Fiction
Kolkata TV show producers resume shooting with innovative mechanisms
KOLKATA: Despite having witnessed one of the worst ever cyclones in the recent past, Kolkata resumed TV productions in early June. After months of lockdown causing a financial stress to numerous people, a part of the Tollywood returned to the sets. A number of guidelines now have to be followed while shooting but it has given hope to production house representatives as well as others related to the TV industry that they can work in safe ways.
SVF vice president- television Arabinda Dasgupta says that there wasn’t much difficulty in resuming and even productivity had not gone down. He adds that rigorous sanitisation, regular temperature screenings, protocols of social distancing are being followed diligently. Currently, SVF‘s TV division has five dailies on different channels.
While the mandate is 35 people inside the shooting zone as per the mandate, Dasgupta says that they are voluntarily limiting it to 25 people. Moreover, storylines are twisted to avoid physical proximity. It even carried out workshops with directors, DOPs to adhere to social distancing norms while shooting. However, in the case of unavoidable intimate scenes, the plan is to use mannequins. All shoots outside studios are deliberately being avoided to keep out crowding.
Despite all the extra measures, Dasgupta says that churning out new episodes is not taking more time than usual as it has “a fantastic SOP.”
Susanta Das, who owns a production house Tent Cinema and runs Boyhood Production jointly with Nispal Singh Rane, reflects the same tone. Das, who has serials on all three major broadcasters, says that the stricter norms is not delaying day-to-day affairs but rather making it easier for them to finish on time as now they have to wrap up by 8 pm. He adds that the shooting needed to resume given the large number of people associated with it.
Das reassures that they are using sanitisers, checking the temperature with thermal guns and not allowing anyone to go out of the floor unnecessarily and even forbidding crowding at sets to ensure safety.
However, he shares that the new normal is very unusual as shooting needs many people to work closely together on the floor but they are adhering to new kinds of storytelling to ensure social distancing. They, too, will use mannequins going forward if scripts demand intimacy.
Sudeshna Roy, an actor and producer, says that as the shooting for film and digital original content is yet to resume, they are currently working on post-production. She shares that film shooting is not organised like TV serials and cannot be limited to studios. Hence, it needs robust planning which is being currently worked on.
The West Bengal government issued a notification on 30 May allowing shootings from 1 June with a maximum of 35 people. But due to several complexities, it took some time to finally resume the shootings. There was a stand-off between producers and artists forum regarding insurance which got solved later.
Fiction
Banijay merges with All3Media in $6.65 billion deal
Marco Bassetti will lead the combined company as CEO
PARIS: Six years after acquiring Endemol Shine at the height of the pandemic, Banijay has struck again. The European production heavyweight is merging with All3Media in a deal that will create a television titan with $6.65 billion in revenue and redraw the contours of a fast-consolidating market.
The combined company will trade under the Banijay name and be owned 50 per cent each by Banijay Group and RedBird IMI, which acquired All3Media in 2024. The transaction is expected to close by autumn, subject to regulatory approvals.
Banijay Entertainment CEO Marco Bassetti, will take the top job at the enlarged group. All3Media CEO Jane Turton becomes deputy CEO. RedBird IMI CEO Jeff Zucker will serve as chairman.
The logic is scale. Broadcasters are commissioning less, streamers are tightening budgets and global buyers are fewer but bigger. Against that backdrop, heft matters. The merged entity will generate roughly $6.65 billion in revenues based on 2024 figures, giving it sharper elbows in rights negotiations and deeper pockets for franchise-building.
“Entrepreneurialism, ambition and creativity” remain core to Banijay’s DNA, Bassetti said, flagging plans to invest more heavily in new intellectual property, live events and emerging platforms. Turton struck a similarly bullish note, pointing to All3Media’s journey from a 2003 start-up to a global supplier of hit formats and high-end drama.
Between them, the two groups control a formidable slate. Banijay’s catalogue spans MasterChef, Big Brother, Survivor, Black Mirror, Peaky Blinders and Deal or No Deal. All3Media’s labels include Studio Lambert, producer of The Traitors and Squid Game: The Challenge; Two Brothers, behind The Tourist; and Neal Street, currently producing the forthcoming Beatles biopics directed by Sam Mendes for Sony.
The back catalogue is equally muscular. Banijay Rights holds some 220,000 hours, while All3Media International adds around 35,000 hours, forming one of the industry’s largest libraries.
Banijay, controlled by French entrepreneur Stéphane Courbit and listed in Amsterdam, counts more than 130 production companies across 25 territories. All3Media operates over 40 labels, with strong positions in the UK, US and Germany. The enlarged group will also lean into live entertainment, building on Banijay’s Balich Wonder Studio, which produced the opening ceremony of the Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics, and the Independents.
The deal marks a shift in tone. As recently as October, Bassetti suggested that mergers and acquisitions were not a priority. But the drumbeat of consolidation has grown louder. Mediawan has moved for Peter Chernin’s North Road. David Ellison’s Paramount has agreed to a $110 billion takeover of Warner Bros, with plans to combine HBO Max and Paramount plus. ITV has explored selling its media and entertainment arm to Comcast-owned Sky, though talks have reportedly slowed.
