Pickle November AFM Issue 2019 by Pickle -- Indian M&E Biz

www.pickle.co.in NOVEMBER 2019

INDIA FOCUSED AMERICAN FILM MARKET ISSUE

IFFI: CURTAIN RAISER TO 50TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION Bobby Bedi

Photo Credit: J J Valaya

Producer, Contentflow Studios

BOBBY IS BACK THE VISIONARY INDIAN FILM PRODUCER IS ON A MISSION TO CONQUER THE STREAMING PLATFORMS WITH NEW SCRIPTED DRAMAS AND FILMS. HERE'S A CLOSE LOOK AT HOW OTT IS TRANSFORMING INDIA AND WHY STUDIOS LIKE BOBBY BEDI'S CONTENTFLOW ARE BACK IN BUSINESS 1

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FROM THE EDITOR’S DESK

We are here to take care of your Localisation needs

e are happy to present the latest issue of Pickle for the delegates at the 40th American Film Market -- unarguably the biggest in North America. Over 7,000 industry leaders from more than 80 countries converge in Santa Monica for eight days of deal-making, screenings, conferences and networking. AFM’s Location Expo, launched in 2017, is a great addition to the market bringing film commissioners and production service companies under one umbrella. It has brought in a healthy competition among film commissions to pitch locales for filmmakers who have a script ready to bring it to screen at AFM. Over 25 Indian companies are present at AFM from all the media and entertainment verticals. Some of the fastest growing Indian media service companies are present here. Their international business models offer global clients a single window entertainment service needs. Many companies are at AFM to distribute and syndicate content. Fox Star Stuidos is at AFM with half-a-dozen films. Disney’s Star India is also present at AFM. We have also done a curtain raiser for the 50th International Film Festival of India (IFFI) beginning November 20. The Indian media ecosystem is changing fast. There are a few markets in the world

where you could see both traditional and new media flourishing. The Over-theTop (OTT) space is gaining attraction (over 50 OTT players) in the Indian market with the presence of Hotstar, Voot, ErosNow, ZEE5, Sony Liv, Amazon Prime and Netflix among others. Over 2000 films are produced every year, 100,000 newspapers and periodicals, 950 TV channels, 185 million TV homes, 500 million smart phone users and over 600 million Internet users. India has a huge room for growth for domestic media and entertainment companies as well as foreign media and film companies looking to tap the Indian market. Audio visual services are being recognised as a champion sector by the Government of India. The government policies are geared towards realising the full potential of the M&E sector -- providing an enabling environment lowering market barriers and propel growth. If you have plans to visit India, schedule it around the end of November to attend the 50th edition of International Film Festival of India, (IFFI) Goa and 8th edition of Confederation of Indian Industry’s Big Picture Summit on November 14-15 in New Delhi. Pickle’s forthcoming issue will be a special nostalgia, best moments focus on 50th edition of IFFI. Feel free to email your suggestions.

n vidyasagar pickle media nat@pickle.co.in, www.pickle.co.in

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Pickle Volume XIII 3rd edition

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KHANAUR

BITTER CHESTNUT

A FILM BY

GURVINDER SINGH

Muddled with his own desires and his family s desires for him, Kishan, a lad of 17, has to make a choice: whether to live a predictable life around his remote Himalayan village or migrate to the city. Working in a cafe in a nearby town, he has disturbed sleep and bad dreams at nights. And at times has visions while awake̶flashes of fleeting but strong images. Khanaur is the vernacular word for a Himalayan variety of bitter chestnut, which the villagers believe is made edible by washing regularly for seven straight days. The film looks at the aspirations, fears and insecurities of living in the present times, through the eyes of a young Kishan, as he yearns for the bitterness to eventually fade away from the fruit. It is about the inner beauty and charm of people who live in harmony with nature̶till now free of the constant pressure of conformity, of embracing consumerism and fruits of globalization. True, Kishan will want to leave one day, wanting to indulge in these temptations. Khanaur (Bitter Chestnut) is the third feature from Indian director Gurvinder Singh, whose earlier two films, Alms for the Blind Horse and Fourth Direction, have premiered at Venice and Cannes film festivals respectively and won numerous international awards. PRODUCER BOBBY BEDI DURATION 100 MINS LANGUAGE PAHARI, HINDI & ENGLISH WORLD PREMIERE BUSAN INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL, 2019 NOMINATED FOR KIM JISEOK AWARD TAGS COMING OF AGE / TRADITION / MODERNITY / MIGRATION

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is his on. With hi mennon. enome phenom ph ut a phen hug accttoorr,r, bbut r 12 amid huge ust an actor just d y on Decembeer Rajinikanth is not rthhday birt bir rrdd birth 66333rd is 63rd vem nt at o hhis reennss on lifettimee achieveme e for his lifetim red noured ready to hit the scree dd, who onour as hhono was wa ho w whho w igod, igo e dem le the Pickl roﬁllee by proﬁ expectations, al. A pr assuual. as ca c casu d n and a ol o cool co s ins main the IFFI 2014, rema 04-12-2014

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ickle reaches out to audio visual companies in over 50 countries; Targets global buyers and distributors; Film Festivals and markets; Animation production companies; Global companies looking at offshoring from India; Co-production seekers and location service providers. Pickle business guide tracks the entertainment business in India.

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REDEMPTION SONG A TRUE STORY /Ŷ ƚŚĞ ůĂƚĞ ƐŝǆƟĞƐ ĂŶĚ ĞĂƌůǇ ƐĞǀĞŶƟĞƐ͕ ĚƌƵŐƐ ĐƌĞƉƚ ŝŶƚŽ ƚŚĞ ǁŽƌůĚ ŽĨ ƚŚĞ ƐĞŵŝͲƵƌďĂŶ ĂŶĚ ƵƌďĂŶ ǇŽƵƚŚ ŝŶ /ŶĚŝĂ͘ /Ŷ WƵŶũĂď͕ ǇŽƵŶŐ ĐŽůůĞŐĞ ŬŝĚƐ ŐƌĂĚƵĂƚĞĚ ĨƌŽŵ ĚƌŝŶŬŝŶŐ ĂůĐŽŚŽů ƚŽ ĐŽŶƐƵŵŝŶŐ ƉŝůůƐ ůŝŬĞ ŵĂŶĚƌĂǆ͘ ĞůŚŝ ƐƚĂƌƚĞĚ ŐĞƫŶŐ ŝŶŇƵĞŶĐĞĚ ďǇ ƚŚĞ ŵƵƐŝĐ ĂŶĚ ĚƌƵŐ ŚĂďŝƚƐ ŽĨ ƚŚĞ tĞƐƚ͘ ůŽŶŐ ǁŝƚŚ ƚŚĞ ĞĂƚůĞƐ͕ ZŽůůͲ ŝŶŐ ^ƚŽŶĞƐ ĂŶĚ ŽŽƌƐ͕ ĐĂŵĞ ŵĂƌŝũƵĂŶĂ͕ ƉŽƚ͕ ĂŶĚ >^ ͘ dŚĞ ŐƌĂĚƵĂƟŽŶ ƚŽ ĐŽĐĂŝŶĞ ĂŶĚ ŚĞƌŽŝŶ ǁĂƐ Ă ŵĂƩĞƌ ŽĨ ƟŵĞ ĂŶĚ ƚŽĚĂǇ ƚŚĞƌĞ ŝƐ Ă ƐĞƌŝŽƵƐ ĞƉŝĚĞŵŝĐ ŽĨ ƚŚĞƐĞ ĂŶĚ ƐǇŶƚŚĞƐŝǌĞĚ ĚƌƵŐƐ͘ hƐĞƌƐ ƌĂŶŐĞ ĨƌŽŵ ƚŚĞ ǀĞƌǇ ƉŽŽƌ ďĞŐŐĂƌ ƚŽ ƚŚĞ ǀĞƌǇ ƌŝĐŚ ĂŶĚ ĨĂŵŽƵƐ͘ dŚĞ ƉƌŽďůĞŵ ǁĂƐ ĞŶŚĂŶĐĞĚ ďĞĐĂƵƐĞ ŽĨ ŝƚƐ ƵƐĞ ĨŽƌ ĐƌŽƐƐ ďŽƌĚĞƌ ƚĞƌƌŽƌŝƐŵ͕ ŝŶƚĞƌŶĂů ĚŝƐĂƌƌĂǇ ĂŶĚ ƚŚĞ ĨƵĞůůŝŶŐ ŽĨ ƚŚĞ WƵŶũĂď ĂŶĚ <ĂƐŚŵŝƌ ĐƌŝƐŝƐ͘ ŚŝƩĂ͕ ƚŚƌŽƵŐŚ ƚŚĞ ůŝĨĞ ŽĨ ĂŶ ƵƉƉĞƌͲĐůĂƐƐ ĂĚĚŝĐƚ͕ ǁŝůů ƚĂŬĞ ƵƐ ƚŚƌŽƵŐŚ ƚŚĞ ĞŶƟƌĞ ŚŝƐƚŽƌǇ ŽĨ ĚƌƵŐƐ͕ ĨƌŽŵ WƵŶũĂď ƚŽ ĞůŚŝ͕ ĂŶĚ ŝŶ ŵŽƌĞ ƌĞĐĞŶƚ ƟŵĞƐ͕ ƚŚĞ ǁŽƌůĚ ŽĨ ƚĞƌƌŽƌ ĂŶĚ ƚŚĞ ƐŽƌĚŝĚ ƐƚĂƚĞ ŽĨ ĐƵƌƌĞŶƚ ĂĚĚŝĐƚƐ͘ ŚŝƩĂ ĞǆƉůŽƌĞƐ ƚŚĞ ƌŝŐŚƚƐ ĂŶĚ ǁƌŽŶŐƐ ŽĨ Ăůů ƉůĂǇĞƌƐ͗ ƉŽůŝĐĞ͕ ƉŽůŝƟĐŝĂŶƐ͕ ĂĚŵŝŶŝƐƚƌĂƟŽŶ͕ ĚĞĂůĞƌƐ͕ ƚŚĞ ĚĞƚŽǆ ĂŶĚ ƌĞŚĂďŝůŝƚĂƟŽŶ ƐǇƐƚĞŵƐ͕ ŚŽƐƉŝƚĂůƐ͕ ƚŚĞ ǀŝĐƟŵƐ ĂŶĚ

ƚŚĞŝƌ ĨĂŵŝůŝĞƐ͘ KƵƌ ƉƌŽƚĂŐŽŶŝƐƚ͕ ǁŚŽƐĞ ůŝĨĞ ŽƌŝŐŝŶĂƚĞƐ ŝŶ ĨĞƵĚĂů WƵŶũĂď ĂŶĚ ŝŶƚĞŐƌĂƚĞƐ ŝŶƚŽ ƚŚĞ ĞŵĞƌŐŝŶŐ ŚŝƉƉŝĞ ĐƵůͲ ƚƵƌĞ ŽĨ ĞůŚŝ͕ ďĞĐŽŵĞƐ Ă ĨƵůůͲďůŽǁŶ ĂĚĚŝĐƚ͘ ,ŝƐ ƐƚŽƌǇ ǁŝůů ƉůƵŶŐĞ ŝƚƐ ǁĂǇ ƚŚƌŽƵŐŚ ƐĞǆ͕ ǀŝŽůĞŶĐĞ͕ ĚĞďĂƵĐŚͲ ĞƌǇ͕ ĂĚĚŝĐƟŽŶ͕ ƚĞƌƌŽƌŝƐŵ͕ ŵĂƌƌŝĂŐĞƐ͕ ĚĞĂƚŚƐ ŽĨ ĨƌŝĞŶĚƐ ĂŶĚ ĨĂŵŝůǇ͕ ĮŶĂŶĐŝĂů ƌƵŝŶ ĂŶĚ ĞǀĞŶ ƉƌŝƐŽŶ͕ ƚŽ ƚŚĞ ǀĞƌǇ ĚĞƉƚŚƐ ŽĨ ŵĞŶƚĂů ĂŶĚ ƉŚǇƐŝĐĂů ĚĞƐƚƌƵĐƟŽŶ͕ ŽŶůǇ ƚŽ ĞŵĞƌŐĞ ůŝŬĞ Ă ƉŚŽĞŶŝǆ͘ &ƌŽŵ ĚĞĞƉ ĂĚĚŝĐƟŽŶ ƚŽ ďĞͲ ĐŽŵŝŶŐ Ă ƐƵĐĐĞƐƐĨƵů ĞŶƚƌĞƉƌĞŶĞƵƌ͕ ƐĂŶƐ ĂůĐŽŚŽů͕ ƐĂŶƐ ĚƌƵŐƐ͕ ƐĂŶƐ Ăůů ĂĚĚŝĐƟŽŶ͕ Ă ƉĞƌƐŽŶ ǁŚŽƐĞ ƌĞĚĞŵƉƟŽŶ ŝƐ ĂƐ ƐĞŶƐĂƟŽŶĂů ĂƐ ŚŝƐ ĨĂůů͘ ĂŶ ƚŚĞ ^ƚĂƚĞ ŽĨ WƵŶũĂď͕ ƚŚĞ ŶĂƟŽŶ͕ ĞǀĞŶ ƐŽĐŝĞƚǇ ŚŽƉĞ ĨŽƌ ƐƵĐŚ ƌĞĚĞŵƉƟŽŶ͍ KŶůǇ ƟŵĞ ǁŝůů ƚĞůů͘ sŝƐƵĂůůǇ͕ ŝƚ ǁŝůů ǁĞĂǀĞ ƚŚĞ ǀŝďƌĂŶƚ ĐƵůƚƵƌĞ ĂŶĚ ŵƵƐŝĐ ŽĨ ĨĞƵĚĂů WƵŶũĂď ǁŝƚŚ ƚŚĞ ƚĞǆƚƵƌĞƐ ŽĨ ĞůŚŝ ŽĨ ƚŚĞ ͛ϳϬƐ ĂŶĚ ͛ϴϬƐ͘ >ŽŶŐ ŚĂŝƌ͕ ďĞůů ďŽƩŽŵƐ͕ ďĞĂƚ ŐƌŽƵƉƐ ĂŶĚ Ăůů ŽĨ ŝƚ ǁĞĂǀĞĚ ŝŶƚŽ Ă ĐŽŵƉůĞǆ ĚĂƌŬ ĨĂďƌŝĐ͕ ďŽƚŚ ďĞĂƵƟͲ ĨƵů ĂŶĚ ĨƌŝŐŚƚĞŶŝŶŐůǇ ƵŐůǇ͘ ŚŝƩĂ ŝƐ ĂŶ ŝŶƐƉŝƌĂƟŽŶĂů ƐƚŽƌǇ ƚŚĂƚ ǁŝůů ŬĞĞƉ ǇŽƵ ŽŶ ƚŚĞ ĞĚŐĞ ŽĨ ǇŽƵƌ ƐĞĂƚ͕ ĞƉŝƐŽĚĞ ĂŌĞƌ ĞƉŝƐŽĚĞ͘

CONCEPT BOBBY BEDI DIRECTOR GURVINDER SINGH GENRE DRAMA FORMAT (3,62'(6˨ 0,187(6 7:2 6($6216 LANGUAGE HINDI STATUS SCRIPT DEVELOPMENT KEd Ed &>Kt &/>D^ Θ t ^ Z/ ^ Wsd >d ďŽďďǇΛĐŽŶƚĞŶƚĨůŽǁ͘ŝŶ

MUST DO THINGS AT AFM

••• Over 25 Indian companies are at American Film Market with a wide range of content for global consumption and to acquire content for territories in India. AFM offers a great opportunity to catch up with global partners in one place.

The Producing for the International Pre-sales Marketplace panel featuring Miranda Bailey, CEO, Cold Iron Pictures, Sherryl Clark, President, Production, The H Collective, Mark Gooder, Co-President, Cornerstone Films and Nat McCormick, EVP, Worldwide Distribution, The Exchange.

The American Film Market is set to welcome over 400 exhibitors from more than 40 countries and overall participants from more than 80 counties (over 7000 delegates).

American Film Market Launches Largest Programming Lineup AVOD, TV And XR Conversations Take Main Stage For 40th Edition. Ted Schilowitz, XR expert and Futurist at Paramount Pictures, will also present the opening State of the Industry keynote for AFM’s half-day Immersive Summit presented by Winston Baker on November 9.

AFM hosts the world’s producers and decision makers to four networking receptions at the historic Merry-GoRound on the Santa Monica Pier. The AFM’s Carousel Cocktails provide a unique experience as participants connect and relax at the beach.

Over six days, more than 150 thought leaders, decision-makers and experts will discuss topics and issues most relevant to global filmmakers across three dedicated stages. This year’s market takes place November 6 – 13 in Santa Monica and marks its 40th edition. The opening Conference will feature Breaking the Mold: The Innovators bringing together Erik Feig, CEO, Picturestart, Tim League, Founder, Alamo Drafthouse Cinema, and Aron Levitz, Head of Wattpad Studios, and Tom Quinn, Founder & CEO, NEON.

LocationEXPO® returns to the American Film Market, November 9 – 12, with 50 Film Commissions, Government Agencies, Production Facilities and Services from around the globe confirmed to participate. Located in dedicated exhibition space within the AFM, LocationEXPO has become a tremendous resource for AFM attendees to learn and gather information about locations, production incentives, services, and resources available to their projects and films.

For the first time, AFM will spotlight the small screen with a half-day Television Conference on November 11. Two panels will examine the increasing opportunities for feature-length programming and Made-for17Movies pickle entertainment biz guide TV with TV networks and platforms.

The American Film Market is the most efficient film acquisition, development and networking event in the world. Unlike a festival, AFM is a marketplace where production and distribution deals are closed. More than US$1 billion in deals are sealed every year – on both completed films and those in every stage of development and LIKE PICKLE IN FACEBOOK production. www.picklemag.in

CHRISTOPHER NOLAN

FILMS

TENET IN

MUMBAI The Film Facilitation Office set up by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting in NFDC is going all out to ensure that foreign filmmakers don’t face any hassle while shooting their movies in the country. Christopher Nolan recently shot his film Tenet in Mumbai in a smooth manner and his team is all praise for the Indian officials for their support

one are the days when shooting in India was a herculean task for foreign filmmakers. Things have changed for good with the formation of Film Facilitation Office (FFO), which is rendering all support to directors and producers from abroad to make their movies in India. A classic example is Tenet, the Warner Bros produced Christopher Nolan film which was shot recently with ease in Renowned Hollywood film director Christopher Nolan shoots in busy areas of Mumbai

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Mumbai, called as the business capital of India and home to Bollywood (Hindi cinema), thanks to facilitation provided by FFO. Over 160 foreign crew members, 600 Indian crew members and 2000 extras were part of the film helmed byNolan. This is New India and people are ready to help anytime, feel foreign filmmakers who have lately shot their movies in the sub-continent, land of colourful amalga-

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WE WERE SUPER EXCITED BY THE COORDINATION AND FACILITATION PROVIDED BY FILM FACILITATION OFFICE SET-UP BY THE MINISTRY OF INFORMATION & BROADCASTING AND THE STATE OF MAHARASHTRA. IT’S BEST OF THE FACILITATION ONE COULD GET FOR A FILM SHOOT. WE ARE EXTREMELY THANKFUL TO THE MINISTRY OF INFORMATION & BROADCASTING, GOVERNMENT OF INDIA AND THE CO-ORDINATORS AT FFO AND B A GAGRANI, PRINCIPAL SECRETARY AT THE CHIEF MINISTER’S OFFICE, GOVERNMENT OF MAHARASHTRA mations of different cultures, multiple locations and beautiful backdrops. And, the support by FFO is immense, which is rolling out red carpet to foreign filmmakers to make their vision a reality in India, with all ease. Nolan’s shoot in Mumbai was rather extensive and ambitious. But, the filmmaker and his team didn’t feel the difficulty at all, despite shooting the movie in busy areas. In fact, the director wrapped up his shoot in well under a week. Interestingly, Nolan had earlier shot his Batman: The Dark Knight Rises in Jodhpur, Rajasthan. Tenet stars John David-Washington, Robert Pattinson, Elizabeth Debicki, Clem-

pickle entertainment biz guide

ence Poesy, Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Dimple Kapadia with Kenneth Branagh and Michael Caine. Tipped to be an action thriller, it is slated to hit theatres next year, on July 17, 2020. Says Dileep Singh Rathore, the India producer of Tenet: “I recently completed a six-day schedule of Tenet in India, and it was only possible because we got the permissions in time. As someone who has faced a lot of trouble in getting permissions in the past, now, it feels like a red carpet has been rolled out for foreign projects in India. I have four other international projects in the pipeline to shoot in India.” According to Rathore, “We were super excited by the coordination and facilitation provided by Film Facilitation Office set-up by the Ministry of Information & Broadcasting and the state of Maharashtra. It’s best of the facilitation one could get for a film shoot. We are extremely thankful to the Ministry of Information & Broadcasting, Government of India and the co-ordinators at FFO and B A Gagrani, Principal Secretary at the Chief Minister’s Office, Government of Maharashtra. They were instrumental in getting all the permission clearances. This time for the first time, I saw that every department was accountable and FFO office was extremely supportive and they did wonders. I have to specifically point out FFO’s intervention in getting permission from Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) which provides permission for aerial shootings in the country. We could use helicopter for the Tenet film shoot.” If figures are anything to go by, at least half-a-dozen foreign projects are currently being made in India. “Quick visa clearances for the foreign crew is one of the reasons why more foreign filmmakers are coming to shoot in India. For shooting in India, foreign filmmakers have to get clearance from the I&B Ministry. The ministry officials coordinate with the Indian embassies abroad, and help in getting visa clearances faster,.” says a leading line producer.

Christopher Nolan is a British-American film director, screenwriter, and producer, who is known for making distinctive films within the Hollywood mainstream

in India used to take five-six months. But now, it has come down to three-four weeks. The Ministry of Information & Broadcasting, Government of India, set up the FFO in the National Film Development Corporation (NFDC) with a view to promote and facilitate film shootings by foreign filmmakers in India. The services rendered by the FFO have now been extended to Indian filmmakers as well. It acts as a single-window facilitation and clearance mechanism that eases filming in India, as well as endeavouring to create a film-friendly ecosystem and promoting the country as a filming destination. The institution of the ‘Most Film Friendly State’ Award, which was won by the State of Gujarat in 2015, the State of Uttar Pradesh in 2016 and the State of Madhya Pradesh in 2017, is a unique initiative in this direction. In the recently announced 66th National Film Awards, Uttarakhand bagged the honour for ‘Best Film Friendly State’ for ‘furthering the growth of the film indus-

It is to be noted that the Information & Broadcasting Ministry, in 2017, consulted the Ministry of Home Affairs and the Ministry of External Affairs, and introduced a special visa category for foreign filmmakers. Also, as foreign filmmakers often want to capture aerial scenes, a separate department has been introduced to cater to these requests. The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) provides permission for aerial shootings in the country.

try in the State including creating an environment for ease of filming in the State, encouraging skill/talent development, incentivizing the re-opening of closed cinema halls, formation of film development fund, continuing with the earlier incentive plan for filming, formation of Utttarakhand Film Development Council among other pro active initiatives’. FFO acts as a facilitation point for the foreign producers and production companies along with their Indian Producer/ Line Producer in assisting them to get requisite permissions, disseminate information on shooting locations and the facilities available with the Indian film Industry for production/post production and works closely with State Governments in assisting them to set up similar facilities. Foreign filmmakers desirous of shooting their Feature Films, Reality TV shows and commercial TV series in India, can apply online at the FFO website. And, the rest will be taken care of in a professional and friendly manner.

Organize

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your screenings

Your perfect match

Earlier, getting the permission to shoot

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Dilip Singh Rathore Producer, On The Road India

WHY INDIA ATTRACTS

FOREIGN FILMMAKERS Veteran Indian film Producer Dileep Singh Rathore, Rathore who heads On The Road India, talks about how things have changed for better for foreign filmmakers who are willing to shoot their movies in India. Rathore shares his experience on the facilitation provided by Ministry of Information & Broadcasting’s Film Facilitation Office for Christopher Nolan’s film Tenet’s shoot in India Tell us about On The Road India productions... We are a 28-year-old company. I started very young when I was in my teens. We began our work, when there were no production service companies in India. I have worked with Shashi Kapoor and was with him in Russia for shooting. Then began, On The Road India and we have been working since then for many big projects. We have worked on projects for major studios like Warner Bros. Pictures and Walt Disney. We are production experts in the Indian and South Asian region with over decades of handling

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international feature projects, award winning documentaries, commercials and high-end still projects. In all these years, we have done over 35 major international projects. Our latest was Christopher Nolan’s Tenet (Warner Bros). We were the Indian producers for the project. We did the film shoot in Mumbai. We were super excited by the coordination and facilitation provided by Film Facilitation Office set-up by the Ministry of Information & Broadcasting and the state of Maharashtra. Share your experience of Christopher Nolan’s film shoot in Mumbai...

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It’s best of the facilitation one could get for a film shoot. We are extremely thankful to the Ministry of Information & Broadcasting, Government of India and the co-ordinators at FFO and B A Gagrani, Principal Secretary at the Chief Minister’s Office, Government of Maharashtra. They were instrumental in getting all the permission clearances. This time for the first time, I saw that every department was accountable and FFO office was extremely supportive and they did wonders. I have to specifically point out FFO’s intervention in getting permission from Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) which provides permission for aerial shootings in the country. We could use helicopter for the Tenet film shoot. We still have some issues related to Customs -- because for this kind of film, we bring large quantity of equipment. I feel, if this could be streamlined, that would be wonderful. We paid all our fees to BMC and other agencies. They gave all local permissions, allowed us to park our vehicles, and set base camps. There was perfect synergy between the Ministry of Information & Broadcasting and the State Government of Maharashtra. We have to make sure, we help every filmmaker who come to India to shoot. Do you see visible changes happening for film shoots in India? Things are changing for sure. I can say with my 25 years of experience in this industry that it was difficult to get permissions. There were times Government used to behave that they do favours to local or international filmmakers who are bringing the films to shoot. With FFO, I can see visible changes in coordination. This is the first time, Government is taking the initiative that the filmmaker who is coming from abroad has to face no hassles. He gets his permission on time and he is assisted with the government machinery. The is a good example of ease of filming and doing business in India. Also, there is a realisation of money coming into the country. jobs getting created and helping tourism. A foreign film shoot creates job at every level from the film industry to affiliated industries (which support the film industry like hotels, transport, catering). Will Nolan come back for another shoot? Nolan was extremely happy and satisfied with the Mumbai film shoot. He had great time. Also, he loves India. There were no major hiccups and he had a fantastic time. He really enjoyed his filming, showcased India in a beautiful way. He loved Mumbai city and the food. This was his second film shoot. I was the India producer for his first film shoot Batman: The Dark Knight Rises. We had issues during that time. This time, it is different. He will definitely come back again. Because of his love for India.

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On The Road India was founded by veteran Producer/Line producer Dileep Singh Rathore. Since 1996 its work ethic and service have earned the trust of Hollywood studios, international filmmakers and production companies. Its team is based between Mumbai, Jaipur, Los Angeles, Sydney and Rome. This enables On the Road India to better understand project requirements and to deliver the best location and budgetary solutions for international productions in India. It understands the challenges and risks of shooting abroad and the added complexity and diversity of shooting in India and South Asia. Rathore and his team have years of experience and they are there to guide, share and support filmmakers at every stage. While there is no question India offers a wealth of opportunities to filmmakers, the challenges that face productions can prove daunting, even to the most experienced producer. On The Road will help mitigate many of these challenges with honesty, integrity and transparency

Do you think more foreign films’ shoots will come to India... With this great experience, Nolan would talk about it. Definitely, Warner Bros would want to come to India for another project. If filmmakers like Nolan or Peter Wier shoot in India, they bring lot of revenue. There is also a feel good factor to the country. There is a goodwill. That’s very important. And if people at level like Nolan or Warner Brothers talk about, global studios and filmmakers and will listen to that. FFO had come to Los Angeles and we set up meetings with Warner Bros. They got convinced to come to India. Having done everything well, in a timely manner, it will boost the confidence to bring another project to India. I can clearly see new projects coming to India. What is India’s biggest attraction to foreign filmmakers? India is vibrant, beautiful and looks different from rest of the world. Why do people come to India all the way. They want to come to India for the elements they find in India. International filmmakers come for archaeological places like forts and palaces, Indian forests, Indian trains, vibrancy in Indian cities. If ease of permission gets better, India will find mentions in more scripts developed in the world. Even a small film brings couple of million dollars. Foreign film shooting and production services have to be recognised as an industry. This will send a great message, internationally. And lot more films will come to shoot for sure.

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INDIA’S FLAGSHIP FILM FESTIVAL TURNS

THE COUNTDOWN HAS STARTED FOR INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL OF INDIA’S (IFFI) 50TH EDITION. THE EVENT, WHICH WILL BRING TOGETHER FILM PERSONALITIES AND CINEASTES FROM ACROSS THE WORLD, WILL FEATURE 200-ODD FILMS FROM 76 COUNTRIES

he 50th edition of Asia’s oldest international film festival is a few weeks away. So, what does the International Film Festival of India (IFFI, November 20 to 28, 2019) have in its kitty that will separate it from the 49 editions gone by? A great deal. And not just in numbers, but also in terms of range and depth. Packed into the nine-day festival will be 200odd films from 76 countries, which will offer cineastes a wide sampling of this year’s most lauded works, besides a slew of landmark films of historical worth from across the world.

PRESENT & PAST The best of contemporary world cinema apart, IFFI 2019 will bring to film fans in Goa an impressive array of films from the past, including a package of nine previous winners of the Golden Peacock, the festival’s top trophy that now comes with a cash prize of over $55,000. Last year, Ukranian filmmaker Sergei Loznitsa’s Donbass won the award. The Golden Peacock retrospective includes the 1963 winner, Changes in the Village, directed by Lester James Peries, who is regarded as the father of Sri Lankan cinema. Andrey Zvyagintsev’s Leviathan

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IFFI is India’s pride. This year’s IFFI is especially significant since it marks the Golden Jubilee Edition

SHRI PRAKASH JAVADEKAR, Union Minister of Information & Broadcasting and Environment, Forest and Climate Change

The 50th edition of IFFI is a proud moment for the state and our government would leave no stones unturned to ensure top notch infrastructure and hospitality arrangement to make this edition a memorable one

(2014) is also in the segment along with James Ivory’s The Bostonians (1984), Miklos Jancso’s Hungarian Rhapsody (1979), Samira Makhmalbaf’s At Five in the Afternoon (2003) and Sergey Dvortsevoy’sTulpan (2008). The sole Indian film in the selection of Golden Peacock winners is the Bengali film MonerManush (2010), directed by Goutam Ghose. Another commemorative segment aimed at underlining the special status of the upcoming edition of IFFI is a retrospective of Oscarwinning films. Entries in this section range from Casablanca, Gone With the Wind and Ben-Hur to The Godfather, Forrest Gump and The Silence of the Lambs. All About Eve, The Best Years of Our Lives, Lawrence of Arabia and The Sound of Music complete the lineup of Oscar winners.

FILMMAKER IN FOCUS

DR. PRAMOD SAWANT Chief Minister of Goa

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All eyes will also be on the ‘filmmaker in focus’ Takashi Miike, a Ken Loach mini-retrospective, two restored Indian classics (RitwikGhatak’s TitasEkti Nadir Naam and Uday Shankar’s

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Six films will screen as part of the Japanese director Takashi Miike’s retrospective at IFFI

Kalpana) plus Master Frames and Festival Kaleidoscope, sections devoted to films hailed in Cannes, Venice, Berlin and Toronto. Six films will screen as part of the Takashi Miike retrospective. The package includes the relatively mellow The Bird People of China. The other Miikefilms in IFFI are Audition (1999), with which the maverick Japanese director known for his no-holds-barred depiction of violence and sexual excess began to acquire international fame; Ichi the Killer, a manga adaptation that is still banned in several countries; the yakuza thriller Dead or Alive; the samurai film 13 Assassins; and First Love, which played in Cannes Directors’ Fortnight this year. Miike, 59, who enjoys a cult following around the globe, will, in the second half of IFFI, participate in a freewheeling conversation on his approach to cinema, the salient aspects of his creative credo, and the influences that have shaped him as a director. He is, of course, one of the brightest stars of what is known as Asian Extreme Cinema. What stands out in Miike’s work is the fresh and innovative ways in which he employs the conventions of horror films and gangster thrillers. The Ken Loach retrospective, besides Kes and Riff, will include the octogenarian British director’s latest film, Sorry We Missed You, which premiered in Cannes earlier in the year.

Octogenarian British director Ken Loach’s retrospective at IFFI

THE INDIAN PANORAMA, A SECTION THAT IS MADE UP OF BOTH FEATURES AND NON-FEATURES, OPENS GLOBAL AVENUES FOR FILMS MADE BY VETERANS AND NEWCOMERS ALIKE

FANTASTIC FIFTEEN The 50th IFFI competition has assembled 15 films that promise to give the five-member jury headed by John Bailey, veteran Hollywood cinematographer and former president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, plenty to choose from. As for the composition of the

jury, IFFI has rarely got it better than it has done this time. The competition line-up includes two Indian titles: Lijo Jose Pellissery’s Jallikattu and Anant Mahadevan’s Mai Ghat Crime No. 103/2005. The pair will be vying for the Golden Peacock and other awards with a bunch of critical successes, including French-Canadian director Sophie Deraspe’s Antigone, Norwegian director Hans Petter Moland’s Out Stealing Horses and Austrian cinematograTHE INTERNATIONAL pher and documentarFILM FESTIVAL OF ian Andreas Horvath’s INDIA (IFFI) AIMS AT narrative feature debut, PROVIDING A COMMON Lillian. Among the other films in the IFFI 2019 PLATFORM TO THE competition are Pema CINEMAS ACROSS Tseden’s rural-Tibet set THE WORLD, IN Chinese production BalCELEBRATING AND loon, Ali Aydin’s Turkish HONOURING THE entry Chronology, Swiss EXCELLENCE OF THE filmmaker Blaise HarriART OF FILMMAKING. son’s first fiction feature IFFI IS INDIA’S MOST Particles, Brazilian acPRESTIGIOUS FESTIVAL tor Wagner Moura’s hisAND IS ALSO THE torical epic Marighella, Indonesian director YoFIRST INTERNATIONAL sepAnggiNoen’s The SciFILM FESTIVAL HELD ence of Fictions and the ANYWHERE IN ASIA Slovenian film Stories from the Chestnut Woods, directed by Gregor Bozic. Bailey, 77,who apprenticed under ZsigmondVilmos and Nestor Almendros, has over the decades shot some of America’s mostloved movies. Among them are Paul Schrader’s Mishima: A Life in Fopur Chapters, for which he won a Best Artistic Contribution Award at the Cannes Film Festival in 1985, Lawrence Kasdan’s The Big Chill, Robert Redford’s Ordinary People, John Schlesinger’s Honky Tonk Freeway and Jonathan Demme’s Swimming

Anant Mahadevan’s Mai Ghat Crime No. 103/2005 in the IFFI Competition Section

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Lijo Jose Pellissery’s Jallikattu in the IFFI Competition Section

JURY MEMBERS

JOHN BAILEY Veteran Hollywood cinematographer

LYNNE RAMSAY Scotland’s filmmaker

RAMESH SIPPY Veteran Indian producer-filmmaker

ROBIN CAMPILLO France’s top filmmaker

ZHANG YANG China’s filmmaker

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Mati Diop’s Atlantique

Ladj Ly’s Les Miserables

Jessica Hausner’s Little Joe

IFFI NOT ONLY UNVEILS THE BEST FILMS FROM AROUND THE MULTILINGUAL COUNTRY WITH THE AIM OF PROVIDING A GLIMPSE OF THE SHEER RANGE AND DYNAMISM OF INDIAN CINEMA, IT ALSO PUTS TOGETHER A REMARKABLE SLATE OF BRAND NEW WORLD CINEMA TITLES to Cambodia. Earlier this year, in Cannes, Bailey won the coveted French honour – Officier des Arts et Lettres. As president of the main competition jury, Bailey will be working with four top-flight filmmakers: Scotland’s Lynne Ramsay, France’s Robin Campillo, China’s Zhang Yang and India’s Ramesh Sippy. Ramsay, 49, who made her first narrative feature, Ratcatcher, 20 years ago, has since slowly and steadily built an enviable but small body of work, which includes We Need to Talk About Kevin (2011) and You Were Never Really Here (2017), both of which premiered in the competition section of the Cannes Film Festival. Moroccan-born French writerdirector-editor Campillo, 57, is best known for 120 BPM (Beats Per Minute), which won the Cannes Grand Prix, in 2017. He was the editor of the 2008 Palme d’Or winner, Laurent Cantet’s The Class. Chinese director Zhang Yang, 52, is the maker of the Tibetan-language films Paths of the Soul and Soul on a String. Ramesh Sippy, 72, is a prominent Mumbai producer-director who made one of Hindi cinema’s most iconic blockbusters, Sholay. In the 1970s and 1980s, he delivered several major box-office hits, including Shaan, Saagar and Shakti.

Elia Suleiman’s It Must Be Heaven

slave to a Thai fishing trawler; Dogs Don’t Wear Pants, a Finnish film directed by J-P. Valkeapaa; the Macedonian religious satire God Exists, Her Name is Petrunija, directed Teona Strugar Mitevska; Alma Har’el’ Honey Boy, based on an autobiographical screenplay by Shia LeBeouf; Romanian director Marius Olteanu’s Monsters, which examines the disintegration of a relationship in three chapters; Palestinian auteur Elia Suleiman’s sardonic take on a man looking for a homeland, It Must Be Heaven; Alejandro Amenabar’s While At War; and the Cannes hit, Ladj Ly’s Les Miserables.

INDIAN PANORAMA IS A FLAGSHIP SECTION OF IFFI, WHICH SHOWCASES THE BEST OF CONTEMPORARY INDIAN FEATURE AND NON-FEATURE FILMS OF THE YEARS. THIS YEAR, THE FEATURE FILM JURY IS HEADED BY ACCLAIMED FILMMAKER AND SCREENWRITER PRIYADARSHAN. THE JURY HAS CHOSEN THE FILM HELLARO (GUJARATI) DIRECTED BY ABHISHEK SHAH AS THE OPENING FEATURE FILM OF INDIAN PANORAMA 2019

Pedro Almodovar’s Pain and Glory

World Panorama also has the Canadian film Coda, directed by Claude Lalonde. The film, which is scheduled to be IFFI’s mid-fest gala, stars Patrick Stewart as a veteran pianist who returns to the stage after a three-year hiatus and is assailed by self-doubt. It is left to a free-spirited music critic, played by Katie Holmes, to bring him out of his shell.

MASTER FRAMES Master Frames brings together 19 films by directors such as Pedro Almodovar (Pain and Glory), Olivier Assayas (Wasp Network), Hirokazu Kore-eda (The Truth, Roy Andersson (About Endlessness), Costa Gavras (Adults in the Room), Roman Polanski (An Officer and a Boy, Goran Paskaljevic (Despite the Fog), Werner Herzog (Family Romance LLC), Atom Egoyan (Guest of Honour). A bunch of equally fancied names are part of IFFI’s Festival Kaleidoscope, which showcases films that have earned critical accolades in the course of the year. Led by Bong Joonho’s Palme d’Or winner Parasite, this section includes several other titles that premiered in Cannes: Mati Diop’s Atlantique, Jessica Hausner’s Little Joe and Celine Sciamma’s Portrait of a Lady on Fire.

SUPER SIXTY

Bong Joon-ho’s Palme d’Or winner Parasite

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For many attending IFFI, the centrepiece is always the 60-odd films that make up the World Panorama. It is a section that yields many riches: 2019 is going to be no different. The expected highlights: Rodd Rathjen’s Australian film Buoyancy, about a Cambodian farmer-boy sold as a

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Indian Panorama Feature film Jury Members

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Over the years, films such as The Lunchbox, Margarita With A Straw, Chauthi Koot, Qissa, Ship of Theseus, Titli, Court, Anhey Ghorhey Da Daan, Miss Lovely, Dum Lagake Haisha, Liar’s Dice, Bombay Rose, Thithi, Moothon to name a few, have been through one or more programmes of the Film Bazaar

FILM BAZAAR CURTAIN RAISER

GET THE BEST OUT OF FILM BAZAAR 2019 Film Bazaar, held alongside the International Film Festival of India (IFFI) every year, has grown into an annual converging point for buyers and sellers from across the world. It provides an inspiring and creatively enriching environment for ﬁlm industry professionals and enable them to explore possibilities of collaboration with the larger international ﬁlmmaking community

outh Asia’s Global Film Market Film Bazaar is NFDC’s film market held alongside the International Film Festival of India (IFFI) every year at the Marriott Resort, Goa, India. This year the bazaar will be held from 20-24 November. Film Bazaar, presently in its 13th year, has grown into an annual converging point for buyers and sellers from across the world. With its focus set on discovering, supporting and showcasing South Asian content and talent in filmmaking, production and distribution; the Bazaar also facilitates the sales of world cinema in the South Asian region. Since its commencement in 2007, the Film Bazaar is organized to provide an inspiring and creatively enriching environment for film industry professionals and enable them to explore possibilities of collaboration with the larger international filmmaking community. The market is structured to offer training & support to

Film Bazaar Programmess Co-Production Market Work-in-Progress Lab Viewing Room Producers’ Workshop Knowledge Series Industry Screenings Film Offices

film industry professionals for projects that may be in early to advanced stages of development. Over the years, films such as The Lunchbox, Margarita With A Straw, Chauthi Koot, Qissa, Ship of Theseus, Titli, Court, Anhey Ghorhey Da Daan, Miss Lovely, Dum Lagake Haisha, Liar’s Dice, Bombay Rose, Thithi, Moothon to name a few, have been through one or more programmes of the Bazaar.

Co-Production Market The Co-Production Market is a platform for curated projects with South Asian themes to find financial and artistic support. Every year, filmmakers with projects selected for the Market get numerous avenues to connect with Indian and international producers, distributors, sales agents and financiers active in the field of co-production. This year’s selection presents 14 projects from India, Bangladesh, Bhutan, France, Nepal, Singapore and USA. The line-up is an eclectic mix of

Film Bazaar, presently in its 13th year, has grown into an annual converging point for buyers and sellers from across the world. With its focus set on discovering, supporting and showcasing South Asian content and talent in filmmaking, production and distribution

2019’S CO-PRODUCTION MARKET SELECTION PRESENTS 14 PROJECTS FROM INDIA, BANGLADESH, BHUTAN, FRANCE, NEPAL, SINGAPORE AND USA

stories in Hindi, English, Bengali, Malayalam, Assamese, Nepali, Dzongkha (Bhutanese) and Gujarati from established filmmakers as well as new talent.

Viewing Room The Viewing Room aims to present films seeking finishing funds, world sales, distribution partners and film festivals. This is the bazaar’s headliner segment responsible for showcasing unreleased films from the larger Indian independent film industry. The films are viewed on individual computer terminals in private booths via specially designed Viewing Room software. Festival programmers, distributors, world sales agents and investors can watch complete films as well as films that are work in progress. The Viewing Room allows access only to buyers, financiers, world sales agents and festival programmers. The three major categories of Viewing Room are Film Bazaar Recommends (FBR), Film Library (FL) and Short Films (SF). This year total number of film submitted - 214.

Work-in-Progress Lab Selected projects are given an opportunity to seek editorial feedback from an eminent panel of international mentors, which include film festival directors, producers, world sales agents and editors. These advisors provide valuable feedback on the edit of the film with aim of helping the filmmaker achieve an accomplished final cut of the film. The Work-in-Progress Lab is open only for fiction features aiming for a release. A maximum of five films are selected for this Lab. This year the selection will be announced on November 1, 2019.

Producersʼ Workshop The Producers’ Workshop is an exten-

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THE THREE MAJOR CATEGORIES OF VIEWING ROOM ARE FILM BAZAAR RECOMMENDS (FBR), FILM LIBRARY (FL) AND SHORT FILMS (SF)

KNOWLEDGE SERIES BRING TOGETHER THE BRIGHTEST CREATIVE AND BUSINESS MINDS FROM THE FILM INDUSTRY ACROSS THE WORLD

sive five-day, closed-door programme designed for no more than 20 producers to cover all aspects to mobilize a film project for aspiring producers (entrepreneurs/ filmmakers). The workshop is optimal for delegates/participants who bring in their projects. Over the course of the workshop, industry professionals and experts from across the globe share their insights on different facets of producing films i.e. pitching, funding, development, budgeting, film markets, rights management, round table mentoring & distribution in closed door sessions. How to make the project “Pitch-ready” is one of the “deliverables” and key take-away for each participant at the workshop.

Knowledge Series A programme much looked forward to and attended in full strength by attending delegates, the Knowledge Series is carefully curated series of lectures and interactive panel discussions on pressing and key issues, opportunities and trending conversations in the industry by inviting leading film industry experts from around the world to speak at the programme. All the film bazaar delegates and the guest will be part of the Knowledge series.

FILM OFFICES SHOWCASE LOCATIONS AVAILABLE FOR FILMING AND INCENTIVES OFFERED BY VARIOUS STATE TOURISM BOARDS

Film Bazaar 2019 Register Now www.ﬁlmbazaarindia.com Commissions (Indian and International) to showcase locations available for filming and incentives offered by various State Tourism boards.

Student Workshops Behind the silver screen empowering the aspirants – This is a specialised workshop which is being introduced this year for students of film schools. There will be 2 sessions of 90 mins each on all the 4 days covering various aspects of filmmaking. Students producers workshop – This is a specialised intensive 4 day workshop for film production students of SRFTI and Whistling Woods International.

Industry Screenings Filmmakers can book screenings in specially set up digital theaters at the market for a select audience of sales agents, film festivals, distributors and producers. Filmmakers are allowed to send invites to participating delegates and run their own promotions.

Film Offices In keeping with the vision of building deeper alliances with the global counterparts, have - Tourism Bodies and Film

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BACK IN BUSINESS A H T I W BANG WITH THE RISE OF OTT PLATFORMS, THE DEMAND FOR SCRIPTED DRAMAS IS SOARING IN INDIA. HOWEVER, THERE ARE VERY FEW BRIGHT MINDS IN THE INDIAN M&E SPACE WHO HAVE MASTERED THE ART OF CREATING AND MARKETING SCRIPTED DRAMAS LIKE BOBBY BEDI HAS. AFTER A SPELL OF SILENCE THAT LASTED FOR ALMOST A DECADE, BOBBY BEDI IS BACK IN BUSINESS WITH A BANG WITH A NUMBER OF PROJECTS LINED UP, AND IT LOOKS LIKE HE IS SET ON A MISSION TO DISH OUT SOME BRILLIANT SCRIPTED DRAMAS FOR A GLOBAL AUDIENCE By Natarajan Vidyasagar & Vivek Ratnakar

or close to a decade, acclaimed Indian film producer Bobby Bedi (Sundeep Singh Bedi) has been just an observer. He has not done any major movie project or produced content. During this time he was creating museums and was dabbling with content every now and then. When it comes to Indian media and entertainment sector, Bobby is among the brightest creative and business minds. This combination is rare, as in the Indian media and entertainment space you are either bracketed as a creative or a business mind. Once a salesman at multi-national

companies like Philips and Sony, Bobby Bedi through his sheer perseverance as an entrepreneur in the media and entertainment industry, discovered the art of creating and marketing scripted dramas collaborating with top class talent who are now icons in the showbiz domain. To this day, there are very few in the industry who can match the reputation and consistent success that Bobby enjoyed in the scripted drama space. Bobby’s first film as a producer was “In Which Annie Gives it to Those Ones”. The film was written by the now famous writer Arundati Roy, who also acted in the film. His second film

“Electric Moon” was also written by Arundati Roy. His third film “Bandit Queen,” based on the life of Phoolan Devi, was directed by Shekhar Kapur, while dialogues were written by Ranjit Kapoor, and screenplay and book done by Mala Sen.

SCRIPT IS THE SOUL In the “Bandit Queen,” script was the soul. Director Shekahr Kapur created the magic by converting a hard hitting script into a “lethal blow in the solar plexus of the world.” This is a classic example of when an idea is turned into movie, it is the harmony of creative contributions—script, camera, sound, art, performances and direction—that creates a great film. The film was premiered in the Directors’ Fortnight section of the 1994 Cannes Film Festival. Bobby’s fourth film as a producer was “Fire,” written and directed by Deepa Mehta, starring Shabana Azmi and Nandita Das. His fifth film production “Maqbool” (Favorite), directed by Vishal Bhardwaj and starring Pankaj Kapur, Irrfan Khan, Tabu and Masumeh Makhija, is an adaptation of the play Macbeth by Shakespeare. Bobby’s next venture “Mangal Pandey: The Rising” is a 2005 Indian historical drama film based on the life of Mangal Pandey, an Indian soldier known for helping to spark the Indian rebel-

lion of 1857 (also known as The First War of Indian Independence). It was directed by Ketan Mehta, and screenplay was done by Farrukh Dhondy. The lead role was played by Aamir Khan. It was followed by “Saathiya” (directed by Shaad Ali and written by Mani Ratnam), “The Stoneman Murders”, and “Chintu Ji...” But no major movie projects were undertaken by him after that. There was just silence. Come 2019, Bobby is back in business with a bang riding on back of an explosion in the Over The Top Television (OTT) content, turning streaming platforms into mainstream entertainment. “I was doing scripted dramas in India when nobody was doing it. Everybody was doing Bollywood entertainment format which was very popular. We were side business. With the coming of Netflix, Amazon and other platforms, and also because of the dubbing of the major international content, India has got exposed to and now addicted to scripted drama,” says a bullish Bobby Bedi who is on a mission to regain the glory and dish out scripted dramas for a global audience. His pipeline at his professionally managed Contentflow Studios is overflowing. “We have our own studio in NOIDA, in the National Capital Region (NCR) of Delhi. We have our own team and

“THE WHOLE PREMIUM SCRIPTED DRAMA AREA IS PRETTY MUCH A WHITE SPACE IN INDIA, WHERE THEY MAKE GREAT FILMS, GREAT SOAP OPERAS… BUT NOBODY IS REALLY MAKING HIGHBUDGET, HIGH-QUALITY, 8-10 EPISODE SCRIPTED DRAMA.” JAMES FARRELL HEAD OF INTERNATIONAL ORIGINALS, AMAZON STUDIOS

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The reason that we are behind in the game is that India never needed scripted dramas. But now when we need scripted dramas, we don’t have good writers

together in this premium production for the international market,” says Rahul Aggarwal, Director Star Entertainment.

SURGE IN DEMAND Behind all this development is India’s digital dominance to lead the OTT and new emerging online video audience. KPMG in its recent annual M&E 2019 report has projected that the online video audience in India which was 225 million in 2018 is likely to cross 550 million by 2023. India is seeing a surge in demand for mobile and broadband data, which is fuelling growth in the number of subscribers. The entry of Reliance Jio Infocomm into the segment with its JioGigaFiber technology is set to further reduce broadband rates across the country, fuelling competition and further growth in subscriber base. Jio already has 340 million mobile subscribers. According to Ericsson, India has the world’s highest

our CEO is managing the business. My job is only to creatively drive it. Before the year is out, we would have done couple of more major projects . Suddenly, we are back in business with a bang,” says Bobby. Bobby’s recently produced film “Bitter Chestnut,” directed by Gurvinder Singh, is rising on the popularity chart with every passing day. It was showcased at the world premiere of the recently concluded Busan International Film Festival. The film attracted critical acclamation at the 20th Jio MAMI, Mumbai Film Festival. It will continue its festival circuit journey in 2020, beginning with International Film Festival Rotterdam (Jan 22-Feb 2). Gurvinder’s earlier two films “Alms for the Blind Horse” and “Fourth Direction,” premiered at Venice and Cannes Film Festivals and have won numerous international awards.

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DIGITAL DRAMA Recently, Bobby Bedi’s Contentflow Studios has signed joint venture agreements with acclaimed film producer Manmohan Shetty (Walkwater Media) and Optimystix Entertainment for a three film deal and set-up a new company. Contentflow Studios is developing couple of Webseries for MX Player (The Times of India Group). It is also developing digital drama series for Adity Birla Group’s Applause Entertainment, a leader in content creation and IP Studios led by M&E industry veteran Sameer Nair. India’s top industrial company Amar Raja Group, Star Entertainment Worldwide and Contentflow Studios have joined hands to create a new content division to produce thriller series “Curse of the Kohinoor,” which will feature leading stars from Telugu Film Industry. “Curse of the

TODAY WE ARE JUST STARTING. SERIES LIKE ‘SACRED GAMES’ OR ‘MADE IN HEAVEN’ HAVE WOWED AUDIENCE. BUT ONCE THERE ARE HUNDREDS OF SERIES LIKE ‘SACRED GAMES’ AND ‘MADE IN HEAVENS’ THEN YOU WILL BE FIGHTING FOR THE EYEBALL. Kohinoor,” will be directed by Colin Teague, whose credits include “Dr Who?” and its spin-off “Torchwood.” The heist thriller series tells the story of a plot to steal the Kohinoor diamond, the centrepiece of the British Crown Jewels. “We have ambitions to create premium scripted series for the Indian and global marketplace,” says Padma Galla, director of Amara Raja Media and Entertainment. The new entity will collaborate with producers and broadcasters across the world. “We are bringing the very best talent from the Indian and UK scripted worlds

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per smartphone data usage of 10 GB per month. With video streaming, 10 GB will jump to 18 GB by 2024, says Ericsson. Bobby Bedi concurs that Jio has transformed India’s content consumption on the mobile. “Jio has helped totally. It has brought prices down. It’s brought telecom majors Vodafone and Airtel down to those levels. Today data is accessible across the country. In fact I have problems in making phone calls, I am finding it easier to make WhatsApp calls and live phone calls on iPhone. Because it is certainly no longer a medium for communication, it seems to be a

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Bobby’s Contentflow Studios is developing a couple of webseries for MX Player (The Times of India Group). It is also developing digital drama series for Adity Birla Group’s Applause Entertainment

medium for entertainment”. Bobby reckons that it’s content and script that will drive this medium. “We have decided that for the first few films we are going to rely on either novels or novelist and published material as the resource material or true stories for our films because we don’t want to work with writers who have three days of partying and come out with a script. If you work on an existing work of fiction then somebody has published work, somebody has given thought to character and story.”

I WAS DOING SCRIPTED DRAMAS IN INDIA WHEN NOBODY WAS DOING IT... WITH THE COMING OF NETFLIX, AMAZON AND OTHER PLATFORMS, AND ALSO BECAUSE OF THE DUBBING OF THE MAJOR INTERNATIONAL CONTENT, INDIA HAS GOT EXPOSED TO AND NOW ADDICTED TO SCRIPTED DRAMAS

LEONARDO DICAPRIO & AAMIR KHAN He also believes that “films are remembered not because they have stars, but they are remembered because the films themselves”. “‘Awara’ is remembered because of the Awara Hoon, ‘Shree 420’ is because of Shree 420, ‘Sangam’ because of Sagam. These movies have explored scripted stories of very high calibre. ‘Guide’ of Dev Anand is an R K Narayan story,” he says. The need of the hour is to have actors who can portray any character on screen. “We need people like Leonardo Dicaprio and Brad Pitt who can play any character. Except for Aamir, stars play themselves. Alluding to Aamir’s portrayal of a middle-aged father in ‘Dangal’, Bobby says

WHILE WE CREATE THE IP AND WE MAKE MONEY OUT OF IT, WE DON’T OWN IT AND IT DOES NOT BECOME A RETURNING IP AND THAT TO MY MIND IS GOING TO BE THE BIGGEST PROBLEM IN FILM FINANCING IN THE FUTURE

that with Aamir it is very difficult for the audience to understand that it is not Aamir, rather this is this girl’s father. That is why the film did so much better in China than India. Even though it has done very well in India, in China at least they don’t know that they are watching this film for Aamir. There is a damn good actor who is playing father’s role.”

“INDIA IS HOME TO SOME OF THE WORLD’S GREATEST STORIES. IT’S BEEN THRILLING TO WATCH THESE AMAZING STORYTELLERS EMBRACE THE ARTISTIC FREEDOM POSSIBLE AT NETFLIX TO CREATE ENTERTAINING STORIES.” BELA BAJARIA, VP INTERNATIONAL ORIGINALS, NETFLIX 38

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Speaking on the potential challenges of OTT platforms, Bobby says that going forward the biggest challenges would be to maintain profitability and creativity. “Today we are just starting. Series like ‘Sacred Games’ or ‘Made in Heaven’ have wowed audience. But once there are hundreds of series like ‘Sacred Games’ and ‘Made in Heavens’ then you will be fighting for the eyeball. They will also be competing with the rest of the world.” Bobby is already thinking ahead of competition in terms of content. “I am not even thinking of competing with ‘Sacred Games’. ‘Curse of the Kohinoor’ is about telling the history of gems in India from Independence till today through a fictional story. Hopefully, I line up with a very big star for it. Today one thing that Netflix and Amazon have done is that they have made the world language blend.” But despite the opportunities OTT space has created,

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Bobby is of the opinion that it has limited the revenue flow for people like him. “One of the biggest drawbacks of the OTT space is that people like me, people like Aditya Chopra, Karan Johar, Subhash Ghai, or Raj Kapoor’s family—anybody who had successful slew of important films and has lived of owning those properties and the flow of revenues from them—will be at the receiving end in the long term. OTT is getting more and more into the buyout space.” “While we create the IP and we make money out of it, we don’t own it and it does not become a returning IP and that to my mind is going to be the biggest problem in film financing in the future. I think that if I have a choice I would fund them… to earn for myself and license them rather than sell them out because I wish to own some of

my properties,” he adds. However, far from being ungrateful, Bobby sees it as an opportunity to convince Indian directors to start creating films with wider global audience in mind. “Indian stories have travelled across the world in the past. Is ‘Gandhi’ not an Indian story? It is an entirely Indian story. Except for one sequence the entire film was shot in India. Likewise, ‘Jungle Book’ and ‘Slumdog (Millionaire)’ are Indian stories. We just need directors to start thinking in that direction.”

CONTENT-DRIVEN CINEMA As an insider who has seen the Indian Media and Entertainment space transform from close quarters, Bobby has some more insights to share. To ride the new wave of content-driven cinema, he says that it is imperative that “we have to become less greedy”. “Presently, if this money is flowing the industry has the habit of putting all the money in the bag. But we need to change and find ways as to how we can put the money back to derive more value out of it.” “The reason that we are

behind in the game is that India never needed scripted dramas. But now when we need scripted dramas, we don’t have good writers. A lot of platforms including Hotstar have introduced big writers programme; Yashraj has a writers programme; Reliance has a writers programme; and Zee is also trying to create one.” Bobby can clearly see the existing gaps and is ready to fill them up by building strong partnerships with the international M&E community. He believes that his efforts will pay once India gets used to large format proper scripted dramas. “Then there is no going back. People will never go back to Saas Bahu dramas.” Having set high standards in the Indian M&E space through his work, Bobby’s eyes sparkle with anticipation when he talks about the future. He’s as ready as he’ll ever be to take Indian stories to global audience, transcending the barriers of geography, language and culture, to communicate with the world, and bring the humanity closer using the universal language of cinema.

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VR FILMS & STUDIOS LIMITED AT AFM

INFUSING LIFE WITH DUBBING AT

VR FILMS & STUDIOS India is emerging as a hub to dub for Hollywood and European language ﬁlms,” says Manish Dutt and Krishi Dutt of VR Films & Studios Ltd, . Meet them at the American Film Market 2019 for all your localisation needs

anish Dutt along with his brother Krishi Dutt runs India’s biggest dubbing company, managing over 900 artistes who lend their voices in several languages to keep his pipeline engaged. Even after clocking 50,000+ hours of dubbing and witnessing 80 percent year-on-year growth, Manish’s VR Films is hungry for more. “India is emerging as a hub to dub for Hollywood and European language films,” says Manish, Managing Director, VR Films. “We are positioning ourselves to be a one-stop shop for all dubbing and sub-titling requirements. Our dubbing company is making Hollywood in India.” VR Films is a “Limited” company now… with shares listed on BSE SME Platformfirst dubbing company in India and second in the world to achieve this.

International Content.

What is your major objective and focus at American Film Market 2019?

“The Courier” is an Action Thriller starring Gary Oldman, Olga Kurylenko and Dermot Mulroney. It’s a fast paced movie which we shall exploit Theatrically and Digitally in 9 Indian languages apart from English…namely Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Kannada, Bangla, Marathi, Urdu and Bhojpuri. We are in talks for a co-production too with European makers…and shall take it forward during this AFM. We also intend to get into producing Hindi Films and have been exploring opportunities.

This AFM we have strategized to be very specific for new Titles provided they are different in terms of content and from what we already have in our basket. We have a string of new Titles which are in production and slated for 2020/21 delivery. Markets in India Sub Continent have been quite lukewarm where Theatrical and TV platforms for foreign content are concerned and this contributes towards being more cautious for future acquisitions. However we will be very aggressive for our Dubbing business and have meets lined up with leading Hollywood Film Studios and OTT platforms as there is a big demand for Indian Localisation of

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Post listing of VR Films & Studio in the BSE and NSE SMEs platform, how has been response from clients and investors? We started on a very promising note… with our IPO getting oversubscribed 1.7 times. Our share price has more than doubled from INR 61 (listing price) to INR 130 (current price)….more than double in 6 months of listing with Dividend payout @10%. For Oct 2019 – March 2020 we expect to do 4 times more YOY. Tell us about your film “The Courier” to be released in India this November? What are your acquisitions and co-production plans?

WE ARE AGGRESSIVE FOR OUR DUBBING BUSINESS AND HAVE MEETS LINED UP WITH LEADING HOLLYWOOD FILM STUDIOS AND OTT PLATFORMS AS THERE IS A BIG DEMAND FOR INDIAN LOCALISATION OF INTERNATIONAL CONTENT

bing business…almost 60-65%. We have been dubbing for streaming platforms since 2018…for one major we dubbed their series and features…nearly 2000 hours in just 3 months in Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam and Bangla. We are in talks with more OTT platforms and shall soon have them onboard….including the major one. Content localisation for OTT is a huge business opportunity which will grow in leaps in times ahead. What are your thoughts on Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Make in India initiative and how do you think companies like VR Films are embracing it? Our PM is a visionary. Where VR Films is concerned we have been dubbing for leading International Film Studios and TV Platforms since 2000. We started with no Dubbing Studio and today we have more than 65 Dubbing Studios across India…localising Foreign Content in Hindi and regional Indian languages. At times we run double shifts to keep up with the demand. VR Films Studios are known for quality and exemplary service. We deliver much before time. Our clients

Streaming platforms are hot now... How has VR Films benefited from OTT from dubbing perspective?

Manish Dutt and Krishi Dutt

have been with us since years and we keep adding new ones. OTT platforms have contributed majorly in our recent growth and VR Films will surely do India proud where “Dubbing in India” is concerned. Do you see slowdown in the market -- especially in your services business?

Fortunately not. Dubbing will grow in times ahead. It makes business sense to dub existing successful content in various languages and monetise. India is a growing market…it’s vast and has huge requirements. Each region has its specific language and the platforms will woo audiences by proving content in their specific languages. Apart from entertainment content there is educational/ health related content which will be exploited in times ahead. Recently a platform approached us to dub Literature/ Novels in various languages. Opportunities are huge and we at VR Films have always kept our eyes and ears open to grab

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HOW VOLUMETRIC VIDEO DRIVES VOLUME OF OPPORTUNITIES

evelopers and content creators use Intel hardware and software technologies to capture and process immersive digital assets for video games, virtual and augmented reality, holograms, film and other rapidly growing markets. Forecasters expect the volumetric video market to grow from $578 million in 2018 to nearly $2.8 billion by 20231. Read on to learn how Intel engages with film studios and innovative developers to bring volumetric video experiences to life. TechCrunch explains that volumetric capture can record footage of a real person from various viewpoints, “after which software analyzes, compresses, and recreates all the viewpoints of a fully volumetric 3D human.” It can be described as “depth to point cloud from capture” or creating a point-cloud from frames. Volumetric video plays it back into video format.

Ravi Velhal Technology Policy & Standards-Intel Research

TRANSFORMING HOLLYWOOD FROM PIXELS TO

Developers and content creators around the world see growing opportunities with this technology. Markets include architectural design, public safety, retail point-of-sale, gaming, mass-media entertainment, and many other exciting application areas. Storytelling Meets Technology At Cannes film festival Ravi’s keynote and panel session highlighted the power of production technologies to create multisensory immersive cinema experiences and Hollywood volumetric cinema productions. In the era of next-generation immersive cinema, storytelling and technology combine in a data-powered entertainment landscape. Audiences respond strongly to the power of immersive cinema storytelling. You can see, hear, feel, experience and even smell that in the multisensory Intel collaboration, prelude to LeMusk by A.R.

AUDIENCES RESPOND STRONGLY TO THE POWER OF IMMERSIVE CINEMA STORYTELLING. YOU CAN SEE, HEAR, FEEL, EXPERIENCE AND EVEN SMELL THAT IN THE MULTISENSORY INTEL COLLABORATION, PRELUDE TO LEMUSK BY A.R. RAHMAN. INTEL ALSO COLLABORATES ON A GROWING NUMBER OF EXCITING HOLLYWOOD PRODUCTIONS, INCLUDING SPIDERMAN: HOMECOMING VRE, SAVE EVERY BREATH: DUNKIRK VRE BY WARNER BROS., FIRST MAN: VRE BY UNIVERSAL PICTURES, AND SPIDERMAN: FAR FROM HOME VRE BY SONY PICTURES

VOXELS

Volumetric capture can record footage of a real person from various viewpoints, after which software analyzes, compresses, and recreates all the viewpoints of a fully volumetric 3D human, says Ravi Velhal 42

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Intel Corporation, world’s largest volumetric studio powered by Intel.

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vation Studios to capture Tony Stark’s jet with volumetric technology using a point cloud system and processed using Intel Xeon Scalable processors. Watch the Behind the Screens video about the making of the VR experience and a sneak peek into Tony Stark’s volumetric scanned jet. Humanizing the Digital World As glamorous as our work with Hollywood studios and world-famous directors may sound, some of the greatest value comes from developers and technology innovators like Underminer Studios. Underminer’s Volumation product uses cost-effective technology to capture, optimize, and perform post-production cleanup in one process, without a green screen. It can increase realism and immersion and lower the barriers of accessibility and cost for 3D images of real humans or objects in motion. Volumation captures, optimizes, and cleans-up 3D images without a green screen

Rahman (double Oscar winner musician, composer, well-known for his hit film Slumdog Millionaire). Intel also collaborates on a growing number of exciting Hollywood productions, including SpiderMan: Homecoming VRE, Save Every Breath: Dunkirk VRE by Warner Bros., First Man: VRE by Universal Pictures, and SpiderMan: Far From Home multiplayer VRE over 5G at MWC 2019 and the summer blockbuster, SpiderMan: Far from Home VRE by Sony Pictures. Intel Studios and “Grease” at 40 A key milestone in the transformation of Hollywood was on January 8, 2018. That day, Variety reported on the opening of Intel Studios, a dedicated volumetric video capture facility. The story summed everything up nicely by saying, “Intel wants to help Hollywood embrace the next generation of immersive media ... essentially producing high-end holographic content...” Intel Studios’ general manager Diego Prilusky and Randal Kleiser, the director of the 1978 iconic movie “Grease,” revealed at CES 2019 an exploratory, immersive teaser celebrating the film’s 40th anniversary. Growing up with Song and dance Bollywood influence , Ravi initiated Grease project with Randal Kleiser and Paramount Pictures. A little more than a year later, at the Cannes Film Festival/CannesXR 2019 event, Intel and Paramount Pictures released the five trillion pixel, full-volumetric experience based on a re-creation of the iconic song

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“You’re the One That I Want” for PCs and AR devices. Advancing Data-Driven Storytelling with Sony Pictures Entertainment In June 2018, Sony Pictures Entertainment (SPE) launched Sony Innovation Studios in collaboration with Intel, Dell, and Deloitte Digital. Housed in a 7,000 square-foot sound stage on the Sony Pictures Studio lot in Culver City, Calif., the space features the latest in research and development in areas including volumetric video and customizable set scanning. Sony Innovation Studios works with engineers throughout Sony Corporation and pursues business development opportunities in motion pictures, television, music and gaming. Intel has teamed up with Sony Pictures to help expand the applications of Sony Innovation Studios beyond entertainment to other market segments. With Sony Innovation Studios, enterprises can leverage emerging technology to visualize real business solutions and solve problems within their industries.

Volumation was introduced at SIGGRAPH 2018 by Alex Porter, CEO of Underminer Studios. She described the opportunity for real world assets, objects, and people to be put into digital formats, as “humanizing the digital world.” After a few initial designs, the rig for the Volumation demo at SIGGRAPH included 26 Grove* UP* boards and 128 cameras. Technologies used included Intel® NUC™ PCs, HTC* Vive* VR, Intel® Optane™ memory/storage, Google* ARCore* AR, Unity* real-time 3D, Intel® networking, Intel® Graphics Performance Analyzers (Intel® GPA), and of course, it all ran on Intel® CPUs. Capture the Opportunity Intel works with leading companies to ensure the creative software you rely on performs at its best, so you can get through production work faster and have more time to develop your next great idea. Get practical ideas on ways to adopt immersive technology for a range of markets at the Intel® Developer Zone/VR.

Most recently, Intel teamed up Sony Pictures Virtual Reality to bring the SpiderMan™: Far From Home Virtual Reality Experience. This experience gives players the chance to select their favorite Spider-Man suit, and, for the first time, swing high above New York City. The short VR gaming experience was developed by CreateVR using Intel® Xeon® Scalable processors. In addition to the VR experience, Intel worked with Sony Inno-

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THOUGHT LEADER

Ravindra aka Ravi Velhal leads Digital Media Standards, Technologies and Immersive Cinema programs globally at Intel. As a Cinema Virtual Reality Experience (VRE) pioneer, he coproduced Le Musk multi-sensory VR by A.R. Rahman, Save Every Breathe: Dunkirk VRE with Warner Bros, FIRST MAN: VRE with Universal Pictures and RYOT, directed Rio Carnival 2018 VRE with GloboTV, collaborated with Sony Pictures on SpiderMan: Home Coming VRE which was nominated for prestigious Emmy, and he recently launched Innovation Studios with Sony Pictures. At Mobile World Congress in Feb 2019, he collaborated with Sony Pictures to launch SpiderMan: Far From Home, the world’s first multiplayer VRE gaming experience over 5G. His focus is to drive future immersive cinema, including future media formats. Ravi is recipient of Hollywood’s prestigious Lumiere award, Infinity Film Festival of Beverly Hills Audience Choice Award. Ravi holds several global patents, and he has served as a director on the AIS/ VR Society board, and an advisor to film and trade organizations, globally.

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INDIA AT MIPCOM 2019

GOVERNMENT OF INDIA COMMITTED TO SAFEGUARD IP CONTENT: COMMERCE SECRETARY Services Exports Promotion Council (SEPC), set-up by the Ministry of Commerce & Industry, has brought out the India Intellectual Property (IP) Guide at Cannes in MIPCOM 2019

n a message, to the industry in the India IP Guide released at 36th MIPCOM at Cannes, Commerce Secretary, Anup Wadhawan, said that the Government of India is committed to safeguard against infringement of originality and creativity of the makers to give a boost to services exports. IP is the most important asset for its creators in the media and entertainment sector and the message by Commerce Secretary further said that India firmly believes in the significance of IPR as the centrepiece of the industry’s future growth. For the second consecutive year, SEPC’s India Pavilion at MIPCOM, Cannes, France, the world’s largest content market, has enthused and attracted industry. Over 60 Indian delegates were part of the India Pavilion delegation. Over 115 Indian companies comprising over 250 delegates were at MIPCOM. The Indian exhibitors and visiting companies were at MIPCOM to buy, sell, serve and partner with companies present at MIPCOM from over 111 countries across the world. India Pavilion is the one-stop place to meet content creators, audio visual service providers in animation, VFX, AR/VR, gaming, new media services, film production services and much more. Many of the Indian companies were with their completed IPs or pitch for their in-production properties. One of the key objectives at SEPC is to facilitate service exporters of India and handhold medium and small enterprises to expand their global footprint and to present IPs from India to the buyers and distributors from across the globe. The IP Guide is to illustrate strengths of the Indian content creators.

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TAKEAWAYS AND TRENDS FROM MIPCOM 2019 A lot happened at MIPCOM 2019- Keynotes by industry veterans, special sessions that brought together people from various verticals and interactions that threw light on the present and future of M&E sector. Pickle brings you takeaways and trends from MIPCOM

called That’s Entertainment, which compiled the best scenes from MGM musicals. “I was really knocked out,” he said. “I realised that one studio made them all, MGM, and a lightbulb went off in my head. I was always a fan of movies, but I thought ‘I wanna someday run a studio!’”

Amazon & India Amazon Studios’ Head of International Originals James Farrell and Director of European Originals Georgia Brown delivered a keynote. Farrell offered his take on the international picture, including India. “The whole premium scripted drama area is pretty much a white space in India, where they make great films, great soap operas… but nobody is really making high-budget, high-quality, 8-10 episode scripted drama.” And these shows can travel. “We’re past that ‘well are we going to make it global or local? Let’s just make it really great and specific,” he said.

Content Mix Personality of the Year Robert Greenblatt , Chairman, WarnerMedia Entertainment and Direct-to-Consumer, who is one of the most successful entertainment executives of the last 30 years, delivered MIPCOM’s Personality of the Year keynote, interviewed by World Screen’s Group Editorial Director Anna Carugati-Guise. Greenblatt started by remembering when he got the bug for the entertainment industry, in his teenage years. He watched a film

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Amazon Studios’ Director of European Originals Georgia Brown talked about the content mix. “In the co-production space we’ve had a fantastic couple of years… and that’s something we’re going to continue to do,” she said. “We want to engage customers on any level we can. It’s not just about giving them originals, at Amazon we can offer them shows from lots of different people.”

Women Power Another highlight of MIPCOM’s was the Women

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in Global Entertainment Power Lunch, with A+E Networks and The Hollywood Reporter. Reed MIDEM’s Laurine Garaude began by welcoming some of the most influential women in the TV business today, notably introducing Newen CEO Bibiane Godefroid, who presented Pour les femmes dans les médias, a French movement to stop sexual harassment in media companies, initially conceived at this very lunch.

Inevitable change World’s ‘largest free movie and TV streaming service’ Tubi’s CEO Farhad Massoudi and chief content officer Adam Lewinson talked about their strategy, and the wider trends around AVOD in 2019 in their keynote. Massoudi started by comparing the TV industry to other content industries: “The music industry has seen a 60% increase in revenue due to streaming. Radical change is coming to TV and I’m excited to be part of it.” That change looks to be unavoidable, looking at the stats.

Big Bang Moment Another session at MIPCOM focused on the ‘D2C big bang moment’. Midia Research’s EVP and Research Director Tim Mulligan explored the challenges for SVOD and direct-to-consumer in 2019. “What could be arguably the biggest, pivotal moment of the history of media in the digital landscape,” said Mulligan, citing four new launches in the next six months: Apple TV+, Disney+, HBO Max and Peacock. “The big media players are coalescing with the big tech players

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to make streaming central to their existence,” he said.

Changing trends David Clarke, EVP Content at DRG, talked about changing trends for distributors. “Like everybody else, we’re behaving much more like a studio. That’s about supporting creativity much, much earlier, and about getting across development much, much earlier,” he said. “The marketplace for great IP that is available to independent distributors such as ours, there are very few shows that leak out of the super-indie studio system. So when they do come out, you have to be ready and willing to support them and invest in them, and convince those producers that you’re the right home for them.”

View from Japan Taka Hayakawa, VP at Fuji Television, offered a perspective from Japan, including Fuji TV’s investment in mobile developer Niantic, the creator of the game Pokémon Go. The companies have collaborated on an animated project. “A very good example of our strategy for investment: we invested in the company, and we tried to make collaboration,” he said. Another project, The Window, started life as a drinking session at MIPCOM three years ago with an executive from ZDF! “It’s kinda ‘Soccer meets House of Cards’,” he said.

High Five Vincent Teulade, CEO of Pistis Strategy Advisor

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presented five areas of upcoming tech trends. “We’re seeing pay-tv playing a defensive strategy right now, while commercial TV is under increasing pressure. SVoD and AdVoD might become the new norm for an hour of entertainment”, said Teulade.

ger that isn’t UHD,” said Gray. More than 260m households now have UHD televisions, and this is predicted to grow to 574m by 2023. In North America, 64% of households are expected to be UHD by 2023. “Not all these sets can do everything,” he warned, in terms of UHD content.

AI Route

Drag Race

Philippe Petitpont from Newsbridge talked about how their AI based system enables a quicker and more cost efficient process for producers to sift through material, including archive material. “We see that producers are able to decrease work load by 50-80%. We also see a possibility to be much faster when it comes to production. And all the film and data generated while filming can now be indexed affordably and get a new lease of life”, said Petitpont.

Over the last decade, RuPaul’s Drag Race has become a televisual institution, not to mention a format that’s spreading well beyond the US. Host and producer RuPaul Charles delighted MIPCOM with a keynote, in which he was interviewed by Variety’s managing editor, television, Cynthia Littleton. “We love drag, we love television and we love drag queens!” he said, pinpointing the appeal of his show. “We all were little boys who society said ‘There’s no place for you here’. We start there in that commonality of the struggle. Things are said sometimes that are salty! But it always comes back to ‘you are my sister, you are my brother: we all come from the same place.”

Machine learning Jack Habra from Reminiz talked about using AI and machine learning to generate relevant and verified data from any kind of video content, from live streams to on-demand. “We are an AI solution at scale”, said Habra while describing the process. “We can identify everything from characters to logos and brands, from emotions to interactions, and generate data on all of them”. This is turn enables more efficient contextual advertising, content recommendations as well as live stream monitoring.

Freemium Streaming ProSiebenSat.1 CEO Max Conze spoke about Germany’s largest freemium streaming platform, Joyn – a 50/50 joint venture with Discovery Networks – and the plans to launch a premium, subscription-based tier this winter. The moderator for this session was journalist Kate Bulkley. “One of the things I’ve been all my life is be in consumer-facing businesses where technology plays a role, and to a certain extent, where marketing plays a role,” he said. “We need growth going forward… linear distribution alone, viewing is declining, probably the money that you can make with it is declining as well. So probably we need to make that business future-fit as well.”

Funding Creativity

Sony’s Super Offerings As ever at MIPCOM, Sony was there with its 4K and 8K Ultra HD Theatre, offering a programme of sessions on all things high-resolution. They included a brisk ‘Around the 4K world in 30 minutes’ overview of current trends. Paul Gray, research and analysis director at IHS Markit Technology offered the information. Globally, UHD resolutions exceeded half of TV shipments for the first time in the final quarter of 2018. “From now it’s pretty hard to find a TV at 49 inches or big-

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The Esterel room at MIPCOM hosted a strand devoted to ‘funding creativity’, including a conversation with BBC Studios. Paul Dempsey, president, global distribution, and Ralph Lee, director of content, BBC Studios Production, fielded the questions from moderator Erik Barmack, CEO of Wild Sheep Content. BBC Studios have seen some great new content this year, and some familiar, but recharged. “This year we relaunched Top Gear, which has come back really strong” said Lee. “And in our new series Seven Worlds One Planet we’ve gone further than before with aerial photography, as well as storytelling”.

What’s TV Now Darren Star, creator and executive producer of shows including Sex and the City, Beverly Hills 90210 and Melrose Place, as well as his current

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hit, Younger, was interviewed by Jill Offman, EVP at Paramount Network / Comedy Central. He started by talking about Emily in Paris, his new drama-comedy. “Americans certainly have this wonderful romantic relationship with Paris, and I think we’ve seen it in movies, books… I don’t think there’s been a TV series that’s really captured it,” he said. “What’s wonderful about television now is it’s become so expensive that we can film an entire series here! That wasn’t quite as possible a few years ago, and the definition of what television is has expanded so much that what would have been a feature is now a TV series.”

Around the world Endemol Shine’s CEO of Creative Networks Lisa Perrin spoke about the company’s approach to developing, financing, producing and distributing content. She was interviewed by Erik Barmack, CEO of Wild Sheep Content. Endemol Shine has over 3 billion views of their content over all platforms monthly. While new content is always being developed and produced, many of the shows are long-running enterprises. “Big Brothers is in its 20th year now”, Perrin said. “It still travels around the world. The show reflects the audience very well. But how to innovate around formats like this, that takes skill.”

Beyond the Giants You’ll hear lots about Netflix, Apple, WarnerMedia and other giant streaming services this market, but there’s life beyond those platforms. A session called “Streaming Services: Beyond the Giants“ looked at how domestic and regional players are thriving. Speakers included DocuBay COO Akul Tripathi; BritBox President Soumya Sriraman; and Media Prima Director, Digital Asset Management Unit, IP-Animation and Licensing & Merchandising, Airin Zainul. The moderator was Midia Research’s Tim Mulligan.

Twitter Talk Kay Madati, Global VP and Head of Content

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Partnerships at Twitter, outlined the ‘past, present and future of Twitter’s content partnerships’, aided by ITV Partnership Controller Bhav Chandrani; Eurosport Digital General Manager Paul Rehrig, and Twitter’s Head of News and Sport Partnerships, EMEA, Jo Kelly. “Twitter is the place where people come to discover and talk about what’s happening in the world. And increasingly so it’s publishers like you who bring your premium content to the platform… to partner with and marry that conversation,” said Madati, adding that Twitter’s users play an active, not passive role in the process. “They are not passengers on that content journey. They are drivers.”

Power of TV Ruth Berry , Managing Director, Global Distribution at ITV Studios, talked about how television is ‘shaping culture around the world’, referring to shows including Love Island, Noughts + Crosses and World on Fire. She was interviewed by Manori Ravindran, International Editor, TBI Magazine. “For us it’s very much about how the power of television can connect with audiences,” said Berry. “And how we can connect with those audiences increasingly on a global level.” She talked about the so-called golden age of television. “We’re still in a golden age of television. It’s glimmering its way along the Croisette very well!”

Food for thought “Getting to the Top – Insight & Tips from – and for – Women in the Media” mentoring breakfast was co-hosted with MediaClub’Elles. Industry veterans including France Televisions’ Caroline Behar; TwoFour54’s H.E. Maryam AlMheiri; All3media’s Louise Pedersen; Cartoon Networks’ Adina Pitt; RMC Decouverte’s Guenaelle Troly; and Fuzzy Duckling Media’s Sam Witters shared their experiences and advice. The breakfast was divided into tables, for attendees to connect and discuss the issues that are important to them in 2019. At the end of the event, each table’s representative stood up to share some of the talking points.

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12-15 octobre 2020 Cannes, France

30 mars – 02 avril 2020 Cannes, France

10 – 11 octobre 2020 Cannes, France 28 mars – 29 mars 2020 Cannes, France

June 2020 Hangzou, China

20 – 22 novembre 2019 Cancun, Latin America

Interested in our events? Contact us for more information VISITORS: mipvisitors@reedmidem.com EXHIBITORS: sylvia.ferreira@reedmidem.com BUYERS: yi-ping.gerard@reedmidem.com MIPTV®, MIPDoc®, MIPFormats®, MIP®China, MIPCOM®, MIPJunior® and MIP®Cancun are registered trademarks of Reed MIDEM - All rights reserved