iWorld
Hooq unveils three Asian original productions
MUMBAI: Hooq will be doubling down on local Asian stories, making a bold move into original content across the region.
Hooq will be announcing five all-new Asian originals, adding to its already comprehensive Asian catalogue. These five new projects, which will be announced at APOS this week, from across the region and take the form of three movies, a multi-episode series along with five pilots. The projects also transcend genre with romance, comedy and drama.
“There is a huge thirst for high quality, unique Asian stories, told from an Asian perspective. We aim to satisfy this with Hooq Originals on our platform. These four new Hooq Originals are going to whet your binge-watching appetite for drama, romance and comedies. This is just the beginning of a lot more exciting Asian originals to keep you Hooq’d. We will continue to push boundaries, to evolve and stay committed to delivering unique, compelling and edgy Asian stories to our millions of Hooq customers,” said Hooq chief executive officer Peter Bithos.
These four new original productions come on the back of Hooq and Globe Studios’ first highly anticipated original production On The Job – the pilot of which will now be released as a full-length movie followed by a 5-episode series forming Season 1. Directed by Erik Matti and co-produced with Reality Entertainment, this thrilling drama of crime, deceit and struggles touch scarily close to the hearts of the current underbelly deep in Filipino societal issues. The full-length feature film is slated for release in August 2017 followed six weeks later by the rest of season 1.
‘The T Party’
The second Filipino original production from Hooq, codenamed ‘The T Party’, centres around today’s modern story of finding love on an online dating app aims to delight and entertain with its sexy, steamy yet funny romances. The development of an eight-episode series is now underway with top directors in the romcom genre including Joyce Bernal, as well as Marvin Agustin in his directorial debut. Each episode will revolve around intertwining stories based on finding love (or otherwise) through a popular dating app. It will be, in most ways, an unofficial guide, and a scandalous expose on the merry world of online dating, as navigated by an insider. This series is scheduled to debut exclusively on Hooq in the late 2017.
Marlina the Murderer in Four Acts
Hooq’s first Indonesian original, “Marlina The Murderer in Four Acts” has been selected at the Director’s Fortnight session at the 2017 Cannes Film Festival. Marlina is Hooq’s first venture into Indonesian production. Hooq has chosen to co-produce this film with award-winning Indonesian film- maker Mouly Surya and producers Rama Adi and Fauzan Zidni. The film is a co-production between Cinesurya and Kaninga Pictures, Sasha and Co Production, Astro Shaw, Hooq and Purin Pictures. Marlina tells a story of a young widow of the Indonesian hills of the Island of Sumba. Attacked and robbed by a gang of local men, Marlina exacts revenge on the entire gang. The next day, she commences a journey for justice, empowerment and redemption. But her road is long, especially when the ghost of her headless victim decides to haunt her. This is the first Indonesian film to have been selected at Directors’ Fortnight session and the fourth ever selected in Cannes. Marlina is targeted to hit the big screens towards the end of 2017.
Sweet 20
In partnership with Starvision and CJ Entertainment, directed by Ody C. Harahap, Sweet 20 is an adaptation from a best-selling Korean movie called Miss Granny. This remake of the Korean comedy tells the story of a 70-year old grandmother, Fatmawati who was transported back to her youth as a 20-year old and becomes a star. However an event occurs where she has to make the difficult decision to remain in her new life or return to being a 70-year old in order to save the life of her grandson. Sweet 20 is slated to hit the big screens in Indonesia this June.
The fourth and fifth Hooq Original will be announced later this week during APOS.
iWorld
Tips Music CEO Hari Nair to step down
Girish Taurani and Sushant Dalmia to jointly steer the company as the hunt for a new chief begins
MUMBAI: A leadership shuffle is under way at Tips Music. Hari Nair, the company’s chief executive, will step down on April 30 as the music label begins the search for a successor.
The company said Girish Taurani, executive director, and Sushant Dalmia, chief financial officer, will jointly oversee operations during the transition while the board identifies a permanent replacement.
Nair joined Tips Music in 2023 and set about reshaping the veteran music label into a more digital, data-led enterprise. During his tenure, the company secured licensing and partnership deals with global platforms including Sony Music Publishing and TikTok, while renewing agreements with Warner Music Group.
Drawing on earlier experience in technology and entertainment, including a stint at ByteDance, Nair pushed the organisation towards a performance-driven culture. He built a brand partnerships division and introduced proprietary software systems aimed at strengthening digital distribution and data capabilities.
Kumar Taurani, chairman and managing director, credited Nair with embedding a data-led culture within the company and driving revenue growth in line with shareholder commitments.
In his resignation note, Nair said that after helping transition the label into a modern, digitally focused and process-driven organisation, the time had come to pursue his next leadership challenge.
The leadership change comes as the broader Tips Films group shows signs of financial stabilisation. In the third quarter of FY26 the company reported a net loss of Rs 2.86 crore, narrowing sharply from Rs 14.2 crore in the previous quarter. For the nine months ended December, losses stood at Rs 12.37 crore.
Yet revenue told a more volatile story. Income from operations slid to Rs 4 crore in Q3 FY26 from Rs 56 crore in the preceding quarter, taking total operating income to Rs 4.56 crore.
For a company built on a catalogue of more than 34,000 tracks and decades of Bollywood hits, the next chief will inherit both a digital engine and a volatile music market. The playlist may be familiar, but the next act at Tips Music is only just beginning.
