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Tag: Jyoti Deshpande

  • The Viacom18 CEO is first woman executive from media occupying the positio Jyoti Deshpande, Co-Chair of FICCI Media & Entertainment Board

    Jyoti Deshpande is Co-Chair FICCI M&E committee

    By Our Staff

     

    The Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industry (FICCI) has announces the appointment of Jyoti Deshpande, CEO, Viacom 18 Media Pvt. Ltd. as Co-Chair of FICCI Media & Entertainment Board. This reportedly is the first time that a woman executive from media industry has been appointed as one of the office bearers of this very important vertical.

     

    Commenting on the appointment, Arun Chawla, Director General, FICCI said:“FICCI has always been at the forefront of collaborating with various stakeholders across Indian commerce and the government to effect meaningful policy discussions and adoption. Given the very dynamic nature of the Media and Entertainment industry this engagement is crucial for the development of the sector and the allied ecosystems. Jyoti’s experience across the value chain of this industry makes her an apt choice to lead the Committee’s holistic advisory agenda. I look forward to working with her.”

     

    Elaborating on her vision for the industry, Deshpande added: “I feel truly fortunate to be part of an industry that is at the cusp of phenomenal growth, straddling traditional theatres to metaverse and everything in between like television and OTT. I look forward to working with industry captains, custodians of brands that fuel consumption in our economy and the government as we look to leverage the confluence of technology, content and distribution to move the needle rapidly towards the $100 billion industry that we have been aspiring to be for a number of years now. The M&E industry can very much be a true embodiment of the ‘Make in India and Show the World’ mantra and I thank Mr. Sanjiv Mehta and FICCI for offering me this platform to meaningfully collaborate on shaping the future of an industry that I have invested my whole life in and am very passionate about.”

     

  • Jyoti Deshpande appointed as CEO of Viacom18

    Jyoti Deshpande
    Jyoti Deshpande

    By Our Staff

    Viacom18 has announced that Jyoti Deshpande has been appointed as CEO of Viacom18 with immediate effect.

    Deshpande is already serving on the boards of Network18 and investee companies Balaji Telefilms and Saavn Media. In her new assignment, she will help bring synergies across all of Reliance’s media interests and investments and further equip the company to drive significant growth opportunities as the industry embraces digital transformation.

    Deshpande  brings 27-plus years of experience in the media and entertainment business. She joined Reliance Industries in 2018 as President – Media Platform & Content, after having successfully built a leading media company and pioneered its early disruptive entry into the OTT space. As a business leader in Reliance, Jyoti has in the last three years leveraged her industry relationships to establish Jio Studios as a key player in the media value chain.

    Welcoming Deshpande, Adil Zainulbhai, Chairman, Network18 said: “Viacom18 is poised to grow as a truly integrated media company across broadcast, OTT and content studio business spanning general entertainment, movies and sports across languages. Given Jyoti’s rich experience in the media sector around content, distribution and monetisation across traditional and emerging platforms, we believe she is best placed to lead the company and its operations.”

  • RIL has announced joint partnership with Eros India to set up a Rs 1,000 crore (USD150 million) fund to co-produce and consolidate content

    RIL appoints Jyoti Deshpande to head M&E biz, acquires stake in Eros

    By A Correspondent

     

    Reliance Industries Limited and Eros International PLC have announced that RIL, through a subsidiary, has agreed to subscribe to a 5%  equity stake in the NYSE-listed Eros at a price of USD15 per share, which represents an 18% premium to last closing price. The transaction is subject to customary regulatory and other approvals.

     

    Furthermore, RIL and Eros International Media Limited (“Eros India”) announced that they have agreed to partner in India to jointly produce and consolidate content from across India. The parties will equally invest up to Rs 1,000 crores in aggregate (approximately USD150 million) to produce and acquire Indian films and digital originals across all languages.

     

    In addition, it was announced that Ms. Jyoti Deshpande, Group CEO and MD of Eros will be stepping down from her executive role after more than 17 years in Eros and move on to head the Media and Entertainment business at RIL as President of the Chairman’s Office. Deshpande will start her role at RIL from April 2018, but will continue to remain as a Non-Executive Director on the Board of Eros. Mr. Kishore Lulla will resume his position of Group Chairman and CEO of Eros.

     

    In her new role at RIL, Deshpande will lead the company’s initiatives in Media and Entertainment to organically build and grow businesses around the content ecosystem such as Broadcasting, Films, Sports, Music, Digital, Gaming, Animation etc., as well as integrate RIL’s existing media investments such as Viacom and Balaji Telefilms with a view to build, scale and consolidate the fragmented USD 20 billion Indian M&E sector.

     

    Said Mukesh Ambani, Chairman & Managing Director, RIL, in a statement: “We are pleased to join hands with Eros, as it will bring further synergies into our plans, making for a win-win partnership. We are delighted to welcome Ms. Jyoti Deshpande into the Reliance family and believe that she will not only give wings to our plans but also play a pivotal role in transforming the sector.”

     

     

  • India's first franchise label announces an exciting range of films across genres

    Trinity Pictures to start production duties in FY 2017

    By A Correspondent

     

    Leading Indian studio Eros International’s Trinity Pictures is ready with its first slate of films across new and exciting genres. Trinity’s first slate is all about creating character-driven franchises which will be leveraged across feature films, merchandising, digital and more. With a focus on creating fresh concepts in new spaces, Trinity is also the first Bollywood studio in India that has a dedicated in-house team of writers in the ‘Trinity Writers’ Room’ who have created over ten original franchises since the Division’s inception, out of which at least four films will go into production in fiscal year 2017.

     

    Trinity’s initial lineup includes a range of character-driven franchises across budgets, genres and languages – from a live action elephant film, to a kid’s action film and an Indo-China project to name a few. These will be helmed by acclaimed directors from across the country including Kabir Khan, Siddharth Anand, Amole Gupte, Telugu director Krish and popular Tamil director Prabhu Solomon.

     

    The first feature to roll out under Trinity Pictures will be director Amole Gupte’ s film – a kids action film, a big scale action film with a child secret agent at the centre of the story that will go on floor in the summer vacation.

     

    With Trinity’s launch, the studio is looking at expanding new film markets which includes opening of one of the biggest markets in the world – China. Two projects will be co-produced with a leading Chinese studio, based on stories organically weaving the socio-cultural worlds of India and China. Additionally, the films will be shot in both languages. The first Indo-China co-production to roll will be directed by Kabir Khan with A-lister cast from India and China — a human drama exploring the central character’s journey from India to China.

     

    Other projects in the pipe line include a film by Siddharth Anand which will explore a fresh take on the spy genre in India. This genre is a global favourite with franchise potential.

     

    Multiple award winning Tamil director, Prabhu Solomon’s bilingual project will be an inspiration from the hit animal film—Haathi Mere Saathi. The shooting will take place during the monsoons across India and abroad and will be mounted on a scale with never-seen-before visual effects in this genre.

     

    Ace director Krish’s buddy cop film will be shot in Hindi and Tamil simultaneously, featuring popular lead actors from both the South and Bollywood. This film has been co-written by Shridhar Raghavan (mentor to Trinity writers), Dheeraj Rattan and K. Subhash.

     

    Commenting on Trinity plans, Jyoti Deshpande, Group CEO, Eros International said, “With Trinity, we continue our endeavor to raise the bar in revolutionizing Indian cinema. As a leading film studio, we have peaked with three out of the top four and seven out of top fifteen films in Bollywood in 2015 being Eros films. Trinity strategy is all about conceiving breakthrough big content ideas and unlocking value from that intellectual property across various distribution platforms for a very long time. We are excited about the slate under development and hope we will have a few top ten films from Trinity”.

     

    Ajit Thakur, CEO, Trinity Pictures added, “With Trinity, there is an effort to create something absolutely new for the Indian market, an effort in investing in creating characters that open a world of possibilities – films, digital games, comics, merchandise. We have writers for the first time creating characters first and then building scripts and projects around these characters. We are the first studio to have tied up with China for co-productions and will be creating new markets with films shot in multiple languages.  There are many firsts to Trinity and only Eros could have seen the merit in a franchise set up as this and taken the risk of making Trinity Pictures happen. We are very excited that the characters and franchises we are creating will hopefully entertain Indian audiences across platforms and well beyond the first Friday”.

     

  • ErosNow Service to be Integrated & Pre-Bundled onLemax and Le1s smartphones

    Eros Now partners LeEco for video content

    By A Correspondent

     

    Eros International Plc announced a strategic business alliance between ErosNow, its cutting edge digital OTT platform, and LeEco, multinational internet and technology company and one of the largest online video companies in China.

     

    LeEco has launched their flagship super phones,Le Max & Le1s, in the Indian market recently. As their preferred partner, ErosNowwill be integrated within the Le ecosystem of internet enabled smartphones and smart televisions, showcasing ErosNow’sextensive repository of Bollywood films, musicand Originals.Devices will include aone year premiumsubscription to ErosNowservice pre-bundled with the purchase of the phones.

     

    With a focus on maximum user engagement and satisfaction, the Eros Now service will be seamlessly integrated into the user interface of Le devices purchased in India, such that users can always be close to their favorite entertainment.

     

    Jyoti Deshpande, Group CEO & MD Eros International commented, “Content consumption is surging across consumers with patterns changing rapidly and internet entertainment networks becoming increasingly popular. At Eros International, as market leaders in the film business, we have always strived to bring to our users the best of Indian entertainment, offering them the same unified experience across screens and we also believe in being platform agnostic. Our partnership with LeEco is part of our philosophy to provide consumers entertainment whenever and wherever they want it. We are delighted to partner with LeEco who believe in offering an online environment complete with content, devices and applications. When content owners and platforms come together like Eros and LeEco, we provide a compelling consumer proposition. We are confident the LeEco range will be able establish its success in the attractive Indian market bundled with our premium content that consumers will love”.

     

    Tin Mok, CEO APAC, LeEco commented, “We are excited to be entering the attractive and vibrant Indian market and partner with some great companies here like Eros who is a proven market leader in Indian entertainment. We sold 4 million phones in China last year and our target this year is 15 million and we hope to replicate that success in India and wow the Indian consumer with our super phones and televisions packed with features. We are pioneers and innovators in the technology world and creating a seamless ecosystem has worked for us very well in China. We believe the Indian consumer will get great value and user experience from our cool phones at compelling prices with annual subscription of Eros Now built into the price.”