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Optimystix names Rajeev Chaurasia as project head
MUMBAI: After an eight-month sabbatical, Rajeev Chaurasia former MTV India associate director programming has joined Optimystix as project head.
Chaurasir, who formally joined recently, would oversee the next big musical reality show, which will shortly air on Sony.
Besides the current project, he would also supervise other activities at Optimystix like documentaries and short films. The production house is envisaging a foray in the international market too.
At MTV, Chaurasia, reported to Natasha Malhotra, who is presently based in Singapore, and later reported to the present MTV senior vice president, creative and content, Cyrus Oshidar.
His association with Sony dates back to nearly nine years ago, when he had a short stint with the company as manager, business development and strategy and also with SET MAX as head of operations wherein he reported to Kacon Sethi, now chief executive officer at K Sera Sera Productions.
Optimystix has recently dabbled in the reality show format with Sony’s Indian Idol, Star Plus’ Khullja Sim Sim, Nick’s Dum Duma Dum, and an international game show format, Double Dare, to name a few.
Explaining his decision to join a content house after having nine years of association with the broadcasting industry, Chaurasia says, ” I am able to relate to the format shows that have been produced by Optimiystix. Besides, I would like to learn the actual process of content and the creation of shows at the production house.”
According to him, working in a comparatively smaller organisation like this would give him a chance to be more hands-on “unlike in a channel, which is more operational on-air activities.”
MAM
Sameer Nair shares heartfelt note as he exits Applause Entertainment
After nine years building the streamer’s content engine, one of India’s best-known TV men is moving on
MUMBAI: Sameer Nair is out. The chief executive of Applause Entertainment, the content studio backed by Kumar Mangalam Birla’s media empire, has announced his departure after nearly nine years at the helm, closing the chapter on one of Indian entertainment’s more quietly consequential careers.
Nair, who built Applause from the ground up in its current avatar, oversaw a slate that spanned Indian originals and international adaptations, threading together a hub-and-spoke business model that partnered with streaming platforms, broadcasters and production houses alike. The results were uneven, as they always are in content, but the ambition was not.
In a post on LinkedIn, Nair was generous to his outgoing patron. He thanked Birla for being an “inspirational boss and a great patron of the arts,” and signed off with a cheerful “Au Revoir” and a promise to remain Applause’s biggest cheerleader. Whether that sentiment survives the next chapter remains to be seen.
No successor has been named. Applause Entertainment did not immediately comment.
Nair built the machine. Now someone else has to run it — and in a streaming market that is simultaneously consolidating and convulsing, that is no small ask.
