{"id":7070,"date":"2019-07-08T08:30:43","date_gmt":"2019-07-08T12:30:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dev2.worldscreen.com\/tvformats\/worldscreen.com\/"},"modified":"2019-07-09T09:18:56","modified_gmt":"2019-07-09T13:18:56","slug":"bbc-studios-rides-indias-scripted-boom","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvformats\/bbc-studios-rides-indias-scripted-boom\/","title":{"rendered":"BBC Studios Rides India\u2019s Scripted Boom"},"content":{"rendered":"

Myleeta Aga-Williams, the senior VP and general manager for Southeast Asia and India at BBC Studios, tells <\/em>TV Formats about the buzzing market for scripted formats in India.<\/em><\/p>\n

India has long been known as a fertile market for entertainment formats, with Idol<\/em>, The Voice<\/em>, Dancing with the Stars<\/em> and other megabrands finding slots on leading Hindi-language general-entertainment channels. Now, the country\u2019s increasingly competitive OTT sector is creating a slew of opportunities for scripted-format owners, among them BBC Studios. The company is working with Applause Entertainment on a local version of Luther<\/em>, the Indian adaptation of The Office<\/em> launched on Hotstar in June, and other projects are in the works. \u201cWe have hit a really nice rhythm with our scripted formats,\u201d says Aga. But it’s been a long time in the making.<\/p>\n

\u201cI started pitching The Office<\/em> for India probably three weeks into my job\u2014nine years ago,\u201d Aga says. \u201cBecause of the nature of broadcast television in India, content has historically not been very innovative. It\u2019s very mainstream. Over the last two years with the explosion of OTT platforms, there have been opportunities to really address particular fans of content. It just felt like we could talk about our catalog again.\u201d<\/p>\n

Licensing BBC Studios scripted programming into India has never been easy, Aga notes. \u201cBBC usually only has three-episode, eight-episode series, and a broadcaster says, well I need at least 26 to monetize it. So we struggled. But now, for VOD, [scripted formats] are perfect.\u201d<\/p>\n

BBC Studios\u2019 first scripted format sale into India was Criminal Justice<\/em> (which was adapted in the U.S. by HBO as The Night Of<\/em>). Licensed by Sameer Nair\u2019s Applause Entertainment, Criminal Justice<\/em> was remade for Hotstar. Nair \u201cwisely saw the opportunity to collaborate with format owners, and he\u2019s doing originals as well,\u201d Aga says. \u201cWe talked about Criminal Justice<\/em>, and literally on the back of that he said, What else do you have? I said, How do you feel about The Office<\/em>? He said, Let\u2019s do it.\u201d<\/p>\n

The 13-episode comedy series launched on Hotstar VIP on June 28 with Mukul Chadda as Wilkins Chawla\u2019s Faridabad branch manager, Jagdeep Chadda.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

BBC Studios is now working with Applause on remaking the Idris Elba crime drama Luther<\/em> in India\u2014no platform is attached yet\u2014and is doing format-based series and originals for Hotstar, Netflix and other platforms.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe’ve pivoted our business into shorter series,\u201d Aga explains. \u201cWe\u2019ve gone from more broadcast to more digital, and more unscripted to more scripted. So our business has completely changed in a really exciting, meaningful way. The monetization model is completely different. And the production model is completely different. When you’re doing 100 episodes, you’re front-loaded\u2014you get your sets, you pay your big actors and then you start [recouping your investment]. In these [shorter series], the requirement for disciplined and organized production is much greater. That more structured production business has been an advantage for us. We\u2019re able to take on multiple shorter-term projects.\u201d However, Aga adds, more time needs to be spent in development before series go into production.<\/p>\n

While BBC Studios\u2019 business with digital platforms in India has increased, it continues to deliver shows to the likes of Doordarshan and Colors, among other linear broadcasters. \u201cWe understand and appreciate that those are our beloved partners. But the proportion of creative resources for digital content creation is much higher.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"Asked about the challenges particular to scripted format adaptations, Aga says that it\u2019s all about starting with a good idea. \u201cIf your story is worked out and your characters are very well thought through, what you need is a writer who can help you bring it into another context. For The Office<\/em>, we added an office boy. He\u2019s not in the original Office<\/em>, but in India, every office has a guy who comes in and says, \u2018Chai? Tea?\u2019 So it suddenly feels like an Indian show.\u201d<\/p>\n

As BBC Studios builds its portfolio of scripted adaptations, Aga says the company is working hard to retain the rights to the local versions. \u201cThe Indian diaspora is quite extensive, and in Southeast Asia, some of the mainstream channels air Indian content.\u201d<\/p>\n

The company is also committed to its entertainment-format business in India, and recently experimented with a new model on Stupid Man, Smart Phone<\/em>, originally produced by Kalel Productions for BBC in the U.K. BBC Studios India made a version for the digital platform Voot.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe team in India has the skills to produce that format, so we pitched it to Mediacorp, using a combination of Singapore production capabilities and our capabilities in Mumbai. We were able to deliver a great scale production for them using a new co-production model with BBC Studios India, BBC Studios IP and Singapore talent. The opportunity to leverage the use of talent, wherever it is, is very exciting.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Myleeta Aga-Williams, the senior VP and general manager for Southeast Asia and India at BBC Studios, on the buzzing market for scripted formats in India.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":290,"featured_media":7071,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pmpro_default_level":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[68,69],"tags":[1337,1781,1782],"class_list":["post-7070","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","","category-profiles","category-top-stories","tag-bbc-studios","tag-india","tag-myleeta-aga","pmpro-has-access"],"yoast_head":"\nBBC Studios Rides India\u2019s Scripted Boom - TVFORMATS<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvformats\/bbc-studios-rides-indias-scripted-boom\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"BBC Studios Rides India\u2019s Scripted Boom - TVFORMATS\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Myleeta Aga-Williams, the senior VP and general manager for Southeast Asia and India at BBC Studios, on the buzzing market for scripted formats in India.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvformats\/bbc-studios-rides-indias-scripted-boom\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"TVFORMATS\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2019-07-08T12:30:43+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2019-07-09T13:18:56+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvformats\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2017\/07\/The-Office_India-BBC-2019.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"600\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"319\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Mansha Daswani\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Mansha Daswani\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvformats\/bbc-studios-rides-indias-scripted-boom\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvformats\/bbc-studios-rides-indias-scripted-boom\/\",\"name\":\"BBC Studios Rides India\u2019s Scripted Boom - TVFORMATS\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvformats\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2019-07-08T12:30:43+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2019-07-09T13:18:56+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvformats\/#\/schema\/person\/83da304c8bad8bfdb3edd7eb47cfe5ad\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvformats\/bbc-studios-rides-indias-scripted-boom\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvformats\/bbc-studios-rides-indias-scripted-boom\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvformats\/bbc-studios-rides-indias-scripted-boom\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvformats\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"BBC Studios Rides India\u2019s Scripted Boom\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvformats\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvformats\/\",\"name\":\"TVFORMATS\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvformats\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvformats\/#\/schema\/person\/83da304c8bad8bfdb3edd7eb47cfe5ad\",\"name\":\"Mansha Daswani\",\"description\":\"Mansha Daswani is the editor-in-chief and associate publisher of World Screen. 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