NEW DELHI:Arré, a company that specialises in audio, text, and short- and long-form movies, is developing 20 Hindi shows with a focus on women’s tales. Former Network18 and TV18 executives formed this content development company.
For their extended format shows, B. Sai Kumar, Ajay Chacko, and Sanjay Ray Chaudhari have partnered with Amazon Prime Video, Disney+ Hotstar, VOOT, and MX Player. Apart from that, it provides material for audio services such as Audible and produces short-form content.
create content for social media consumption in partnership with other brands
After failing to garner much interest when it first started in 2016 as a platform for writing, mostly essays, the company has since shifted its focus to developing content for streaming platforms.
Murder in Agonda for Amazon miniTV, 1962: The War in the Hills for Disney+ Hotstar, and PariWar for Disney+ Hotstar are just a few of the titles it has made (Hotstar).
The introduction of video streaming platforms, both international and domestic, has created a slew of new prospects for smaller content creators. Pocket Aces created Little Things for Netflix and Adulting for Amazon miniTV, while The Viral Fever backed successful shows including Kota Factory (Netflix) and Panchayat (Amazon Prime).
Clearly, Arré is up against very serious competition. “Arré isn’t at the top of his game, but he’s gotten a foot in the door.” Foreign streaming platforms are on the lookout for companies that can produce high-quality web originals with movie-like production qualities.
Of course, on smaller or ad-supported platforms, the concern is of getting lost in the shuffle,” said a media expert who did not want to be identified. “We launched in the pre-OTT phase, that is, before the entry of foreign streaming services into India,” said Niyati Merchant, co-founder and chief operating officer of Arré.
“However, the boom in content over the last few years has given us new distribution, syndication, and monetization opportunities,” she added. She explained that as platforms’ appetites for local programming grew, companies like theirs began to produce content, particularly large-format originals.
Merchant stated that the bigger focus will be on building the content studio company over time. The business is currently working on Sharan Kumar, the firm’s co-founder and creative director, said the company is searching for content that represents socio-cultural realities while maintaining its focus on delivering women-centric stories, which they recognised in their first essays.
“There may be overlaps between different formats that we attempt because IPs (intellectual property rights) of all our projects belong to us and many of our future projects are derived from previous work,” Kumar said, adding that the company is now looking at the four southern languages in addition to Hindi.
titles including a teen drama, a situational dark comedy, a political satire, and audio versions of shows like A.I.SHA, Chukyagiri, and Trial By Error, among others, as well as regional adaptations of its shows A.I.SHA and Official Chukyagiri.
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