Banijay Asia has built a strong presence in India’s entertainment industry with adaptations of global formats such as Bigg Boss and MasterChef, while also creating several successful original shows across television and streaming platforms. As the company expands its portfolio with fresh unscripted formats like The Alliance, it is betting on positive storytelling and emotional engagement to redefine reality entertainment.
In an interview with hindustantimes.com, Banijay Asia founder and group CEO Deepak Dhar spoke about balancing international formats with original IPs, how the company tailors global shows for Indian audiences, the response to The Alliance, opportunities in television and OTT, and what viewers can expect from the next season of Bigg Boss.
Excerpts from the interview
Q. Banijay has built its reputation on adapting global formats like Bigg Boss and MasterChef. But Indian audiences also want original ideas. What does the future look like? Are more original concepts in the pipeline?
A. We are bringing a lot of big international formats and IPs into the country, but you must also know that we are the makers of The Kapil Sharma Show on Sony. We do a lot of original programming and original stories. We are also the makers of Bigg Boss.
We have a significant appetite and muscle to produce original content. While formats make a lot of noise, we are equally passionate about bringing original IPs. We have also done Trial by Fire on Netflix, The Great Indian Laughter Challenge, Bombay Begums and several other original IPs. So the length and breadth of what we do traverses from bringing global IPs to also creating a lot of original stories and concepts.
Q. While adapting international formats like Bigg Boss and MasterChef, how do you Indianise them for local audiences?
A. The biggest thing we look for is how we can make the show extremely emotional for Indian audiences. Emotions really carry a show forward.
If you see any of our shows, whether it’s Bigg Boss, MasterChef or our current show The Alliance, emotions are at the centre. With The Alliance, we wanted to explore positive emotions in a reality show.
A lot of people put reality shows in a box and say they are largely negative. But we specialise in creating formats with different emotions. The single-point agenda with The Alliance was to create a reality show that is highly positive.
Even when we are talking about relationships that haven’t worked out, or bromance, friendship or skirmishes, we present them through a positive lens. That’s what people are loving on Amazon Prime Video. There is a breath of fresh air in reality and nonfiction entertainment with The Alliance. We are pushing for different stories and positive emotions across our shows.
Q. The Alliance is quite different from conventional reality shows. It’s more positive, with fewer clashes, and is being compared to shows like Lock Upp. How has the response been? Do you think it’s competing well?
A. I think it’s really outperforming significantly because of the love and traction we are seeing. I don’t think it’s comparable. We are giving viewers something very different, innovative and highly differentiated.
Like I said, it’s a reality show within a very positive framework. People can engage with significant gameplay, skills and heightened emotions, but in an extremely positive way.
It’s a misconception that reality shows have to be negative. We are constantly innovating and bringing a new vocabulary to television and streaming. That has been our biggest success currently.
Q. OTT platforms are pulling back on big-budget unscripted content, while television continues to dominate mass audiences. Where do you see the biggest growth opportunity for reality entertainment?
A. I see significant opportunities on both television and OTT.
India is such a large audience, and we are the only content producers creating content across Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam, Bangla, Marathi and Hindi. Nobody else has the power and muscle to produce across so many languages, and we’ve been doing it for more than 15 years.
For us, India is like the European subcontinent, producing for different languages, geographies, states and audiences. We see significant opportunities on both the linear television side and the streaming side.
Q. What are your plans for the next season of Bigg Boss Hindi? How are you planning to make it bigger than previous seasons?
A. I think all Bigg Boss versions are equally important today and have been for many years.
We produce 800 days of Bigg Boss in a calendar year, which is a significant strength we have demonstrated over many years. We have always treated all language versions on par with Hindi. That’s why all the regional editions have added tremendous value to both our partners and us.
Whether it’s Marathi, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada or Malayalam, all of them are equally important for me. We don’t create regional versions that are any different or lesser than the Hindi version.
Whether it’s Salman Khan, Kichcha Sudeep, Mohanlal, Sourav Ganguly or Jr NTR, you can see the extent of our investment in the Bigg Boss franchise through the hosts, the houses and the overall scale. We don’t treat regional versions as one step below Hindi. They’re on par.
Q. Can you reveal anything about this year’s Bigg Boss Hindi, whether it’s the host, contestants or the format?
A. There are significant innovations happening globally on Big Brother, and we bring many of those innovations into Bigg Boss every year.
You’ll see that reflected in the hosts, the tasks and the house. You’ll have to wait and watch for the next month. Closer to the launch of each language version, we’ll be talking about them individually.
We are at the finishing line of bringing the Bigg Boss universe back, and all 800 days of production are pretty much going to go live now.
Q. Can audiences expect any surprises in this year’s Bigg Boss?
A. Bigg Boss is driven by shock, scale and surprise at all points in time. We don’t pull any punches when it comes to Bigg Boss. We will once again demonstrate why it is by far the biggest reality show and entertainment franchise in the country, living across languages and across seasons.
Q. Across all the reality shows Banijay has produced for Indian audiences, what have you learned about Indian viewers? What is the biggest takeaway about what they enjoy watching?
A. The one takeaway is to unlearn everything that you learn with every season and every show. That is the only guiding principle for us.
We don’t underestimate our audiences. We want to give them something innovative, differentiated and extremely premium.
A case in point is the weekend episodes of Fear Factor, which we launched on Saturday and Sunday. We have taken the action, spectacle and entertainment to a new level, and we’re happy that audiences are going to enjoy it.
Every show has a different and unique persona. Bigg Boss to Raakh and The Night Manager to Alliance, that’s what our creative portfolio looks like every day. One launch is completely different from the other. We have just launched Fear Factor and are already very excited with the response we’re getting.
Q. Photos of contestants getting injured during Fear Factor have gone viral, with some people raising safety concerns and saying the tasks are too brutal. What would you like to say?
A. Not at all. It’s not brutal. There is an element of fear-it’s called Fear Factor for a reason-but it is highly safe. This show is now in its 15th or 16th season.
We don’t shoot it in India. We shoot it at an international location where all the checks, balances, safety procedures and protocols are followed to the absolute maximum.
