Inspire Films, helmed by the couple Yash Patnaik and Mamta Patnaik is going great guns, and had quite a lot of innovative concepts up its sleeve. Their recent supernatural show Tere Ishq Mein Ghayal on Colors which is high on production values and VFX is the perfect example of differentiated content on TV.
In a candid and exclusive conversation with IWMBuzz.com, Producer Yash Patnaik talks about his new shows on TV and OTT platforms, the plan ahead for the future and much more.
Excerpts:
You are specializing in the genre of supernaturals as content makers. Tell us the secret behind such crisp plots.
As a production house, we have been producing content across all genres. And yes, the supernatural content is an interesting space because it allows you to explore more intense emotions and actions. So yeah, it’s exciting for us, we enjoy doing that.
How easy or tough was it to launch a show like Tere Ishq Mein Ghayal on TV?
It was definitely a challenging task to mount the show of that nature with all its grandeur. But it was a very exciting journey for us. Framing the right cast, setting the right kind of production design, costumes, VFX, and action have all been challenges. I think the most challenging part was the casting. There were so many characters and all characters were very different from each other. From getting the intensity of the characters, and getting the right cast, to having a huge ensemble cast, even the small cameos that we’re doing, have been big experiences. We had a great outdoors, the longest outdoors that has been done for television series. We shot for three weeks outdoors in Mussoorie, Dharamshala, and Dehradun. Another big need to have was an impactful VFX. So yeah, all put together it has been a herculean task, challenging almost at all levels. When you see your episodes, you see your characters, you see the fields, and you feel satisfied.
Tell us about the goals of Inspire Films. What will Beyond Dreams indulge in now?
We started with Beyond Dreams. So Mamta and I started the company in 2007. There were only television and feature films at that point in time. But yeah, with time we realized that there are so many aspects of business and content business. So we needed a company which should focus on only content. So we started Inspire Films with Veera, it was the first production for the banner. All shows that followed after 2012 are produced under Inspire Films. Beyond Dreams is the holding company and Inspire Films is the operational company, but going forward, Inspire will continue to do television and web series. And we’ll explore different formats also within the web series space. We will get into sports content, and produce shoots for various digital and social media platforms. Beyond Dreams will focus on creating assets, because at the end of the day, it is a parent company.
As content makers, is there any genre of show that you aim to create next that will be new for you?
There are two important spaces in content that we’ll be exploring, one being a light drama-like comedy. We have just acquired the rights of Lotpot Comics which has popular characters like Motu Patlu, Sheikh Chilli, Kaka Shri. So far they have been in the comics and animation and targeted at kids, but we’ll be targeting the same with GEC audience. So, that is going to be the one space where family content only produces light-hearted humour. Secondly, we will be venturing into sports content. So, these are the two on the content side. On, OTT, yes, we have read a lot of bestselling novels by some of the biggest novelists in the country. We have some life rights and we have developed some interesting series based on incidents. Some of the famous writers and showrunners are working on those projects. So yeah, it’s going to be good to do new things for us.
As a company, you have been concentrating on TV and the web as of now. Take us through the recent launches and share the experience of what has worked in favour of you?
See, television has been a classical journey, because television has been there. We in fact started very early in the digital age with our own original called Black Coffee. So that was what we had produced for our own band and we had to release it first on YouTube and later on Sony LIV and on various other platforms. Tu Zakhm Hain is one of the first web series for a platform, MX Player, we have produced so far. It has done extremely well. Then there is another project Dear Ishq that we are very happy with. Based on a novel, it was an adaptation of a novel written by Ravinder Singh. Mamta adapted it and wrote it. Both Tu Zakhm Hain and Dear Ishq were created and produced by her. And right now we are talking about a couple of other books that we’re producing for different platforms. Yeah, it’s an exciting OTT journey for us. We have both long forms as well as short forms, big projects as well as mid-size projects in OTT.
How do you think TV and OTT space can take its next step towards bringing differentiated concepts?
OTT will be always more adventurous. Experimenting with content and narrative is key in OTT. Television will try experiments, but it will remain within certain parameters because you cater to the technically classic audience. And they don’t experiment too much. So that way, I think OTT will be more adventurous, but it will give more opportunities for new kinds of storytelling, and it will generate more talent. And also OTT content is timeless, unlike television. When you do a television show, it has an on-air time and an ending time. But once you’re producing something for OTT it stays there. So people can consume it anytime. So when one is making it, one has to keep in mind how relatable it is. So once it’s relatable, then it stays relevant. Yeah, so OTT is generating its own audience now. People who are not watching television or watching the content of OTT, so that’s really interesting.
Tell us about your other new launch Baazi Ishq Ki.
It’s a romance thriller and it’s again, another show created by Mamta and so it’s a thriller which is going to have multiple twists and turns. It has been mounted on a big scale for Dangal. It’s exciting the way people have accepted and loved the show. It’s very exciting for us.
The recent trend of second seasons to successful TV projects has not worked. What is your take on it?
One has to plan multiple seasons. As of now, people are making seasons once the first season becomes a hit. So it’s not organically created. I think as a format if it’s organically designed as a multi-season, the results will be better. So when writing or designing the content, you must know what is the way to proceed in season one and season two. You need to know the journey of the characters and the challenges. There are a lot of second seasons doing well also in the OTT platform like Rocket Boys, Ashram, Mirzapur etc.
