Indian content producing ‘Applause Entertainment’ and Israeli producer ‘Yes Studios’ are extending their existing agreement into a full-scale partnership.
Applause, the content studio of the Aditya Birla Group, has previously adapted Yes’s ‘Your Honor’ for SonyLIV and ‘Tanaav’, the reimagining of Yes’s ‘Fauda’ streams on SonyLIV on Nov 11.
Applause also has a relationship with Armoza Formats and has adapted its couple of shows. Armoza’s head of international sales Sharon Levi joined Yes Studios as Managing Director earlier this year.
While speaking to Variety, Applause CEO Sameer Nair remarked, “We’ve been just talking to Sharon about a whole new slate that we want to work with and in fact approach this business in an even more evolved manner where we get in faster and talk more about development at an early stage where we can do things together and collaborate, co-fund and build out content, because I think what everybody needs is a very distinctive kind of storytelling, distinctive kind of thinking, stories that are unique and local and authentic, but yet universal, and that can travel so that they can both be viewed by wider audiences and also be reimagined for different audiences.”
Levi added, “There’s a lot of uniqueness in the way that Applause do business, their business models, their creativity, the high production value, which, coming from Armoza, I’ve already seen this before in adaptations. And above everything else, it was just a great partnership, we worked really well together creatively, from a business perspective. And it’s not a given – I’ve been doing sales for more than 10 years and I truly appreciate partners that understand creative deal making. And I think with Applause it was as easy for that matter. They know their business very, very well. They know what the viewers in India are appreciating and what they would like to watch. And they’re very creative in their deal making and very passionate.”
‘Tanaav’ is a format licence obtained by Applause from Yes. Going forward, the plan is for Yes-Applause co-productions. The companies are looking at a three-pronged approach of originals, including pure fiction and ideas based on true events, format adaptations and book adaptations. Yes Studios is the distribution and co-production arm of Yes, a leading broadcaster and streaming service in Israel, and Levi says that one of the advantages of a co-production is that anything that they are developing, if they are co-producing with a partner, will get a commission and will go on air in that territory.
