Deepak Dhar, CEO and Founder, Banijay Asia, talks about introducing a new genre ‘adventure thrill’ along with Grylls and Shoopman
Banijay Group’s Banijay Asia and The Natural Studios have entered into a partnership to bring action-adventure content to the Indian and Southeast Asian markets. The collaboration will see the businesses come together to create long and short-form content in this space across both local and global platforms.
The Group partnership is the first for The Natural Studios, a joint venture launched with Bear Grylls and Delbert Shoopman in October 2019. Combining Grylls and Shoopman’s expertise in the adventure space with Deepak Dhar-led Banijay Asia will create and build the high-octane genre in the subcontinent. With work already underway on a development slate of projects in India and Southeast Asia, they hope to announce their first green-lit title in the coming weeks.
Deepak Dhar, CEO and Founder, Banijay Asia said, “There’s a lot that’s happening in the content landscape. Things are really evolving fast between the linear television and SVOD players as well. Therefore, we are bringing a new genre called ‘adventure thrill’ genre along Delbert and Bear catering to the new content. Evolution is happening around us and we are very excited to get into this partnership and then really take forward to create content within the adventure thrill space.”
The group plans to take the content to both platforms – linear TV and digital as we are seeing growth in both the platforms. He added, “Given the fact that SVOD platforms like to look at content in different perspectives and so does TV. We feel that something like this you know, the content could be created in the adventure space with Bear and Delbert for both sides.”
The company is working on the unscripted content slate for now but plans to come up with scripted content as well going forward. The group also plans to launch 2-3 shows in 2020 with Bear and Delbert Shoopman.
Dhar also mentioned that the adventure thrill genre is underserved and a lot of youth are watching unscripted content or nonfiction content on both the linear and SVOD space, which makes the company bring this genre into the region. Delbert Shoopman, CO-CEO, The Natural Studios comments, “Conversations with Deepak followed almost immediately after launching the JV. Together we all could see the potential of venturing into a new space in India and Banijay Asia’s knowledge and contacts have been invaluable in making it a reality. Already, the response from the market has been positive and we are all looking forward to working together to establish a new genre and original IP.”
Banijay Asia has also collaborated with personalities and brands like Salman Khan’s SK TV, MS Dhoni’s Dhoni Entertainment Pvt Ltd, GroupM’s Motion Content Group and Wavemaker. In a span of 20 months, Banijay Asia has produced 18 shows across digital and broadcasting like The Kapil Sharma Show, The Voice, Nach Baliye 9 on TV and Hostages, Roar of The Lion, Bombers, Parchhayee, Tribhanga amongst the others on Digital.
The latest activity further bolsters Banijay Group’s position as the “Home of Adventure” globally.
