from an actress’s perspective, I’d feel that some parts are very brutal. But as a writer and director, I can see the bigger picture. I can transform these stories and use humour to get the bigger message across.”
Yen Yi-wen, Director, Born for the Spotlight
with,” says Yen. “It is simply not respectful.”
But on these lines, Yen and Ting again say that change is afoot. “Ageism and sexism are not as prevalent as in the past when there was more emphasis on romance stories and every discussion would prioritise appearance over performance,” says Yen. “Now that we have a wider range of genres there’s more diversity. And you can be an actor in Taiwan even if you don’t have the perfect look or body shape.”
Yen says that the show’s pace and comedy help make social messaging more digestible.
“If I looked at this show only from an actress’s perspective I’d feel that some parts are very brutal. But as a writer and director, I can see the bigger picture. I can transform those stories and use humour to get a bigger message across.”
Indonesian series, Cinta Pertama Ayah, talks about sexual violence, justice and support systems wrapped in a family story. James Moore spoke to Indonesian director, Hadrah Daeng Ratu, one of six nominees for Best Director in the ContentAsia Awards 2024, about her Sky Films’ miniseries for streaming platform, Vidio.
Sky Films’ Indonesian crime drama, Cinta Pertama Ayah (Amara’s First Love), is the story of Amara, whose perfect life is shattered on the night of her friend’s birthday when she survives a sexual attack. Her father, Darma, will do whatever it takes to ensure justice is served. Yasmin Napper stars as Amara opposite Teuku Rifnu Wikana (Impetigore) as Darma. Rianti Cartwright plays her mother, Kemala, with Dwi Sasono and Ersa Mayori as Reza and Nabila, the parents of Stefan (Ahmad Al Ghazali) and Suzie (Chelsea Shania).
Cinta Pertama Ayah ran from January to March 2024 on Indonesia’s top streaming platform, Vidio, sparking lively debate over its portrayal of taboo topics, sensitive social issues and the high-emotion brought to local screens. Local reviewers talked about the power of the online community and social sanctions that kick in if the legal system fails, as well as the deep impact left on the entire family, including siblings – in this case a younger sister played by Nurra Datau – by traumatic situations. Indonesian filmmaker, Hadrah Daeng Ratu, nominated for Best Director of a Scripted TV Programme for Cinta Pertama Ayah in this year’s ContentAsia Awards, talks about the eight-episode drama...
What inspired you to work on a project with such difficult themes? “We took our inspiration from the many cases of sexual harassment against young women that frequently occur in Indonesia. Many female victims do not dare to speak up and many rape cases are still often overlooked by authorities. This series dares to demand that justice must be upheld. Our story shows that the most important thing a victim needs is a strong support system from those closest to her. The story idea developed into a synopsis and scenario together with the producer and scriptwriter –and it kept evolving. Even during the workshop process with the actors, there were intense discussions to strengthen the story further.”
It is important to show how crucial the development of a support system for rape victims is. Hopefully, if there is another opportunity to discuss this issue, I can delve deeper into the concept of ‘surviving’ deep trauma and the process of ‘healing’. Everyone needs hope in their life.”
Hadrah Daeng Ratu, Director, Cinta Pertama Ayah
Cinta Pertama Ayah was one of the most-watched series on Vidio when it launched. What do you think resonated most with audiences? “There could be many reasons. It could be the chemistry between the actors or because of the issues presented in the story. In the case of Cinta Pertama Ayah, I think the popularity was down to the story, the strong performances of the actors and the interesting visual concept.”
The project deals with many sensitive subjects – was this an obstacle to production? “The most challenging aspect was how to present a deep sense of trauma so that the audience could truly feel what a victim has experienced and understand how it affects entire families. It was important for us that the audience becomes more empathetic and aware. Thankfully, the results met our expectations as filmmakers. The acting performances of the father (Teuku Rifnu Wikana) and the child (Yasmin Napper) were really well received by the audience. There were many tears, and some were even swept away by the story.”
What kind of impact did it have locally in Indonesia? “Rape victims desperately need support from various parties to heal from their trauma and continue living. Wrong and unwise comments, as well as stigmas, can have fatal consequences for the victim and the victim’s family.”
How did you decide on the look and feel of the show, and what role did it play in telling the story? “From the very beginning of my involvement, the audiovisual concept came about naturally. The visuals have an intentionally intimidating feel, along with surreal elements, because we can never truly know how the victim feels and thinks. We tried to represent their emotions and how they relate to others and situations during the post-traumatic syndrome process. The technical choices that support these visuals – such as lens selection, colour tone, and even sound design – were all carefully considered in the film.”
What was the most rewarding part of working on this project? “It is important to show how crucial the development of a support system for rape victims is. Hopefully, if there is another opportunity to discuss this issue, I can delve deeper into the concept of “surviving” deep trauma and the process of “healing”. Everyone needs hope in their life.”
Korean drama Boyhood builds bridges between past and present in the story of a boy in a time before social media when life may have been more simple but had a violence of its own. Director about The Studio M production for streaming platform, Coupang Play.
Lee Myoungwoo speaks
, director that secured
From the comedy-action hit The Fiery Priest to One Ordinary Day Lee Myung-woo has earned praise for his talent in creating unique comedic characters and skilfully balancing artistic quality with mainstream appeal. Most recently, Lee brought Korea’s nostalgic 1980s Chungcheong Province to life in Boyhood, a project him Silver at the ContentAsia Awards (Best Director of a Scripted TV Programme). The series is about Jang Byeong-tae, a socially awkward boy who is mistakenly recognised as White Tiger, the best fighter in town, on his first day at Buyeo Agricultural High School.
What was the main inspiration behind Boyhood? “Boyhood is inspired by my personal experiences from the late 1980s. As Seoul successfully hosted the Olympics in 1988, it gained global recognition, becoming a symbol of national pride. However, life in small provincial towns, far from the bustling capital, was quite different. This project aims to evoke nostalgia for those who lived through that time and offer a fresh perspective to younger generations who did not. By focusing on the lives of those in an analogue world, Boyhood seeks to portray the most ordinary yet relatable stories, bridging past and present through its narrative.”
Walk us through your creative process from the initial concept final
Walk us through your creative process from the initial concept to the fi product... “Conversations about school days often include the phrase, ‘At least I wasn’t someone who got beaten up by others’. During that era, the primary worry was not about whether someone else was violent, but whether you yourself were being targeted. The fear of violence was pervasive, and there were no effective systems or individuals to address it cleanly.
“The central theme of Boyhood is violence, focusing on the protagonist’s journey to overcome it. As the director, I wanted to avoid making the series overly heavy due to its serious subject matter. Instead, I aimed to present the story in an enjoy-
able and light-hearted manner through comedic techniques, while still addressing the theme of how we should confront and address violence.”
Period dramas are never without their challenges… “We paid meticulous attention to props, costumes, hairstyles and music to create a visually engaging experience. My artistic aim was to craft a series with visual pleasure.
“One other challenge was ensuring that the comedy genre would resonate with a broad audience, especially given its predominantly male-centric narrative. We were concerned about how to engage female viewers and whether the audience might be too limited.
“We focused on making Byeong-tae, the main character, compelling while also highlighting the importance of the love stories involving female leads Seon-hwa, whose relationship with Byeong-tae ends in failure, and Ji-young, who supports him yet remains unnoticed.”
It has been almost a year since the show first aired in Korea. What has been the most surprising or gratifying reaction from the audience?
“Since the show premiered, there has been a noticeable surge in the popularity of the Chungcheong dialect among the public. In restaurants, people have been discussing episodes of Boyhood, and in bars, many have been mimicking the unique toast phrases used by the high school characters. Social media has also been inundated with content imitating the Chungcheong dialect and scenes from the series.
More generally, I believe it has encouraged viewers to reconsider violence, both in schools and within society at large.”
Many of the characters are highly complex and distinctive. How did you develop them? “I focused on making their traits immediately
recognisable rather than relying on lengthy explanations. I needed viewers to easily grasp who the characters were and support the protagonist’s journey. My approach involved boldly exaggerating certain aspects of the characters while grounding the rest in genuine, realistic emotions. They were intended to resemble people that might encounter in everyday life, while infusing them with exaggerated, almost cartoonish elements. My goal was for viewers to see themselves in the protagonist and think, ‘That’s my story!’”
The visual style is also distinctive… “The series, set in the 1980s, aimed to capture the era’s vibrancy and modernity. While the decade might now seem like a faded photograph, for those who lived through it, it was a period of vivid colour and innovation. To reflect this, I directed both the director of photography and the art director to use the most vibrant colours possible. A period series does not have to be dull; rather, I aimed to create a visually dynamic presentation.”
Are there any elements or lessons from this project that you plan to carry forward into your future work? “This project has been a significant growth experience for me as a director. Most importantly, by shifting focus from relying on star power to emphasising the strength of the story, content and quality, I’ve reaffirmed my belief that exceptional work can be created through these elements.”
Looking back on this journey, what is your biggest takeaway and what’s next for you? “Despite the risks, the experience has been invaluable. Currently, I am working on a new romantic comedy series set to air next year, focusing on a storyline designed for multiple seasons. We’re also trying our best to develop Season 2 of Boyhood soon.”
Singapore drama 128 Circle, by Weiyu Films for Mediacorp, is a slice of life story that sidesteps highconcepts in favour of real people with relatable lives in authentic situations. Lee Thean-jeen, director of all three seasons, talks about the series.
In the first season of Singapore drama 128 Circle, a group of veteran street-food vendors fight to save their cherished food centre from closing. In the second season, they navigate the challenges of COVID, keeping their business and sanity intact. In the latest season, these hawkers face their toughest challenge yet: Gen Z. ContentAsia talks to director Lee Thean-jeen about maintaining the momentum in this multilingual drama.
What was the starting point for 128 Circle? “We wanted to create something that portrayed life in Singapore in an authentic way. Something that was inclusive and represented the diversity of the social fabric, the antithesis to a high-concept show with dragons and dead bodies. The hawker centre, where 128 Circle is set, is a melting pot where you’ll see Singaporeans – and visitors – from all walks of life and backgrounds. So, it felt like a natural location to set the show and originate the characters and stories.”
Walk us through your creative process... “Our basic tenet has been to keep it real. And that permeates the process, from conceptualising, to the writing and to the way the show is shot and even post-produced. We produced our second season in the midst of the pandemic, and
one of the toughest creative decisions involved whether to put our characters through a year of Covid-19 when many shows produced during that period tried to play it down. We decided to keep it real. With 128 Circle, the approach and style were based on quiet observation – letting the characters and the story shine, without anything else getting in the way. If you thought the situations unfolding were for real, then we did our job.”
Can you share how you approached the development of your characters, and what you hoped to convey through them? “We drew inspiration from real life. The characters embody traits and personalities of people we knew, loved, loathed and observed. We also gave the actors the freedom to play it real. And now, I am not even sure where the character ends and the actor begins. Which is really great.”
Ratings for 128 Circle season three have continually grown. What do you think this says about the popularity of this kind of drama in Singapore? “I think viewers see a little of themselves and their lives in the characters, and the situations they face. There’s a lot of great programming out there, and it’s nice to see that a slice-of-life drama about ordinary people trying to get through the day can resonate.”
We drew inspiration from real life. The characters embody traits and personalities of people we knew, loved, loathed and observed. We also gave the actors the freedom to play it real. And now, I am not even sure where the character ends and the actor begins, which is really great.”
Lee Thean-jeen, Director, 128 Circle
What were some of the biggest obstacles you encountered during the production, and how did you overcome them? “One of the more interesting challenges with a show set in a hawker centre was actually filming in a hawker centre. It’s hot, noisy and not the most conducive location for actors and a film crew to spend 12 hours a day for weeks on end alongside actual hawkers who are trying to eke out a living. In season two, the production migrated to a studio set which was custombuilt to replicate the design of the hawker centre. And in season three, we incorporated virtual production techniques.”
What has been the most surprising or gratifying reaction from the audience since season three aired at the beginning of this year? “We’ve been pleasantly surprised by the engagement that clips from the show have achieved on social media – with some of them clocking millions of views. Responses didn’t only come from Singapore, but from around the region as well. What’s interesting is how viewers relate the experiences of our characters with their own, and discuss and debate them online, blurring the line between fiction and reality. In fact, some of this has inspired us to create storylines in the show.”
Are there any elements or lessons from this project that you plan to carry forward into your future work? What’s next on the horizon for you? “128 Circle Season 3 afforded us the opportunity to do some pioneering work in Virtual Production, which we intend to build upon for future projects. We are in development on a show that is at the other end of the spectrum as it can be from a contemporary slice-of-life drama about ordinary people. It’s really exciting, but that’s about all I can say about it at the moment.”
Thai drama Enigma balanced romance, horror, coming-of-age, drama, fantasy, action and more. Thai director Patha “O” Thongpan – nominated in the ContentAsia Awards 2024 Best Director category – talks about the most challenging project of his career so far, as well as moving into his first second season ever.
Thai director, writer and producer Patha (aka O) Thongpan’s Enigma caps a career that has ranged from horror, mystery and thrillers to comedy and romance, including directing high-profile shows like F4 Thailand: Boys Over Flowers and The Gifted. The four-episode Enigma season one, which won Thongpan a ContentAsia Awards’ nomination for Best Director this year, aired on GMM25 and Prime Video. The supernatural thriller, produced by GMMTV and Parbdee Tawesuk, delves into mysterious events at a prestigious high school where a diligent 12thgrade student becomes suspicious of a new substitute teacher. The horror mystery continues with Enigma 2, which started filming this month.
How do you feel about returning to a project with a supernatural storyline? “Actually, the subject of black magic is a common theme in Thai productions. However, we didn’t think that anyone had successfully made a modern and relevant take on it. It was really fun to explore and, as I hadn’t directed horror since ThirTEEN Terrors almost 10 years ago, I felt it was time to dive back into something exciting like this. Growing up with Japanese anime, much of my signature style is rooted in that. So, I had a lot of fun creating cool spells and grand, spectacular visuals. I wanted the project to feel like a superhero movie, where the villain is just as compelling as the hero – like Batman.”
Enigma season one aired on Prime Video as well as GMM25 in Thailand. Were you happy with its performance? “We received very satisfying ratings and viewership numbers, not just in Thailand but in many other countries. Of course, this type of drama is quite unique and far from mainstream, so it didn’t become a massive hit everywhere. But we’re happy to see more people willing to explore this genre, and it’s great to see Thailand becoming more open to new and different styles of work.”
What were your biggest challenges on Enigma? “Budget is always a big issue in the Thai series industry, especially when we aim to meet international standards. The only way to overcome this is to focus on creating the most perfect script possible – maintaining suspense throughout the entire story. It also required a precise and efficient shooting process with no unnecessary shots. Preparation was more than usual, but it was worth it. This project turned out to be one of the most challenging in my career.”
Budget is always a big issue in the Thai series industry, especially when we aim to meet international standards. ”
Patha “O” Thongpan, Director, Enigma
What has been the most surprising or gratifying audience reaction?
“I’ve been incredibly touched by the global response and the in-depth reviews. Reading detailed analyses always brings me joy because it shows that our work not only entertained people but also made them think deeply and interpret the story in their own way. It reminds me of my film school days, analysing great movies with friends. It surprised me just how many strangers approached me, telling me how much they loved Enigma and are eagerly awaiting season two. It makes my heart swell!”
How did you decide on the look and feel of the show? “We wanted something spectacular and fresh, balancing horror and cool elements like in anime or superhero movies. We put a lot of thought into colors and tones, especially when blending Thai black magic with a more international style. It was important that the magic didn’t feel outdated but also didn’t look too Western, like witchcraft, so a lot of effort went into framing the shots, placing the props, and setting the lighting. Essentially, it was about problem-solving for a project with a mix of
genres. This show had to balance romance, horror, coming-ofage, drama, fantasy, action, and more.”
What learnings are you taking from season one into the new season? “The detailed groundwork laid in season one has made the process of setting up the next project much smoother. Now, it’s just about adding exciting new flavours to the mix. The goal for both me and the team at Parbdee Tawesuk is to keep pushing boundaries. This experience has made us more confident and excited to take on more new and creative challenges. Season two is a really intense project. This is my first time working on a second season, and while we have a bigger budget, the ambition has grown several times over, making many aspects extremely challenging. However, it’s an exciting new door to open, allowing us to build on the original work, retain its charm, and create an even more thrilling world with new challenges for the characters to face.”
As a director, what are your biggest takeaways from the Enigma experience? “What I’m most proud of is seeing the team break through their own limitations. We pushed some of the younger, less experienced crew to become true professionals who won awards for their work. I’m incredibly happy about that.”
Sidharta Tata and Fajar Martha Santosa drew on lived experience on the streets of Jogja to create the world of Pertaruhan. The two directors, who also have writer credits on the series – talk about layering gambling and loans onto the story of a family struggling to survive in a chaotic world.
Indonesian action drama, Pertaruhan The Series 2, was one of streaming platform Vidio’s top performing original titles last year. The second season picked up the story where the first season left off, with Elzan risking everything to defend his family home against a bank’s attempts to confiscate their property and ruin their lives. As part of ContentAsia Awards’ director’s focus, series’ directors Sidharta Tata and Fajar Martha Santosa – who both also have writer credits on the show – explain why they returned to explore more of Indonesia’s criminal underworld.
What originally inspired you to portray this side of Indonesia? “We both have quite a bit of experience being on the streets. We grew up in an area known for thuggery, gambling, and city gangs in Jogja (Yogyakarta), Indonesia. However, unlike Jakarta, Jogja mixes a rich culture with gangster life that creates its own unique characteristics. This allowed us to honestly reconstruct the basic concept behind Pertaruhan.”
How did the project evolve from season one to Season two? “The driving force behind the creative process was the Penekawan development team, which we are both a part of. At the end of Pertaruhan Season 1, we wondered where will we take Elzan and his family next? What kind of world will they explore? From there, our idea evolved. If Pertaruhan is a story about a family struggling to survive in a chaotic world, what other chaos could they encounter? The concept of exploring gambling and loans then emerged. We then discussed this with Vidio and Screenplay, and the story developed further by adding new characters and events.”
Pertaruhan The Series 2 had two million unique views in its first month on Vidio – making it one of the most successful series ever on the platform. What does this say about
the popularity of this kind of drama in Indonesia? “That’s a very difficult question and there are many possibilities. We were also quite surprised by the number of views and so we tried to analyse it further. We think it comes down to three things. Action that is as realistic as possible and performed without stunt doubles. Straightforward dialogue, using everyday language and common cursewords that are often heard in real life. And a brand of straightforward and surprising comedy that fuses the action and script.”
What were the challenges in making this sequel? “There were certainly many challenges. First, we had to find a setting that could represent the world of Pertaruhan. So, we had to shoot in three cities: Jogja, Semarang and Kendal. It required a lot of energy to find locations, and move from place to place during filming. Next, introducing new characters was extremely challenging. Even determining how important they were for the story’s development – were they merely tools in the story? Or could they drive the narrative? Actually, we never really worried about whether this sequel would be better or worse. Wow…that sentence sounds so light today, doesn’t it? Haha. But that’s how it was. At that time, we believed that we were all servants of the story. So, we served the story.”
Social media was ablaze when the show aired. What was your reaction?
“Believe me, we were all surprised by this. Some even held watch parties or created cosplay content on their social media accounts. The cast? They were even shocked when praise or criticism landed in their private messages from fans who were so passionate about the characters they portrayed.”
What kind of impact has the series had on local culture? “Hopefully we’ve given viewers a renewed sense of confidence in local, homegrown TV content.”
How did you decide on the look and feel of the show, and what role did it play in telling the story? “Pertaruhan has three main elements: action, drama and comedy. These aspects decided how the visuals would work. We often chose to use fast-panning camera movements during fight or comedy scenes to create a surprising effect. Or slow track-in shots when we needed an emotional atmosphere and wanted the actor to appear distressed.”
What are the main lessons that you’ve learned from this project?
“We learned that working with a crew and cast who share the same understanding creates a pleasant working atmosphere, which directly impacts the results. It all starts with fostering a collaborative environment. Recently, we worked on a thriller series and, yes, that method proved to be highly effective.”
ContentAsia Awards 2024 Best Director, Tushar Hiranandani, talks to Vanita Kohli-Khandekar about a career that pretty much kicked off when the clapper boy fell ill.
ContentAsia Awards 2024 Best Director Tushar Hiranandani’s filmography suggests a person who is, at heart, a journalist who ventured into feature films. Yet he made his name writing successful comedies such as Masti (now a franchise with three films), Housefull (2 and 4) and Half Girlfriend Applause Entertainment’s Scam 2003: The Telgi Story with Studio Next for SonyLIV was Hiranandani’s first streaming series as director. The show chronicles the life of Abdul Telgi, who orchestrated India’s biggest counterfeit stamp paper scam, worth Rp30,000 crore/ US$3.8 billion.
The Telgi scam exposed deep-seated corruption in India’s political and bureaucratic corridors of power.
Applause Entertainment says the TV series recreates the vibrant tapestry of the 1990s,
“immersing viewers in an eye-opening tale of ambition, corruption and power”.
The ContentAsia Awards Jury clearly agreed, voting for Hiranandani for his treatment of this rich subject matter, his attention to detail and production design, his ability to bring characters and their journeys to life, and creating an environment where viewers become so heavily invested in the main character.
Vanita Kohli-Khandekar talked to the Mumbai-based director about being bad at studies, his best friends, cold-calling director Hansal Mehta, the time Indra Kumar threw him out, and how he made his way back and up.
Your father, Ashok Hiranandani, was a film distributor. What attracted you to writing and directing? “My dad lost our house somewhere in the late 1980s, early 1990s. In those days distributors put in their own money. For me the fun part of growing up was going to the premieres of the films he distributed – Nikaah (1982), Toofan (1989), Pathar Ke Phool (1991)... Since I am dyslexic I was bad at studies. It meant spending a lot of time at home playing cricket and watching films. Movies were my best friends. When we lost everything we shifted
As a writer you create heroes. But in real life there are so many wonderful unsaid stories that excite me. I cry, laugh, clap, if that happens, it is a story I want to do.”
Tushar Hiranandani, Director, Scam 2003: The Telgi Story
to a one-room home in Jogeshwari (in the Western suburbs of Mumbai).
“Dad had produced Indra Kumar’s first Gujarati film. Kumar gave me a job as assistant director (AD). My task was to get cigarettes and stuff for people... When the clapper boy fell ill, I was allowed on the set. Over three years of working as an AD on several films I learned so much about camera angles, lenses, about shooting.
“When Kumar was launching his third film, I had just seen Dil Chahta Hai (2001, a cult film that defined a generation). I told him it was time for something different and he threw me out. Eventually, just when I was about to write a film for Milaap Zaveri, Kumar called me. And I narrated the film to all of them; they laughed. That is how Masti (Fun, 2004, the first film he wrote) was born.”
How did you move to directing? “I always wanted to become a director. When I got married in 2011, Nidhi (his wife, Nidhi Parmar) didn’t like what I wrote. But I enjoyed the process of writing. I had nine hits and was among the highest paid writers. In the same year, I saw an episode of Satyamev Jayate (a Star TV show hosted by Aamir Khan) which featured Chandro and Prakashi Tomar (the octogenarian sisters-in-law who learned to shoot in their 60s and went on to win several national championships. Chandro died in 2021). It made me cry. And that is how Saand Ki Aankh, my first film as a director, was born. Nidhi said she would produce it (under Chalk N Cheese Productions, a banner the couple co-owns). Then we met Anurag Kashyap (filmmaker and then co-founder of Phantom Films) at a wedding and he said he will produce it. Reliance Entertainment had 50% of Phantom then and they got involved. Saand Ki Aankh released in October 2019. It didn’t do well but got a lot of respect and brought me several offers from OTT.”
Then Covid happened... “I had spent so much money buying this house, we had just had our son and at one point I was writing six films. And suddenly there was no work for two years. When Scam 1992 re-
leased in October 2020, I watched it in one night. And early in the morning, I called Hansal Mehta (the director) to rave about the show. He didn’t know me. I kept in touch with him. Later on in June 2021 he offered me Scam 2003: The Telgi Story.”
Scam 2003, Saand Ki Aankh and now Srikanth... Are you becoming the biopic man? “As a writer you create heroes. But in real life there are so many wonderful unsaid stories that excite me. I cry, laugh, clap, if that happens, it is a story I want to do. Srikanth Bolla (the visually-impaired businessman on whom Hiranandani based his second film) fobbed me off for long. But eventually his partner, Ravi Mantha, invited me to spend three days following him around in Hyderabad. Srikanth said he had given the rights to Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra (maker of Rang De Basanti and Bhaag Milkha Bhaag, among other movies). Eventually both Ravi and Srikanth were keen that I do the film; they got the rights back from Mehra.”
You don’t write your own films? “No. Things have changed so much. And writers like Sumit (Purohit), Jagdeep (Siddhu), Karan Vyas know that I like biopics with a little tadka (zingy tempering). (Sumit and Jagdeep wrote Srikanth; Karan wrote Scam 2003) Also Bhushan (Kumar, MD of T-Series and Srikanth producer), doesn’t interfere. He gave us a free hand.”
What are you working on now? “We (Chalk N Cheese) are producing a Marathi film for Zee, based on true events. There three films in the pipeline.”
This interview first appeared in ContentAsia’s October/November 2024 edition and is reprinted here as part of our ContentAsia Awards’ focus on the Asia’s best directors.
Asia’s formats environment has changed dramatically in the past three years. The response, industry leaders say, is flexibility, collaboration and to solve for different problems. Plus a breakdown of formats in the region from January to September 2024.
If Vietnam recorded the most formats by volume in the first nine months of this year, India took the headline lead in the last quarter, capped at the end October with the announcement that Goldie Behl’s Rose Audio Visuals and global indie All3Media International were working on an Indian version of Studio Lambert’s unscripted series, Buy it Now The show, a departure for Rose Audio Visuals, known for its scripted productions, focuses on “turning local inventions into national sensations”.
Rose Audio’s move into unknown territory could be seen as a sign of the times – a hunt for new opportunities and unexplored potential by everyone everywhere. “We see great potential in unscripted formats for Indian audiences… at a time when innovation and entrepreneurship are thriving across the country,” Rose Audio Visuals’ COO, Mitesh Patel, said when the deal was announced. The platform partners had not been announced at presstime.
The Buy It Now pick-up announcement coincided with the premiere of Asia’s first adaptation of NBCUniversal Formats’ Million Dollar Listing The real estate reality series debuted on 25 October on Indian streamer Sony LIV. In another sign of the times, the unscripted real estate format is produced by sometimes-rival-often friend, Banijay Asia, which is forging new domestic and regionals paths out of its Mumbai HQ for both originals and formats.
The India hat-trick kicked off in the second half of September with the
first Asian version of The Traitors, also from All3Media International. The unscripted series, which involves 20 players competing for a cash prize in a game of trust and deception, will stream on Prime Video India in Hindi with English subtitles in 2025. Karan Johar hosts the India version, currently in production by BBC Studios India Productions led by Sameer Gogate, GM, BBC Studios India Productions.
The three high-profile announcements are consistent with the vibrant and ongoing interest in unscripted formats in Asia.
For the first nine months of 2024, unscripted titles outstripped scripted by 91 to 27, according to ContentAsia’s Formats Outlook. Of the total 118 format adaptations recorded to end September, 53 (45%) were reality shows. Of these, 23 titles involved singing, cooking,
social experiment, business, dating, fashion/beauty, factual, talent, romance, dancing and improvised comedy.
Source: Distributors/rights holders, titles/ seasons either on air or commissioned in January–September 2024 by broadcasters/ platforms/companies in 18 countries in Asia, as of October 2024, ContentAsia’s Formats Outlook 9M 2024
Game shows in the fi rst nine months of this year accounted for 27% (32 titles) while drama series made up 23% (27 titles), according to ContentAsia ’s Formats Outlook for January to September 2024.
Come January 2025, Singapore joins the ranks of highprofile singing shows with the first version of Korean singing-related game show format, I Can See Your Voice. The mystery music show, produced by Mediacorp Studios, premieres in January. The commission, announced in mid-2024, brings to an end Singapore’s dry spell of big-brand international song-formats that persisted for almost two decades. The last singing-related international format aired in Singapore was Singapore Idol, which premiered in 2004 and returned for a
second season in 2006.
CJ ENM’s I Can See Your Voice is a long-running favourite across Southeast Asia. Malaysia and Thailand are both on season seven, and the Philippines is on season eight.
Vietnam also retains a strong appetite for multiple seasons of big-brand properties, including versions of ITV Studios’ The Voice
For the nine months to end September 2024, Vietnam also had the most singing formats.
Four titles were commissioned/underway/on-air of a total of nine reality formats reported. These included The Voice Kids Vietnam season eight; Beautiful Sisters Riding Waves from China’s Mango TV; and two seasons of Singer Auction Vietnam (seasons five and six) from NBCUniversal Formats. All four were commissioned by state-owned free-TV broadcast network, Vietnam Television (VTV3).
Elsewhere in the region, Mongolia, the Philippines and Sri Lanka recorded three singing formats each during the same period.
Mongolia’s pick-ups included Banijay Rights’ Killer Karaoke Mongolia season one, commissioned by free-TV channel Central TV, and Your Face Sounds Familiar Mongolia season seven greedlit by Edutainment TV; and ITV Studios’ The Voice Kids Mongolia season one for free-TV service, Mongol TV.
In the Philippines, ContentAsia’s Formats Outlook counted three singing formats, all from ITV Studios – The Voice Kids Philippines seasons six/seven and The Voice Teens Philippines season three. Similarly in Sri Lanka, all three singing formats were from ITV Studios –The Voice Generations Sri Lanka season two, The Voice Kids Sri Lanka season one, The Voice of Sri Lanka season three. All were commissioned by the Capital Maharaja Group’s MTV Channels.
Game show adaptations reigned in Vietnam, Mongolia and Thailand Vietnam recorded seven adaptations, including local remakes of CJ ENM Korea’s My Boyfriend is Better, commissioned by FPT Play; All3Media International’s Beat the Internet Vietnam and Cash Cab Vietnam, both
Source: Distributors/rights holders, titles/seasons either on air or commissioned in January–September 2024 by broadcasters/platforms/companies in 18 countries in Asia, as of
commissioned by VTV8; and Banijay Rights’ Million Dollar Minute Vietnam season nine, locally known as Mot tram trieu mot phut by VTV3.
Game shows made up 37% of the total 19 formats in the country during the first nine months of this year.
Mongolia recorded six game show titles (on par with reality formats), out of a total 14 formats during the first nine months of this year.
Titles included All3Media International’s Cash At Your Door Mongolia season four for Edutainment TV and Cash Cab Mongolia for NTV; Spelling Star season three from Banijay Rights, commissioned by Edutainment TV; and Fremantle’s Family Feud Mongolia for Star TV and Total Black Out Mongolia season three for Edutainment TV.
Thailand was third, with four titles – First and Last Thailand seasons seven and eight from Banijay Rights for Bangkok Broadcasting & TV (BBTV Channel 7); Fremantle’s Family Feud Thailand for The One Enterprise (One31); and NBCUniversal Formats’ Hollywood Game Night Thailand season seven, commissioned by BEC World (Channel 3).
Thailand ended September in the scripted lead, with seven titles commissioned/on-air by platforms operating locally, followed by India with five and Korea with four titles.
In Thailand, drama adaptations included TV Tokyo’s Cherry Magic itself a remake of the Japanese drama Cherry Magic! Thirty Years of Virginity Can Make You a Wizard?!, about Kiyoshi Adachi, a 30-year-old virgin who gains a magical power that allows him to read people’s minds by touching them; CJ ENM Korea’s medical drama Emergency Couple; romcom Familiar Wife Thailand; thriller Law-less; and Good Doctor Thailand from Korea’s KBS Media for TrueVisions (TrueID), which premiered in October and runs to December. Emergency Couple, Familiar Wife Thailand and Law-less are also part of the True offering.
India was second to Thailand with five drama titles, including season four of Criminal Justice from BBC Studios for Disney+ Hotstar; Aarya season three
Rights for Disney+ Hotstar; and All3Media Interna-
tional’s The Tourist, which was announced in July 2024 in a deal with Banijay Asia.
Banijay Asia, which has been behind local adaptations of The Night Manager, The Trial (The Good Wife) and Call My Agent Bollywood, says it chose The Tourist because of its “unique blend of mystery and suspense”.
The latest deal brings The Tourist, about an Irishman who wakes up in an Australian hospital with amnesia after a car crash, to Asia for the first time, and, although second to Thailand in volume in 2024, is likely to be in the lead in budget and scale.
From 2017 to the end of 2023, India had adapted upwards of 220 international formats, including 66 drama adaptations, giving the genre an average 30% share of India’s formats market. Thirteen of the 29 titles adapted in 2023 were drama series, including Kafas (The Forge’s Dark Money), Good Doctor India, Rana Naidu (Ray Donovan) season two, and Tanaav (Fauda) season two, according to ContentAsia’s Formats Outlook. Korea ranked third behind Thailand and India for scripted formats, accounting for four titles: Tell Me That You Love Me, based on 1995 Japanese TV series Aishiteiru to Itte Kure from TBS Japan, commissioned by Studio Genie/ENA; Family by Choice, a remake of the Chinese title Go Ahead from Huace Film & TV, for JTBC Studios/SLL; romcom Love Undercover, adapted
from Turkish series Ruhun Duymaz from Inter Medya; and Your Honor, a remake of Israel’s Kovodo from Yes Studios for KT Genie TV.
The four drama adaptations in Korea accounted for the majority of the country’s total format count for the first nine months of this year. The others are two seasons of variety show Saturday Night Live Korea (seasons four and five) from NBCUniversal Formats; and one music show, Tiny Desk Korea, a remake of Tiny Desk Concert from NPR, brokered by Korea’s Something Special.
In Japan, Mother, about a teacher who impulsively abducts a young student she knows is being abused by her own mother, is the gift that keeps on giving for Japanese free-TV broadcaster, Nippon TV. A Philippines’ version – Saving Grace – is on its way in 2025 in an adaptation by ABS-CBN/Dreamscape. Julia Montes stars in the local version, which is Dreamscape’s first adaptation of a Nippon TV show. In Asia, Mother has also been adapted in Korea, Thailand, China and Mongolia. In October this year, Nippon TV said Greece’s Alpha TV had commissioned a Greek
version – Na me les mama (Call me Mom) – giving the series its 11th international adaptation and cementing the Japanese drama series as Asia’s #1 scripted export.
At least 118 adaptations were commissioned, underway or on air in Asia in the first nine months of this year. Vietnam led with 19 titles (16%), followed by Thailand with 16 titles (14%) and Mongolia with 14 titles (12%).
Of Vietnam’s 19 adaptations, nine were reality and seven were game shows, with one each for variety, drama and music.
Thailand’s16 adaptations involved seven dramas, five reality shows, and four game shows.
India recorded 14 titles (seven reality, five drama, and two game shows) from January to September 2024.
Mongolia reported a total of 14 adaptations (6 reality, 6 game shows, 2 drama) for the first nine months of this year.
@caracolTvIntl
The Philippines reported 11 adaptations (seven reality, three drama and one game show), while Sri Lanka had five (three reality shows and two game shows) for the first nine months of this year.
In the current environment and with all the uncertainty media companies are facing, producers and platforms are hyper-focused on reducing risk.
“Formats is one of the answers. Not the only one, but one of the ways to reduce risk. That’s what we have been working on with our clients,” says All3Media International’s Asia Pacific EVP, Sabrina Duguet.
What’s not working is creating a show – or trying to – specifically for an international market. “This sounds so obvious, but a show needs to have worked really well in one country,” Duguet says.
“I’m saying that because more and more we see people wanting to do formats to export. And yes, of course, we all want our formats to sell worldwide, but at the end of the day, when you create a show, it needs to work for your country,” she adds.
Duguet says the formats industry is currently walking two distinct paths. One focuses on mega shows, the must-have already-proven success. The other is what she calls the “comfort zone” – “sometimes lower budget but a brand we know has worked, where we can do a bit more volume and recoup the investment across a lot of episodes”.
She adds that the rise in All3Media’s scripted profile has followed the
company’s acquisition of high-end drama companies over the past seven years. This has run alongside higher market demand. “In Asia, where obviously local content is key, demand for scripted series has increased, and therefore, I think the mix of both made it the perfect timing for us to grow that business here,” she says.
Speaking during the ContentAsia Summit in Taiwan in September 2024, Duguet said All3Media had sold 17 scripted formats in six or seven territories across Asia in the past few years, with another 10 or so in development with various partners. About 80% of these are crime/detective/thriller.
“It is something that we do a lot more of, but it also shows the demand of the market,” she said.
Mrinalini Jain, group chief development officer for Banijay Asia & Endemol Shine India, points out an expected decline of about 20% in overall commissioning of content in India in 2024, from a total of 206 titles in 2023. As of June 2024, about 75 titles had been greenlit, with year-end numbers expected to end at 150.
Platform consolidation in India, with the number of buyers shrinking from 11 in the past year to about five, is the primary reason, Jain says.
“The consolidation of buyers and platforms has greatly impacted the kind of decisions platforms will make towards the kind of content they want to offer,” she says.
“It’s definitely a challenging time... I wouldn’t view it just from a formats perspective,” she adds.
In India, Banijay makes Big Brother in seven languages, Fear Fac-
tor, which has been ongoing for about 16 years, and MasterChef in three languages. “The ones that were there have stayed,” she says.
Big-brand, longrunning formats are perhaps faring better than new titles, with India’s free-toair channels favouring unscripted and SVOD services aligning with scripted.
The thinking is that high-profile shows, with big-name stars, writers and directors, are great for customer acquisition. In a slower market, this means fewer but bigger titles. “But what happens on retention? What happens when the show is over? What do you entertain consumers with?” Jain asks.
Diversity remains key, she says. “Today, every viewer wants a unique experience... consumers are very hard to please.”
“But I do think that this entire piece is short lived and ever-evolving. I feel the market is slowly shifting towards being okay with the risk, at least in India, saying that ‘okay, if nothing is working, what is the best we can do now?’ We just have to reinvent. We have to take the risk,” Jain says.
It has definitely been a challenging time... I wouldn’t view it from just a formats perspective... But I also think that this entire piece is evolving. The market is slowly shifting towards being okay with risk, at least in India.”
this market is slowly shifting
Mrinalini Jain, Group Chief Development Officer, Banijay Asia and Endemol Shine India
Jin Woo Hwang, founder and president of Something Special, Korea’s first independent agency specialising in formats, says the decrease in the overall number of format adaptations in Asia has been followed by spikes in countries like Japan, which is much more open to format acquisitions now than it has been in the past. Hwang attributes this to demand from streaming platforms.
He also notes greater diversifi cation in size, genre and subject of formats. This is the driver behind the Something Special slate, which ranges from Unforgettable Duet to Penthouse Game to comedy, dating shows, and scripted.
Unforgettable Duet is an original unscripted series that follows a dementia patient whose families gather mementos and a favourite song to help them recall the past. The show was created and produced by Something Special and Eun-seol Mo (creator of Netfl ix’s Culinary Class War ), and co-produced with Studio Rudolph. Penthouse Game , which aired on Channel A with a streaming window on Korean platform Wavve, is a reality game show featuring individuals going throu gh fi nancial diffi culties. Chonjang Entertainment’s I am Single, which airs on ENA and SBS Plus, is a hyper-realistic dating show where 12 singles who desperately want to marry come to stay for six days.
Something Special also has international rights to Nmedia’s celebrity game show, Battle in the Box, which features two celebrity teams who, armed only with their toothbrushes, enter an empty b ox divided by a movable wall. Interstellar has an option for the U .S., following the successful production of the U.K. version this year on UK TV’s U&Dave TV.
Even though Korea’s The Masked Singer was toppled from its spot as the world’s top format this year by The Traitors , Hwang says Korean formats “are still selling pretty well”. The market challe nge, he adds, is coming up with a steady stream of new ideas, regardles s of local funding and budget issues.
There’s no shortage of new ideas on digital/social media, says Linfi eld Ng, NBCUniversal Formats’ vice president, format distribution and production, Asia.
He mentions YouTube shows like XYOB and Hong Seok Cheon’s Jewelry Box... “ There’s all this new, interesting YouTube content that’s exploding and that makes regular TV formats challenging on many levels. These digital shows are short, they’re fun, they’re ver y easy to entertain and engage audiences, an audience these days with a very, very short attention span. If you’re not fun or interes ting, you are just switched off.”
At the same time, big brands still sell and major sponsors stil l gravitate towards these. For example, Top Chef and The Real Housewives ... Beyond those, Ng does his best to fi nd NBCU titles with particular resonance in specifi c markets and with particular partners in Asia. This led him to Singer Auction in Vietnam and photography competition, Master of Photography, in Mongolia.
Duguet agrees. “It’s not enough that a show is good for it to travel,” she says. “Every single decision along the way will have an impact. Who are you going to collaborate with. Who is the best partner? One might be the best for one show, but the competitor will be the best for another show... it’s when knowing your client becomes everything.”
As diffi cult as these sometimes are, co-production and co-development are crucial, Hwang says.
There’s all this new, interesting YouTube content that’s exploding, and that makes regular TV formats challenging on many levels. These digital shows are short, they’re fun, they’re very easy to entertain and engage audiences.”
Linfield Ng, VP Formats Distribution and Production, NBCUniversal Formats
Duguet says the most diffi cult version of this is the co-creation of a show. “You have two creative teams from two different countries with two different backgrounds trying to agree on creative... we can all agree this is a nightmare”. She says what works better creatively is for one of the partners to take the lead “a little more”.
“All of us are thinking the same thing,” Ng says. The new environment “forces us to be so much more creative and flexible, creatively and commercially, on many levels”.
The second season of Taiwanese drama, The World Between Us, pushes the envelope on story and production scale as well as special effects, demonstrating what the local content industry is striving for. The production team behind the new series talks about resurfacing a blockbuster after a five-year break.
The teaser for The World Between Us season two, Taiwan’s scripted show of the moment, throws down a challenge: “How many people are going to be sacrificed before you change anything?... It’s up to you to decide”. The question is as big as the ambitions behind the return of the Taiwanese series five years after season one in 2019. A co-production between Taiwan’s Public Television Service Foundation (PTS), the Taiwan Creative Content Agency (TAICCA), AsiaPlay Taiwan Digital Entertainment and KOKO Entertainment, season two spans two decades and involves two families with six main story lines. Season one dealt primarily with media issues. The story in season two delves more into politics, “which is an everyday topic of interest in Taiwan, but harder to address,” says Lu Shih-Yuan, who wrote both seasons. Ahead of its intended 2025 premiere, Jayde Lin, CEO of production house DaMou Entertainment, scriptwriter Lu Shih-Yuan and director Lin Chun-Yang spoke to ContentAsia about five years of development, the thinking behind the dramatic upsize, and the challenges the production team faced as they brought the series to life.
What was the most challenging aspect of such a huge production?
Lin Chun-Yang: “We didn’t specifically define our approach as breaking new ground. I would say that because the first season created such a strong response, Shih-Yuan had already started thinking about the story direction for a second season. We had several challenges. One was the large cast, and then the six family storylines. We span
20 years within the story, exploring these characters’ current predicaments and tracing back 20 years to understand the cause of the present tragedy. Ten years later, when the perpetrator was still young and might have been able to be saved, was there an opportunity for him to be supported? Why was that chance missed? This structure – a reverse chronology – shows the result of an event and goes back to explore why this tragedy happened. So, the two main challenges for us were the cast size and the time span, which required a massive amount of props, scenes and special effects.”
You also made what you describe as a bold decision...
Lin Chun-Yang: “...to have the actors portray their younger selves from 20 years prior. We felt the audience would fi nd it hard to connect if a new cast played the characters’ younger versions. So we asked these incredibly talented actors to portray their younger selves, making use of special effects and the actors’ abilities to overcome this challenge.”
As the producer, what was your challenge?
Jayde Lin: “So many come to mind. I think from the moment we received the script, we knew this production would require every ounce of our past experience, and more. The difficulty lay in the story’s structure, covering five stages, spanning 20 years, with a reverse chronological order and a tightly woven narrative featuring six families,
each going through five different stages. And then there’s the setting of Qingyun County, a place Shih-Yuan created in the story. To bring this imagined county to life, we filmed across six cities around Taiwan. The cast size was another huge challenge.”
Shih-Yuan, what inspired you to write season two?
Lu Shih-Yuan: “The origin was unintentionally signing the contract. Once I’d signed it, I couldn’t go back...”
Is there more?
Lu Shih-Yuan: “No, it ends here. There won’t be another accidental contract signing.”
It feels like this series portrays issues often overlooked in traditional drama, but seen in news reports. In Taiwan, this perspective is also rare – to explore issues in a holistic way rather than focusing on a single theme... It’s a blend of multiple topics that explores complex social dynamics...
Lu Shih-Yuan: “There has been a gradual shift among Taiwanese creators toward this kind of narrative, which I think is positive.”
What’s the connection between the first and second seasons?
Lu Shih-Yuan: “They’re in the same universe. The World Between Us parts one and two and Wave Makers (人選之人－造浪者, 2023) all occur in the same universe, with the same two political parties and Taste News. In part two, Wang She (played by Wu Kang-ren) also returns as a defence lawyer, maintaining the connections within this universe.”
Lin Chun-Yang: “In season two, we brought back some actors from season one for guest roles, connecting their characters from the first season. This expanded the entire universe we created.
“Regarding casting, since this is a very realistic story, we had to fill in many details to make it a believable, complete world. But we also wanted it to feel slightly separated from the real world, even though it takes place in Taiwan. If we used real-world names – of TV stations or political parties – it would be difficult for viewers to separate the show from reality, which could cause tension. So we created fictional TV stations, political parties, and even locations, making the story feel very close to Taiwan but still maintaining enough distance to let the audience observe calmly.”
“This approach lets viewers feel the events are very realistic, like something that could happen in their lives, but with enough separation to enjoy the storytelling. When certain dramatic coincidences happen, they’re seen as part of the drama rather
knew this production would require every ounce of our past experience, and more.”
Jayde Lin, CEO, DaMou Entertainment
than a commentary on real-world events. Of course, we hope this story resonates deeply and creates echoes within society. But first and foremost, our priority was to create an engaging, well-made drama.”
Were there any specific scenes that took extra effort to craft?
Lin Chun-Yang: “One notable element is our first filming inside Taiwan’s Legislative Yuan, in the main hall. In the past, many productions in Taiwan, where there’s creative freedom, have filmed scenes involving the Legislative Yuan. But no one has actually filmed inside their debating chamber. For one scene, we managed to stage a chaotic debate in a setting similar to the real ones we see, capturing a key moment in the series...
“The first season explored societal reactions to a random killer, bringing in the role of the media. In season two, we wanted to tackle more themes, so we introduced politics as one of the main threads. I don’t want to reveal too much about the content at this point, but I can say the storyline will be more complex and layered, triggering many associations when you watch it. Politics, the media, and the perpetrators and victims of crime are all intertwined here, creating that unique ‘flavour’ of the show.”
Jayde Lin: “After season one aired, many people might have won-
YOUR SPRING DESTINATION FOR CONTENT DEVELOPMENT AND DISTRIBUTION
MARCH 25 > 27, 2025
updated with
’s
magazines, and more! Sign up here...
dered, ‘What happens next?’ or ‘After all these years, what now?’ In season two, Shih-Yuan has posed a lot of new questions, encouraging us to keep exploring these dialogues. I think this aspect is intriguing for us, and we hope that when it’s released, the audience can engage more deeply in discussions of good and evil. But before that, we’ve first and foremost created a strong story. For me, that’s what’s most touching – journeying with these characters through 20 years of their lives. These reflections on morality emerge as we follow them into their lives, and it all starts with a compelling story.”
Are there production techniques or aspects that differ from what we’ve seen before in Taiwan? Or is this just an increase in scale?
Lu Shih-Yuan: “We debated for a while whether to recast the roles from 20 years ago or keep the original actors. I found it exciting to have the same actors portray their younger selves from two decades earlier. Seeing Vic Chou in a way I didn’t expect was actually moving – showing his character at his lowest initially, then later as a vibrant, young medical intern. This gave a more complete picture of the character, which was a huge challenge for the actors, the director, and the entire team.”
Lin Chun-Yang: “I’d like to add to that. In dramas, whether in Taiwan or elsewhere, it’s common to explore a character’s past by jumping across different periods – like their childhood or teenage years. But it’s rare, if ever, to use such a distinct structure where we clearly break the timeline into episodes. You follow the characters in the present, feeling empathy for them, and then suddenly shift to 20 years earlier in the next episode, meeting these characters in a completely different phase of life. This isn’t just a flashback; it’s a fully realised time jump where we experience what they went through at that point in time.”
Lu Shih-Yuan: “Everyone returns to 20 years ago, which brings a unique difficulty, largely due to the structure.”
Lin Chun-Yang: “Yes, the difficulty is one aspect. But another is the layered experience this story offers for viewers; I think this approach hasn’t really been used recently.”
This interview was adapted from a live session at the ContentAsia Summit in Taiwan in September 2024. An extended version is available at www.contentasia.tv
Warner Bros Discovery (WBD) launched Max in five Southeast Asia markets, plus Hong Kong and Taiwan on 19 Nov with 12 platform partners and a direct subscription offering. The streamer carries all WBD’s brands. Local titles have not been prioritised, and hopes for a positive impact on the local content industry are so far lo-to-none. Max arrives in the seven markets around nine years after Netflix and Viu, about three years after Disney+, and about two and a half years after Prime Video rolled out localised video services.
Hong Kong
HK$78 US$10 Standard monthly
HK$780 US$100 Standard annual
HK$98 US$12.59 Ultimate monthly
HK$980 US$126 Ultimate annual
Indonesia
Rp49,000 US$3.10 Mobile monthly
Rp349,000 US$22 Mobile annual
Rp79,000
Rp549,000
Rp119,000
Malaysia
RM34.90 US$7.79 Standard monthly
RM279.90 US$62.50 Standard annual
RM52.90 US$11.80 Ultimate monthly
RM424.90 US$95 Ultimate annual
Philippines
Php149 US$2.57 Mobile monthly
Php1,040
Php269
Php399
Php1,890
Php2,790
Singapore
S$14.48 US$10.97 Standard Monthly
S$129.98 US$97
S$18.98
Taiwan
Thailand
Now TV, HKBN
Telkomsel, First Media
Astro, Unifi TV
PLDT Home, Cignal TV, Smart
Warner Bros Discovery’s Max streaming platform went live on 19 November with 12 platform partners across five markets in Southeast Asia, Hong Kong and Taiwan, as well as direct-to-consumer.
The seven-market launch includes Max’s first mobile-only plans in the world. These will be available in the Philippines and Indonesia, as part of the retail/direct-to-consumer Max product. In Thailand, the mobile plan is available only via telco AIS.
As expected, the rollout leverages WBD’s partnership network built up over more than two decades. Also as expected, the launch line up promotes no local content.
Two of the launch partners – HKBN and Smart –announced on 19 November are new to WBD’s streaming network and never offered Max precursor, HBO GO.
Most of the launch partners already offered the HBO GO streaming service, which has now been laid to rest. Other redundant services, such as HBO On Demand on Singapore’s Singtel, have been slowly retired and will disappear entirely by mid December. HBO GO contracts on other platforms, such as meWatch in Singapore, expired recently and were not renewed.
Singtel (standard plan only), StarHub
Telco AIS swapped HBO GO subs for the Max
The direct-to-consumer platform does not offer free trials for any of the plans, although trials may be part of telco/platform bundles.
Max has already launched in Japan with U-Next and in New Zealand with Sky.
WBD APAC president, James Gibbons, said in the launch announcement that existing partnerships had been “reimagined” and that the company was “working with new partners across pay-TV and telco operators to support distribution”. Gibbons said this included various models, such as app integration and having the Max service within the partner’s environment.
WBD brands on Max are HBO, Harry Potter, the DC Universe, Cartoon Network, Discovery, TLC, AFN, Food Network, ID and HGTV, as well as Max Originals. No local titles are included in launch publicity.
Source: Max.com direct-to-consumer plans in each country. No free trial. Warner Bros Discovery launched Max on 19 November in Southeast Asia (Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, Philippines), Hong Kong and Taiwan). Partner/pricing/bundles vary by country. Max subscribers will be able to access the local service from wherever they are in the world.
Connecting your brand and products with more than 13,400 verified executives in the Asia-Pacific content space, across all platforms in 22 APAC markets. ContentAsia’s clear editorial focus on Asia delivers all the latest trends, market developments, influences, information & analysis that make a difference.
Contact
Leah@contentasia.tv (Americas/Europe)
Malena@contentasia.tv (Asia Pacific/Middle East)
CJ@contentasia.tv (China/Taiwan)
