Chernin’s CA Media Takes Endemol India Stake

MUMBAI/HONG KONG: Peter Chernin‘s Asian investment operation, CA Media, has taken a 49-percent stake in Mumbai-based Endemol India, providing the backing for the company’s planned aggressive expansion into the scripted and regional TV arenas, as well as feature films.

The strategic alliance reunites CA Media’s India CEO, Rajest Kamat, with Endemol India; Kamat set up Endemol’s operations in India and ran the office as managing director before leaving to head up Colors. Endemol India will continue to be run by Deepak Dhar following the CA investment. Dhar, who has been managing director since 2007, is being upped to CEO.

"India is a critical investment market for CA Media and we’re pleased to partner with Endemol to work together to further leverage the growth in the Indian media and entertainment space," said Chernin, chairman and CEO of The Chernin Group. "We believe that Endemol India is poised to capitalize on the expected explosive growth across all platforms in this industry.”

Paul Aiello, the ex-STAR chief who runs CA Media as CEO, added, “This is our largest investment in Asia to date and reflects not just our ambitions for this market but also our trust in Endemol India’s capabilities, to jointly build the leading production company in the Indian entertainment space.”

Kamat noted, “Our new partnership with Endemol fits in well with our plans of creating a diversified portfolio of assets in the media and entertainment space, with Endemol India being at the epicentre. If there’s one company that is poised to really leverage the growth-explosion ahead in the Indian content space then it is Endemol. Our alliance will ensure that Endemol will achieve growth across screens, demographics and genres.”

Dhar said the CA Media alliance will "provide us with the expertise, relationships and resources for us to become a major player in Indian film and regional television, whilst further building our leading position in the entertainment space. We’re all extremely excited about this development and look forward to sharing further details of our plans in due course."