MUMBAI: At Ficci Frames’ silver jubilee edition, a candid panel discussion between Applause Entertainment managing director Sameer Nair and India Today senior editor and anchor Akshita Nandagopal, brought the house down with humour, insight and a healthy dose of industry nostalgia.

Moderating the fireside chat ‘Scaling stories, earning applause,’ Nandagopal kicked off by asking if Applause Entertainment had cracked the “OTT code,” given its slate of acclaimed shows like Criminal Justice (2019-present), The Hunt (2025) and Black Warrant (2025).

Nair brushed off the idea of any secret formula. “Storytelling is a difficult enterprise,” he said. “You put in all the hard work and finally show it to an audience, sometimes they love it, sometimes they don’t. What we try to do is tell stories that feel real, even if they entertain first.”

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Citing his fondness for contemporary history, Nair explained how Applause often draws inspiration from real people and events, and banks on the entertainment factor. Black Warrant, he pointed out, isn’t about the dark underbelly of the Tihar Jail and the inmates as much as it is about “three young people on their first day at work; only, their workplace happens to be the Tihar Jail.” The company’s celebrated Criminal Justice series, meanwhile, has gone far beyond its British and American counterparts. “By the fourth season, we weren’t adapting anymore. We were living in the world of Madhav Mishra,” he said with a grin.

Continuing the conversation on creativity in Indian storytelling, Nandagopal asked Nair, “Creativity is always a buzzword, but sometimes it feels boxed in a certain way. You can’t talk about uncomfortable topics; you have to be mindful of controversy and what entertains an Indian audience. Do you think creativity is constrained like that?”

Amusedly, Nair interjected, noting that this isn’t unique to India. “In the eight years we’ve been doing this, we haven’t really got into much trouble, so we must be doing something right. We don’t have an agenda; we’re telling stories that make you think, but not what to think. We find compelling characters, research their worlds, and present their stories as balanced and entertaining as possible. They are people like you and me.”

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He brought up The Hunt as an example, which begins with the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi but quickly transitions into a police procedural. “It’s not about politics; it’s about crime and justice… In the process, you get to know the characters. There’s one scene where Sivarasan, the one-eyed LTTE mastermind, sits in a theater watching a Rajnikanth film. We loved putting that in, it humanises him without glorifying anything.”

When Nandagopal brought up the theme of change, both broadly and through the lens of content, Nair noted how some formats have stood the test of time. “KBC is a classic because it has a great format and Mr. Bachchan,” he said, crediting both star power and familiarity for its relic appeal. “Audiences talk about change all the time, but they also love familiarity. Sometimes you don’t want a murder mystery; you just want to relax.” To which, Nandagopal nodded and said, ‘It’s a comfort watch. A lot of us do that. We’ve been watching a lot of the classics that we’ve seen before. Knowing that that’s something that’s predictable. We know what we’re expecting there. And yet we love to watch it.

Looking back at the first Ficci Frames two decades ago, Nair painted a vivid picture of how dramatically the industry had evolved. “In 2005, television ruled everything. There was no Facebook, Twitter or Youtube, even the iphone didn’t exist. By 2015, digital platforms had become the barbarians at the gate. Now, in 2025, we’re minor players compared to Netflix, Youtube and social media. And just as we adjusted to that, AI arrived.”

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The conversation soon turned to the elephant in every creator’s room: will AI replace creativity or enhance it? Nair’s reply was measured. “AI will be a great tool if it can create that suspension of disbelief,” he said. “When you see a dinosaur chasing you in Jurassic Park, you believe it. If AI can make you believe without breaking the illusion, it’s magic. But if it looks fake, we might as well be watching animation.”

He added that AI, much like earlier leaps in filmmaking, from special effects to computer graphics, would revolutionise the process but not erase human creativity. “Even an AI actor needs direction, a script and a story,” he said. “If machines create everything end to end, without human emotion, we’ll just be watching something intelligent but soulless. We must use it wisely.”

As the conversation veered back to Applause’s future, Nair revealed that the company has recently acquired the rights to Jeffrey Archer’s books and has a robust slate of upcoming projects. Upcoming projects include new seasons of Criminal Justice and Black Warrant, the next installment of the Scam franchise, and a Tamil feature Bison directed by Tamil director and screenwriter Mari Selvaraj. He also teased Gandhi, a three-season epic inspired by Indian historian and author Ramachandra Guha’s books. “It’s not about Gandhi,” Nair chuckled and said, “it’s about Mohandas before he became the Mahatma: an 18-year-old who goes to college in London, and does all the standard things that rebellious teenagers do.”

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For Nair, storytelling remains deeply human: an approach that has shaped Applause Entertainment’s diverse slate, from thrillers rooted in true events to expansive biographical dramas.

In a world where algorithms and art are learning to coexist, it’s a fitting reminder that great storytelling, no matter the medium, will always find its audience.

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