Film Production
Nandini Singh: bridging the worlds of Indian and Korean entertainment
MUMBAI: Veteran television executive Nandini Singh is burning the midnight oil these days, but not just for business. As executive consultant at CJ ENM, South Korea’s entertainment powerhouse, Singh is not only driving market expansion in India but also mastering the intricacies of the Korean language. Guided by her dedicated colleague and boss, Seb Dohyun Kim, she engages in late-night lessons in Hangul, fully immersing herself in the cultural world she now represents.
Her new role is a dream come true.
“From K-drama to more K-drama!” she exclaims. “Joining CJ ENM was like stepping into my dream Korean drama company.”
Singh’s position at the global entertainment giant places her at the forefront of bridging the gap between two entertainment-loving nations, introducing Korean storytelling to Indian audiences on a grand scale. Beyond television, she is embracing all aspects of Korean culture—content, cosmetics, cuisine, and K-pop—bringing a new wave of Hallyu to India.
Singh’s illustrious career spans over two decades, during which she has played a pivotal role in shaping India’s television landscape. Before joining CJ ENM in August 2024, she spent 18 years at Disney Star, where she held several leadership roles.
As general manager, she spearheaded a remarkable turnaround for a regional channel Star Pravah in Maharashtra, increasing its market share from 13 per cent to 52 per cent and driving revenue growth sixfold.
In 2018, she led the launch of Star Bharat, Disney Star’s first free-to-air channel, crafting a brand identity rooted in national pride. The channel quickly became a household name, establishing itself as India’s leading urban and rural entertainment brand within just eight months.
Her tenure at Disney Star also saw her driving the growth of a portfolio of six English-language channels, overseeing sales, marketing, content acquisition, and partnerships with Hollywood studios. As Business Head of Star Movies, she launched the premium offering Star Movies Select HD in 2015, targeting India’s top-tier households and redefining Hollywood content consumption in the country.
Earlier in her career, Singh played a crucial role in programming strategy for Star Plus, aligning sales, acquisition, marketing, and communication to relaunch the brand in 2010. Her strategic approach to slot management boosted non-original programming viewership by 40 per cent, earning her the prestigious ‘Star Achiever’ award that year.
Her expertise extends to advertising sales, where, as Vice President of Sales, she developed long-tail sales strategies for regional channels, bringing in 40 new clients from sectors including FMCG, education, and real estate. She also pioneered ‘Star Scribble,’ an online sales training programme, which achieved a 99 per cent completion rate among participants.
Now at CJ ENM, Singh is leveraging her extensive experience to drive market expansion and business development in India. Her deep understanding of consumer behaviour, honed through years of research and media planning at Mindshare and Disney Star, positions her perfectly to bridge the gap between Korean content and Indian audiences.
Her transition from Indian dramas to Hallyu appears seamless, given her track record in handling diverse entertainment markets. Singh’s success in managing English-language channels catering to India’s elite households has given her a unique ability to make foreign content relatable to Indian audiences—a skill that will prove invaluable in her new role.
The perks of her position extend beyond just television content. “The best part is getting access to all things Korean—content, cosmetics, food, K-pop,” Singh shares, highlighting the cultural immersion that comes with the job.
As she embarks on this exciting journey, Singh remains committed to her mission of making high-quality Korean entertainment accessible to a wider Indian audience. With late-night language lessons and a growing passion for Korean culture, she is not just working to bring K-dramas to India—she is fully embracing the world of K-content herself.
Her late-night Korean language sessions with Kim symbolise a broader shift in global media consumption patterns, where cultural boundaries are increasingly blurred, and Asian content continues its march onto the world stage.
Film Production
Arka Mediaworks onboards 88 Pictures as animation studio partner on ‘The Eternal War – Part 1’
Arka Mediaworks announces that 88 Pictures, the acclaimed animation and visual storytelling studio known for its cutting-edge CGI and cinematic artistry, is on board as the animation partner for the highly anticipated Baahubali: The Eternal War, a groundbreaking two-part 3D animated feature film set in the globally beloved Baahubali universe.
Baahubali: The Eternal War represents a bold new chapter in the Baahubali saga envisioned for national and international audiences and crafted with the ambition of delivering one of India’s most ambitious and globally benchmarked animation projects to date.
88 Pictures will execute the animation production, bringing to life the film’s richly detailed worlds, epic battle sequences, and larger-than-life characters with its signature blend of artistic vision, performance-driven animation, and advanced production pipelines. Working closely with the film’s creative leadership and technical partners, the studio aims to set new benchmarks in animation quality, cinematic storytelling, and global scalability.
This animated epic follows the successful re-release of Baahubali: The Epic (the combined theatrical version of the original live-action films) on 31 October 2025 across India and the USA. During the film’s interval, legendary creator and director S.S. Rajamouli (Baahubali 1 & 2, RRR) stunned audiences with a surprise teaser for The Eternal War – Part 1. The video immediately went viral, garnering widespread national and international acclaim across LinkedIn, Instagram, and YouTube for its ambitious visual style and scale.
Produced by Arka Mediaworks and led by co-founder and CEO Shobu Yarlagadda – producer of the iconic Baahubali duology, The Eternal War brings together fantastic storytelling and cutting-edge animation.. The film is directed and written by acclaimed animation filmmaker Ishan Shukla (Schirkoa: In Lies We Trust, Star Wars: Visions – “The Bandits of Golak”) and screenplay by Scott Mosier (The Grinch). Mihira Visual Labs, the studio co-founded by Yarlagadda anchors the film’s animation, visual development, and execution.
The partnership with 88 Pictures brings significant pedigree to the project; the studio is well-regarded for its work on high-profile international titles including DreamWorks’ series Trollhunters, the HBO Max original series Gremlins: Secrets of the Mogwai, Disney’s animated short An Almost Christmas Story to name a few.
Yarlagadda shared, “We are happy to onboard 88 Pictures as the animation studio partner for our prestigious and most expensive animated film from India. We believe that their expertise and capabilities will allow us to produce a first-of-its-kind, world-class animated feature film from India.”
88 Pictures founder & CEO Milind D. Shinde said, “Baahubali changed the way cinema is perceived and became a defining milestone that turned the tide for Indian live-action filmmaking. Expanding the franchise into an entirely new universe—at a never-seen, never-done scale—through an animated feature created in India for a global audience is set to redefine how the world views Indian animation. We are truly thrilled to be part of this landmark project and to bring it to life under the visionary direction of Ishan Shukla, guided by the experience and leadership of acclaimed producer Shobu Yarlagadda.”
Shukla expressed, “Eternal War requires a level of visual and emotional precision that can only come from teams who truly understand both craft and intent. Working with 88 Pictures, alongside Mihira Visual Labs, has been a deeply collaborative experience. This association brings together technical excellence and creative sensitivity, enabling us to translate an ambitious vision into a compelling cinematic reality.”
Baahubali: The Eternal War – Part 1 is scheduled for release in 2027
