Film Production
Applause Entertainment announces plans to acquire and produce regional content
Mumbai: Aditya Birla Group venture Applause Entertainment plans to foray deep into acquiring and upgrading the regional offerings and aim to have a robust and comprehensive slate of content. The content house will continue to focus on premium dramas for its regional productions.
The content and IP creation studio has been a powerhouse of disruptive and entertaining storytelling since inception. It recently took the internet by storm with back-to-back announcements of upcoming shows including Scam 2003: The Telgi Story, Gandhi and Tanaav. In June, it released three new shows including Udan Patolas on Amazon miniTV, Salt City and Avrodh 2: The Siege Within on Sonyliv.
The second franchise of Scam will feature the story of the 2003 stamp paper scam by Abdul Karim Telgi. Gagan Dev Riar will play the lead as Telgi in Scam 2003: The Telgi Story. Applause Entertainment also announced a biopic on Mahatma Gandhi, based on the writings of historian and author Ramachandra Guha. Pratik Gandhi has been roped in to play the Mahatma. And lastly, the studio announced the multi-starrer Indian adaptation of the hit Israeli series Fauda soon to stream on Sonyliv.
Moreover, after a prestigious win at the Busan International Film Festival, Applause Entertainment’s film “The Rapist”, directed by Aparna Sen will be screened at the London Indian Film Festival.
Film Production
Priyanka Kaur Dhillon joins SVF Entertainment as lead for music distribution
A seasoned content dealmaker with 16 years in digital and satellite media joins the Bengali entertainment powerhouse as it pushes into the pan-India music market
Mumbai: Priyanka Kaur Dhillon has made her move. The content acquisitions and commercials veteran, most recently commercial manager at Sony Pictures Networks India, has joined SVF Entertainment as lead for music distribution, stepping into one of the more interesting briefs in regional entertainment right now.
SVF is no ordinary regional label. Over 30 years it has built a formidable legacy in Bengali cinema and music, driven by culturally resonant storytelling and a catalogue that consistently punches above its weight. Its recent success with Chiraiya underlines the point. But the Kolkata-based powerhouse now has its sights firmly set beyond Bengal, most visibly through Legacy, a rap reality series produced in collaboration with hip-hop label Kalamkaar that signals a deliberate push into the pan-India music ecosystem.
Dhillon brings precisely the kind of muscle SVF needs for that expansion. At Sony Pictures Networks India, she led film acquisition and commercials and handled music licensing across the entire satellite network. Before that, she spent nearly 15 years at Hungama, rising to assistant general manager and leading strategic content licensing for the platform’s digital entertainment business, with a particular focus on international markets. Her label relationships span the full roster: Sony Music, Universal Music, Warner Music, Believe International, Tunecore, The Orchard and a clutch of smaller aggregators. She has negotiated and closed deals with Hollywood studios, Bollywood production houses and regional content players alike, building pricing models and deal structures off data analysis rather than instinct.
Announcing the appointment, Dhillon said she was “thrilled to begin this journey with an iconic Bengali music label and content powerhouse,” adding that SVF’s “constant drive to push boundaries” was what drew her to the role.
SVF has spent three decades proving that regional does not mean limited. With a sharp commercial operator now steering its music distribution, its bid to go national just got a good deal more serious.
