Only Much Louder Entertainment or OML is adopting a three-pronged approach to split its focus between content production, artiste management and technology for growth. The media and entertainment company, which has produced titles such as “Tathastu” and “Pushpavalli” for Amazon Prime Video, has fiction and non-fiction shows in various stages of development for both OTT platforms and television networks. It also hopes to expand its artiste management roster to actors, comics, chefs and other names associated with the entertainment world.
Besides, it plans to take influencer marketing services of Hypothesis, the AI-driven influencer marketing tool it owns, global. This would mean executing influencer campaigns for brands across the world, and not just in India, exercising the advantage that one team working on a campaign across the world, brings to the table.
“Each of our different businesses are at various stages of development and the flywheel we’ve arrived at now is essentially three buckets: content, artistes and tech. That is going to be our focus for the next five years and even if we build new streams, it will be within this ecosystem,” Tusharr Kumar, chief executive officer at OML, said in an interview. Kumar has worked at the company since 2012 and took charge of the new role this August.
Earlier, OML ran a ticketing and technology platform, Insider.in, which was acquired by Paytm in 2017. In 2021, Nodwin Gaming, Nazara Technologies-owned esports company, acquired the live events, gaming and adjacent IP businesses of OML Entertainment for ₹73 crore.
The company that manages around 90 names, including Zakir Khan, Tanmay Bhat and others, is going slow on onboarding new talent. “We have started signing people from spaces other than we did in the past. Earlier, we would never represent anyone from Bollywood but now we have a Bollywood-adjacent category that includes Shaheen Bhatt and Anshula Kapoor,” Kumar said. While the company currently doesn’t manage sports talent, it develops sports content via other verticals. It managed social media for Mumbai Indians during the IPL and has signed on for two more teams.
OML, which has produced shows such as Comedy Premium League (Netflix), Haq Se Single (Amazon Prime Video) and Better Life Foundation (YouTube), has a new show called “Bandwaale” launching on Prime Video in the next few months. However, the company’s focus shall now be split between fiction and non-fiction content across OTT platforms and TV networks.
“Over the last two years, we’ve doubled down and developed a strong pipeline in terms of both fiction and non-fiction and taken it to the market. Historically, we did a lot of comedy shows, and while that remains part of our pipeline, we’ve diversified. In terms of strategy, what’s working better for OTTs is going with packaged shows, so we’re speaking to actors and directors, packaging before going to pitch,” Kumar said. OML is also looking at co-production deals versus its strategy of only self-producing in the past.
“The OTT industry has taken the last few years to learn what could work, and now realized it’s not about big names or production houses. Now that all mergers and consolidations are nearly at an end, it could get interesting for people who are sitting on our side of the table,” Kumar said. “I believe a lot more rational commissioning decisions will be taken going forward because platforms know what categories are working or what’s driving viewership. So we will see an upward trend of sustainable commissioning and the competition will be more intense because everyone is vying for fewer commissioned spots.”
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