Mumbai: Television and film production company, Balaji Telefilms Ltd on Thursday announced that it is entering the American television market by signing an American television series production deal with Indus Media, the firm said in filing to BSE.
The deal will see Balaji secure rights to the TV series ‘Brown Nation’, a satirical comedy based on the lives of Indian Americans, the firm said. This will be the first series under the new deal and is being planned for release in early 2015.
Balaji has been scouting for collaborations with international players to produce content for various locations across media platforms and this will be an important step to reach out to a diverse audience, the firm said in the filing.
“American sitcoms have influenced urban India and Indian youth across the globe. This will be a good opportunity for us to leverage our creative supremacy to enter a market not sufficiently fed with similar products,” said Sameer Nair, Group CEO, Balaji Telefilms Ltd.
Indus Media recently announced its plans to launch a $50 million entertainment fund to invest in films and television in American and South Indian market, the filing said.
“We have been looking to enter India with our proposed entertainment fund and this fits in well with our India strategy,” said Naveen Chathappuram, founding director, Indus Media.
“India is at the centre of global limelight and the timing is right for us to create path breaking entertainment on an international stage. We look forward to this partnership to extend our creative success to newer horizons,” said Balaji Telefilms Joint Managing Director Ekta Kapoor, in a statement.
Moreover, nowadays Indian characters have become a permanent fixture on American television sitcoms, as well as in movies. One of the main reasons for this is the dramatic growth in the size of the Indian American community in the past two decades. Most successful shows launched in the past five years feature a prominent Indian actor: “The Office,” “The Big Bang Theory,” “30 Rock,” “Chuck,” and “Parks and Recreation”.
