‘Won’t restrict Endemol just to TV’

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: At a point when television programming was saturated with Saas-Bahu sagas, reality shows like Fear Factor and Bigg Boss produced by Endemol India brought a whiff of fresh air to television. From introducing stand-up comedy shows like The Great Indian Laughter Challenge, for the first time on Indian television, to eventually venturing into the fiction space with shows like Sabki Laadli Bebo, the Netherlands-based television production company has come a long way. The local subsidiary of the company that was started in 2006 has completed three years in India. In a chat with FE’s Sagorika Dasgupta, Deepak Dhar, country head, Endemol India, talks about the company’s foray in various lucrative spaces like regional, sports and gaming sectors. Excerpts:

Endemol has completed three years, what are your future plans in India?

Our main focus will be getting a lot of international property into the country. There are a lot of titles like Wipeout and Estate of Panic that we are bringing this year. The other major area of focus would be a lot of scripted production. We are currently doing shows like Sabki Laadli Bebo and Mile Jab Hum Tum for Star Plus and Star One respectively. Since India has a great appetite for scripted shows, we at Endemol are really going to cash in on that front. We have already achieved a lot of success through the first few shows. So scripted formats will be a huge focus for us this year. The next area of focus for us will be regional television.

What are the potential markets for regional content?

Regional content is making a big wave in the television sector. Currently, we are experiencing a lot of traction in this sphere. We are planning to capture a lot of share down south and a lot of Marathi, Gujarati and Bengali spaces as well. Regional markets are waking up to a lot of differentiated content, which is where we have a lot of properties. We are taking a lot of our formats, some of which are big ticket properties, like game shows, reality shows down south. We are closing deals with broadcasters and exploring hardcore extreme reality shows.

Apart from mainstream Hindi channels and regional content, Endemol is said to be even venturing into content for sports channels...