Movies
Why Abundantia’s Vikram Malhotra is looking to raise Rs 250 crore in 2025
MUMBAI: It’s had an abundant share of hits. Now Abundantia Entertainment is gearing up to ramp up its slate further and is in the market to raise a nice little treasure chest of money to fund its future film and series projects.
Speaking to moneycontrol.com, its CEO Vikram Malhotra said that he was looking to raise Rs 200-250 crore in the first half of 2025, only one third of the investment of Rs 750 crore he has lined up for movies and series for the company going forward.
Abundantia has been behind some critically acclaimed and commercially successful films like Baby, Airlift, Toilet – Ek Prem Katha, Shakuntala Devi, Sherni, Chhorii, Jalsa, Ram Setu, Sukhee and Sarfira. Its series Breathe which ran into three seasons and Hush Hush which brought yesteryear super stars Juhi Chawla and Ayesha Jhulka onto streaming have got him hungry to do more.
“Out of the 23 titles in development actively at Abundantia right now, the next three years should see an output of 18 of them, starting with six releases in 2025,” he told Moneycontrol. “So far, we’ve had a tremendous five years in terms of creative and financial success and now the plan is to take it to the next level with the infusion of additional capital that allows us to exploit the opportunities that exist in the market.”
Among the titles which are under developed or are on the production floor include: Amazon Prime Video’s Bhoomi Pednekar-starring Suresh Triveni-directed Daldal, the sequel to the 2021 released Chhorii, and the Anil Kapoor-starring Suresh Triveni-directed Subedaar. Many a talent have also been signed up by Abundantia, reveals Malhotra. Among them: Hansal Mehta (the director of the successful Scam series ) who is working on a multi season series, Gullak director Palash Vaswani who’s working on a film, Bhav Dhulia (the director behind Drishyam and Paan Singh Tomar) who’s got a film project as well as Mayank Sharma (he directed Breathe’s three seasons) for a film.
Malhotra has been restructuring Abundantia and has built two verticals within it: psych for horror and paranormal stories and Filters for the young adult segment and is actively developing content under these.
A creative studio called Opening Image has been launched with Suresh Triveni. The idea: focus on creating and developing differentiated content across mediums and aims at being an ecosystem for young writers and directors to flourish under Triveni’s guidance.
This is not the first fund raise Malhotra’s attempting. He initially secured funding from Dalip Pathak’s Callista Capital and Ashok Wadhwa’s RW Media, who he later bought out.
Going by his track record (and despite the mixed response from movie goers that the film industry has been receiving), Malhotra and his Abundantia should get the fund raise through and right – in the first take itself.
Hindi
GUEST COLUMN: Why film libraries & IPs are the new engines of growth
Unlocking value through catalogue strength and IP synergy
MUMBAI:In a media landscape defined by fragmentation, platform proliferation, and ever-evolving audience behavior, the economics of filmmaking are undergoing a fundamental shift. No longer confined to box office performance, a film’s true value is now measured across an extended lifecycle that spans digital platforms, syndication networks, and global markets. As content consumption becomes increasingly non-linear and algorithm-driven, film libraries and intellectual properties (IPs) are emerging as strategic assets, capable of delivering sustained, long-term returns. For Mohan Gopinath, head – bollywood business at Shemaroo Entertainment Ltd., this transformation signals a decisive move from hit-driven models to portfolio-led value creation. In this piece, Gopinath explores how legacy content, when intelligently repurposed and distributed, can unlock recurring revenue streams, why the interplay between catalogue and original IP is critical, and how media companies can build resilient, future-ready entertainment businesses.
For all these years, we thought that a film is successful if it performs well in theatres. There are opening weekend numbers, box office milestones, and distribution footprints that gave a good picture of how the movie has done commercially and also tell us about its cultural impact. However, there are multiple platforms today, always-on content ecosystem, which has caused a shift. Today, the theatrical performance is not the culmination of a film’s journey but merely the beginning of a much longer and more dynamic lifecycle.
Film libraries today are emerging as high-value, constantly evolving assets that deliver sustained returns well beyond initial release cycles. This becomes a point of great advantage for legacy content owners with diverse catalogues, to shape long-term business outcomes.
According to FICCI-EY, the media and entertainment industry of India achieved a valuation of Rs 2.78 trillion in 2025 which is expected to reach Rs 3.3 trillion by 2028 through a compound annual growth rate of approximately 7 per cent and digital media will bring in more than Rs 1 trillion to become the biggest sector which generates about 36 per cent of overall market revenues.
This shift is the expansion of distribution endpoints. We know how satellite television was once the primary secondary window but today, it coexists with YouTube, OTT platforms, Connected TV, and FAST channels. Each of these platforms caters to distinct audience demographics and consumption behaviors, helping content owners to obtain more value from the same asset across multiple formats.
For instance, films that had great reruns, now find continuous engagement across digital platforms. On YouTube, classic Hindi cinema continues to attract significant viewership, reaching audiences across generations and geographies with remarkable consistency. At Shemaroo Entertainment, this is reflected in our film library shaped over decades as part of a long association with Indian entertainment. From classics such as Amar Akbar Anthony to much-loved entertainers like Jab We Met, Welcome, Dhamaal, Phir Hera Pheri, Dhol, Golmaal, and Bhagam Bhag, many of these titles continue finding new audiences while retaining their place in popular memory. Their enduring appeal reflects how culturally resonant stories can continue creating value over time. Similarly, FAST channels have created curated, always-on environments where catalogue content can continue to thrive through star-led and genre-based programming.
This multi-platform approach has very well transformed films into long-tail IP assets which are capable of generating recurring revenue across advertising, subscription, and syndication models.
The evolution of audience behavior is equally important. Nowadays, it’s more important to find what’s more relative than what’s recent as viewers are more influenced by mood, memories, and algorithmic suggestions than by release schedules. Even if a movie was released decades ago, it can trend alongside a newly released movie, if surfaced in the right context. Thoughtful packaging, whether through festival-based playlists, actor-driven collections, or genre clusters, allows catalogue content to remain dynamic and continuously discoverable. Shemaroo Entertainment has built extensive film libraries over decades and its focus has mostly been on recontextualizing content for the consumption of newer environments. This process doesn’t just include digitization and restoration, but also re-packaging of films as per platforms.
Syndication itself has evolved into a key growth driver. In perspective, when looking at the domestic market, curated content packages continue to find strong demand across broadcast and digital platforms. Meanwhile, in the international market, especially in markets like Middle East, North America and Southeast Asia, the appetite for Indian content is opening up new monetization avenues. Here, the ability to package and position catalogue content effectively becomes as important as the content itself.
Importantly, the need to re-package catalogue content does not diminish the role of new content. In fact, originals and fresh IP are essential to sustaining the long-term value of a film library because they act as discovery engines that bring audiences into the ecosystem, while catalogue content drives depth, retention, and repeat engagement.
This interplay between the “new” and the “known” is what defines a robust content strategy today. While new films generate spikes in consumption, catalogue titles offer familiarity and comfort. These are factors that are increasingly valuable in an era of content abundance and decision fatigue. This is also shaping our strategy, drawing value from both a deep catalogue assets and a growing focus on original IPs to strengthen long-term audience engagement and build more predictable revenue streams.
There is growing recognition that long-term value in entertainment will be shaped not only by how intelligently existing content continues to live, travel and find relevance, but also by how consistently new stories are created to renew that ecosystem. In that sense, film libraries and original IP are not parallel bets, but reinforcing engines of growth. For media companies, the opportunity lies in making these two forces work together, because that is increasingly where more resilient and predictable businesses are being shaped.
Note: The views expressed in this article are solely the author’s and do not necessarily reflect our own.
