India’s Applause Entertainment Unveils ‘Nyaya’

Indian studio Applause Entertainment is gearing up for an ambitious slate of projects as it enters its eighth year.

The company, led by Managing Director Sameer Nair, a pioneer in Indian television with previous stints at Star TV, NDTV Imagine, Turner General Entertainment and Balaji Telefilms, has its sights set on expanding into new genres and formats while building on on the established successes.

Leading the charge is ‘Nyaya’, a courtroom drama produced in association with Mangata Films. Based on real events, the fictional series, directed by Nitya Mehra, Karan Kapadia and Heeraz Marfatia, follows a 17-year-old girl who seeks justice against a powerful ‘godman’, or leader of a religious sect, who raped her. The project features a strong cast including Fatima Sana Sheikh, Aneet Padda, Arjun Mathur, Mohd. Zeeshan Ayyub and Raghubir Yadav.

“When this opportunity came along, we really grabbed it,” Nair said Variety. “They filmed it very well.” He emphasized the procedural nature of the show, with an emphasis on the criminal justice system in action, and praised rising actor Aneet Padda’s (Prime Video’s “Big Girls Don’t Cry”) portrayal of the victim.

Applause’s upcoming program is diverse and ambitious. Based on a best-selling insider account of Delhi’s Tihar Prison, “Black Warrant” is directed by Vikramaditya Motwane. “Gandhi”, a series on the Mahatma based on the books of Ramachandra Guha, starring Pratik Gandhi and directed by Hansal Mehta. The first episode of the documentary series “Modern Masters” with “RRR” director SS Rajamouli is now streaming on Netflix, while “Assassins – The Hunt for Rajiv Gandhi’s Killers” is a crime procedural directed by Nagesh Kukunoor. An adaptation of A+E Networks’ Peabody-winning series “UnREAL,” about what goes on behind the scenes of a reality show, has just wrapped filming. In addition, Applause brings back new seasons of popular shows including ‘Criminal Justice’, ‘Tanaav’, ‘City of Dreams’ and ‘Undekhi’.

Applause, a division of the $65 billion Aditya Birla Group conglomerate, was founded on August 16, 2017. It has built a strong reputation over the past seven years with critically acclaimed and popular series. Notable among these is the “Scam” franchise for streamer SonyLIV, which started with “Scam 1992: The Harshad Mehta Story” and continued with “Scam 2003: The Telgi Story.” The success of these shows has paved the way for a new installment, “Scam 2010: The Subrata Roy Saga.”

“We have been and will continue to be focused on the contemporary history of business, nation building and crime,” Nair said. “Aside from ‘Gandhi’, which is a real prestige and passion project, the other shows try to show stories from recent contemporary history that make us the country we are.” This focus is reflected in Applause’s deal with iconic Indian graphic novel label Amar Chitra Katha, which specializes in telling Indian history in comic book form, to adapt their more than 400 titles as animated content.

Other hits in the company’s portfolio include ‘Criminal Justice’, ‘Rudra: The Edge of Darkness’, starring Ajay Devgn, and ‘City of Dreams’, all for Disney+ Hotstar.

Reflecting on Applause’s seven-year journey, Nair reflected on the company’s commissioning philosophy. “Our main driver is entertainment, and in that entertainment space we need to create a lot of variety,” he said.

As the streaming market evolves, Nair sees opportunities for expansion. “For the first seven years, the streaming market was more of the higher, premium kind of audience. Over the next seven years, this will become broader,” he predicts, noting that while mass content will grow, niche offerings will coexist. “We’ll also see a lot more massive, soapy content on streaming, which is a good thing because the market has gotten broader and the audience has gotten much bigger.”

Applause is adjusting its strategy accordingly, developing long-form content and exploring new genres. The company is venturing into romantic sagas for young adults and is even considering shorter versions of daily soaps, albeit with higher production values. The studio is also expanding into unscripted content, with plans for game shows and comedy lineups. Nair showed special interest in food-related programming.

International collaborations are also on the horizon. Applause recently wrapped filming on “Apex,” a crime procedural co-developed with “Criminal Minds” co-creator Simon Mirren and his production partner Benjamin Anderson. The company has also signed development agreements with US companies. “Or it’s something that they might have in the form of a comic book or a series that they’ve created. We work together, not just on a format acquisition, we develop together,” said Nair.

On the film front, Applause’s ‘The Rapist’, directed by Aparna Sen and headlined by Konkona Sen Sharma, premiered in Busan and won the prestigious Kim Jiseok Award last year. “Zwigato,” directed by Nandita Das and starring Kapil Sharma and Shahana Goswami, premiered in Toronto and screened in Busan, while Tahira Kashyap Khurrana’s “Sharmajee Ki Beti” debuted on Prime Video in June.

“We really want to grow into the major film studio that makes cinema films with streaming,” Nair explains. Applause’s upcoming Tamil-language ‘Bison’, directed by Mari Selvaraj and starring Dhruv Vikram, is a step in this direction.

In terms of the company’s business model, Applause will continue to license its content across platforms for several years. Nair sees this approach as mutually beneficial, allowing the studio to handle early development while giving platforms the opportunity to provide input before production begins.

Looking ahead, Nair outlined Applause’s vision for the next seven years: “I think we’ve built a really good network of creators, producers and platforms that we work with. What we want to do is use what we’ve built as a springboard to really flourish now. We want to make those big movies, we want to do the shows, we want to work together a lot more.

“We want to do all this in a way that can be profitable,” Nair added. “I think profitability, in creating these great entertainment brands, is a big focus for us.”