Betting big on digital space, Kavithalayaa Productions Private Limited, founded by veteran filmmaker late K. Balachander, is creating content for multiple platforms, including Netflix, Amazon PV, Hotstar, among others.
The 37-year-old production house will soon ink a deal with one of these platforms for a series called ‘Time Enna Boss’.
“This is our next project in the digital space after ‘Harmony with A.R.Rahman’. It is a five episode serial [22 minutes each]. You will see all top artists in the cast,” said Pushpa Kandaswamy, managing director, Kavithalayaa Productions.
“KB [referring to K. Balachander] was always ahead of times when it came to story telling — so we decided to bet on digital and think ahead, which matches his trait. We are now a startup in this space,” she said.
To connect with younger audience, the firm has refreshed its brand and redesigned its logo.
“We now have an animated logo which will connect with audience from all age category,” Pushpa said.
Tribute to the master
As a tribute to Balachander, the firm is planning to convert some of his famous classic movies into a web series. “KB sir’s films had universal emotions as their underlying core. Hence, we need to ensure that we bring out the same emotions through modern day appeal — part of it is drawing on Gen Y and Gen Z behaviour and connecting them strongly through good scenes and screenplay. Of course, it is certainly a tribute to his legacy.... also, many of his movies lend themselves to current day appeal,” Kandaswamy Bharathan, joint managing director, Kavithalayaa Productions, said.
The company now has a data mining team, which is studying patterns Gen Z (the demographic cohort following Gen Y) is following in watching movies and the kind of content they are seeing.
“Through this research we want to understand what kind of content a 10-16 age group and 16-25 age group would like to see. We have already invested in a small digital team which is tracking what people are talking about in the internet space and their behavioural patterns online. This would help us in creating both fiction and non-fiction content,” Mr. Kandaswamy said.
Mr. Kandaswamy, who conceptualised India’s first course on the Indian entertainment industry in 2008, has been delivering the same in two B-schools — IIM Ahmedabad and Indian School of Business (ISB).
Artificial intelligence
Plans are also on anvil to study how artificial intelligence can be used for designing scripts.
“This is already being done in Hollywood. We want to be a pioneer in doing this for our own scripts.,” he said.
When asked whether the production house would exit its traditional movie business, Ms. Pushpa said, “Right now we are not focusing on movie production. However, if a good opportunity comes why not. We have not said no. But as of now the digital space is more exciting. In digital content, we have a confirmed buyer and the risk involved is less.”
