Dharma Productions CEO: Growth of OTT in India widens our scope of digital content offerings

Karan Johar's film production and distribution company now has a new arm dedicated for digital content. Johar, in a social media post about the new venture - Dharmatic Entertainment - said that it will be headed by him and Apoorva Mehta, the Chief Executive Officer of Dharma Productions.

In a chat with Moneycontrol, Apoorva Mehta spoke about what Dharmatic is all about and what it has in store for viewers.

Why Dharmatic? What is the idea that went behind it?

Given the overwhelming response Dharma offerings have received from the masses and industry, it felt right to bring our style of storytelling in the OTT space. We have been keeping a close eye on the digital content space over the last 2-3 years and seeing the way OTT platforms has grown across India, our foray into the digital domain widens the scope of content we can bring for our audience. To put in a nutshell, both from the creative and business perspective, Dharmatic is actually an extension of Dharma’s promise of rich and quality content in the digital space.

What are the plans for the platform? Will it be only Dharma produced content or a pool of content from other houses too?

Dharmatic will only be creating and providing content to other OTT platforms, so we will be largely serving as content providers in the space. However, we will always be open for creative collaborations with individual or other production houses in this space.

What is the kind of content we would get to see on Dharmatic?

We intend to deliver a complete gamut of offerings; the scope is infinite right from feature films for digital platforms to other long-form and short-form content in both fiction and non-fiction segments. The focus will always be on delivering distinctive and innovative content which appeals to the sensibilities of the digital-first audience.

Can you throw some light on the composition of the core team who will be running Dharmatic? How do you plan to handle competition from the players already there in the space?

While Karan Johar will be overseeing the creative side of Dharmatic, I will be looking into the business aspect of the new division. We have also roped in Somen Mishra, who will be heading the creative in the fiction category, whereas Aneesha Baig will be leading the non-fiction segment. We also have some really talented pool of writers and directors in-house. We will be providing rich, distinctive and innovative content to other OTT players in the domain.

What is the kind of model you'd be working on?

We will be serving as content providers to existing OTT platforms, which inadvertently eliminates the need for us having to figure out a subscription model. With regards to our launch, we are currently working on multiple concepts for some leading OTT platforms and we will be making an announcement soon.