MC Interview: Salman Khan documentary, Gandhi biography: Veteran media executive Sameer Nair outlines upcoming shows amid theatrical push

Sameer Nair, CEO, Applause Entertainment

As three of 2025’s most-watched streaming hits—Black Warrant, Criminal Justice, and The Hunt—dominate screens, one name stands out: Sameer Nair. The veteran media executive, whose career spans iconic shows like Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi (now poised for a comeback), and the enduring quiz show Kaun Banega Crorepati (KBC) with Amitabh Bachchan, is charting ambitious new territory.

Nair’s experience also includes a notable stint at ALT Balaji, where he helped shape India’s early streaming landscape. After leadership roles at Star and NDTV Imagine, he founded Applause Entertainment, one of India’s largest content studios owned by the Aditya Birla Group.

In an exclusive conversation with Moneycontrol, the Managing Director shared Applause’s bet on theatrical releases, upcoming projects across genres, the impact of AI and his vision for the future of premium Indian storytelling.

Watch full interview: Brain Behind OTT Hits Like Scam 1992 & Criminal Justice: Sameer Nair of Applause Entertainment

EDITED EXCERPTS:

How has this year been, especially with shows like Criminal Justice season 4 being received well and The Hunt getting critical acclaim?

2025 started off well for us with Black Warrant on Netflix. Then we followed that up with Criminal Justice, which came on JioHotstar and it came towards the fag end of IPL (Indian Premier League) when the streaming platform reached that big scale of audience of around 300 million subscribers.

Then most recently, The Hunt, which came on SonyLIV, broke out in a very interesting way, especially because it is a mixed language show as it is part Hindi, part English, part Tamil. And it is contemporary history, something that I love to do. Nagesh Kukunoor did a great job of telling that story and making it really come alive. As we head into our eighth anniversary of being in existence, it's been a good 2025.

What can we expect in the second half of the year?

It's difficult to have timing of when things release because that is according to what platforms decide. But we have subsequent seasons of Scam series, Criminal Justice, Black Warrant, Undekhi, Avrodh. A big show, Gandhi is now completing with background score by A. R. Rahman. We have finished shooting and the show is in the final stages.

We have got a big movie called Bison, which is directed by Mari Selvaraj and produced by Ranjith. It's a Tamil movie. We have done a documentary on Salman Khan (Bollywood actor), which is now complete with lots of interviews and discussions and debate. We're working on our animation with Amar Chitra Katha and we have in fact even launched a YouTube channel called ApplaToon. We are building a new slate of movies for the future years. We are working with Kabir Khan, Imtiaz Ali.

Are you doubling down on regional content?

So, we've heard a lot of great scripts in Malayalam, Tamil. We haven't done anything in Telugu yet. Hindi, though, we do in any case. We are going to be doing a lot more language content.

How do you stay relevant across generations from millennials to Gen Z to Gen Alpha?

The best way to stay relevant is to stay curious and to stay young and I am fortunate because I have surrounded myself with young people.

The way we've built Applause is that we are working with a variety of talents. We work with different creators, different directors, different writers. We have lots of young people around me always raising flags about what is uncool. My sense is that whoever it is, you've got to be able to tell a story to a five-year-old and tell the same story to a 15 or a 25-year-old

The new form of storytelling, micro dramas are the flavour of the season. Are you looking at micro dramas as a segment? 

I've seen a few (micro dramas). They are great fun to watch. Micro dramas are like a 90-second scene which has a start, middle, and end. So, it's done like a micro story but part of a larger story. It's like a daily show. The micro drama requires it to be in vertical format so that it fits on your vertical screen.

With micro dramas or any content, whatever you do, you've got to do it well. Just because it is a micro drama, just because it's vertical, and just because it's coming on social media for free, it can't be cheaply produced. Anything which is made cheaply, in my opinion, never works.

Our focus should be on good quality storytelling, well-produced, well-written and well-acted content. It's not about stars. It's just about good acting, good writing, good production. We are not doing micro dramas because currently the expectation here is to produce them very cheaply and we are not sort of able to square that circle. Because when you start producing content cheaply, it's a very slippery slope to making it silly.

How are you using and viewing AI (Artificial Intelligence) as a production house?

AI or any kind of technology has been used by the industry for a long time. We've done a lot of work with green screens and Unreal. We also actively work with all these various AI tools available. We are engaging with Google in a much deeper way, a much larger relationship with their new Gemini stack. They have been promoting Veo3 (video generator). As this technology becomes better, as it becomes sharper, it still needs to be in the hands of intelligent people. Every phone today has a camera but that doesn't make everyone a good photographer. The film industry in particular embraces new technology.

We've been creating science fiction long before science could catch up. AI is catching up with us now. While there are concerns, it (AI) will separate good talent from average. We are already seeing AI having an impact on static campaigns. People are talking about using AI-generated models and AI-generated pictures and it massively cuts production budgets.

Do you think use of AI will extend to making shows for OTT or in filmmaking?

I think it's a little far away now because the technology works well for shorter form, for static, for shorter amounts of video. To really get to feature length or show length is going to take a lot more effort to generate that kind of content.

What genre is clicking more with Indian audiences?

I don't like the word genre. Everything in life is drama. Audiences like everything. They like Chhaava and they are actively liking Saiyaara.

Originally, what TV did was TV forced us to cater to a mass. So, there was one mass audience, everyone sitting and watching together. But streaming now allows us to talk to the mass of niches. Then there are always the big unifying categories like crime and thriller, action-adventure, romance, comedy.

We are doing contemporary history, young adult drama, action stories.

Two of the shows you have launched are in the headlines--- Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi is making a comeback and KBC (Kaun Banega Crorepati) turned 25. Any thoughts on both of this? Will it be possible to replicate the magic? 

I am really happy for Kyunki because it's a great show and it had a great run and now it is being rebooted. KBC has been going on. I started for three seasons and then we let go of it and then Sony carried the flag forward. Amitabh Bachchan has been at the center of it all and the show is still going strong.

About rebooting content, as an audience and as an industry, we tend to beat ourselves up too much about these things in India. The Americans so easily reboot Batman like 14 times. There's a new Superman out there and you ask, what's new? They say, he's got a dog. And yet, people are going and seeing the movie and loving it. Stories should be rebooted and good stories should be retold for succeeding generations. That's how the Mahabharata has been told again and again.

What are your thoughts on the recent AI-driven controversy on Raanjhanaa where the producers are changing the climax to a happy ending and the director isn't too happy about that as that wasn't the intent of the story. Do you anticipate these conflicts in an AI era?

I don't know where one draws the line. I think the line is drawn where the legal contract says it should be drawn. There's so much scope for misuse that a lot of people are drawing the lines. A lot of celebrity talent is saying that you cannot use my likeness, you can't go to AI and make a character that looks like Shah Rukh Khan but not quite. If you do, make a character that looks like Shah Rukh Khan then you should pay him.

Are enough shows being commissioned by streaming platforms as they focus on profitability?

There's been a slowdown. Covid created a big spurt for the (streaming) platforms. But then post-Covid things settled down a bit. There was the whole issue of Writers' and Actors' strikes. Also, the mergers and consolidation happening in India. The last couple of years have been quite complicated and slow. But all said and done, we are in a position where there is a connected available audience. There is an audience that is ready, willing, and able to consume content.

People are always writing obituaries about theater or that they think TV is dead. But all said and done, I think the industry is sort of resetting itself for a glorious new future.

How is business fairing for Applause and what is the breakup in terms of revenues coming from streaming and from theatrical movies as well as animation?

ApplaToon (Applause started its new animation channel on YouTube earlier this year) just started and YouTube is a long haul.

For the last many years, we've been very focused on series and therefore platforms and that's been our business model of making series and licensing it to platforms. But starting from this year, we are making a big push into theatrical movies and that is going to become a very large component of our life. In the coming years we will end up at a 50:50 (revenue) between movies and series.

We have a robust series business. There are many shows to be made and many good seasons to be done. But we are very focused on trying to build a large movie studio. We are working with a lot of interesting filmmakers now. There is a lot of potential in the movie business. The whole industry needs to focus on how to build more screens because that's where the money is, that's where the retail revenue is and then go on to streaming and TV.

The decision to invest in movies, will the backing come from Aditya Birla group or will you look for other sources of capital and raise funds from other investors?

What we have done for the last eight years is that we've been deeply in a reinvestment mode. The aspiration and goal each time is that at a unit level we make profit. On a larger scale, we are looking at reinvestment and growth.

The way the movie and entertainment business works is that it's connected to cash flow and you have to recycle that cash. If you can get three-four good cash flow cycles going, it works out quite well. That's what we are doing and building a brand, building IP (Intellectual Property), building catalogue and library. Now, we are getting into movies. We'll have a whole bunch of movies that will be owned by us. It will be part of our library of content. So I think that's sort of a broader plan.

What are you bingeing on these days?

I am watching Turning Point, and I am yet to watch Squid Game season 3. I am rewatching old comedies like The Office, Modern Family.