Fiction
Wiip partners with Roy Kapur Films to produce The Anarchy
MUMBAI: William Dalrymple’s best-selling historical book on colonialism The Anarchy: The Relentless Rise of the East India Company is getting an adaptation for the small screen.
Independent production house Wiip has teamed up with India’s Roy Kapur Films to adapt the tome, which traces the rise of The East India Company and the fall of Mughal Empire. The Anarchy was recommended by former US president Barack Obama amongst his top reads in 2019. The book was recently listed as a finalist for the Cundill History Prize 2020, one of the most prestigious awards in the world for non-fiction writing.
Executive producers lined up for the venture are Wiip’s Paul Lee and Mark Roybal, Roy Kapur Films’ Siddharth Roy Kapur and XPat Productions’ Naz Haider and Siva Natarajan. Roy Kapur Films bought the rights to the book earlier in June this year.
Wiip and RKF will bring onboard a diverse international team of writers to create a global series both in scale and quality.
“Siddharth is not only India’s most formidable producer, but he is also a true gentleman. We are beyond thrilled to be partnering with him, along with our good friends at XPat, on The Anarchy. Paul, the Wiip team and I are humbled — and to be honest, slightly terrified — that Dalrymple has entrusted us with his epic masterpiece. There couldn’t be a more opportune moment for adapting The Anarchy into a television event,” said Wiip’s Mark Roybal, as quoted by Variety.
The Walt Disney Company India former MD and current president of the Producers Guild of India Siddharth Roy Kapur produced 2016’s most successful movie Dangal. It was India’s biggest worldwide grosser of all time.
“I believe that stories that are compelling, relevant and authentic have the potential to resonate with audiences across all nationalities and cultures, whichever part of the world those stories may come from. We are delighted to be working with Paul, Mark and their team at Wiip to bring to life this fascinating book and to create what we envision to be the definitive story of the colonization of the Indian sub-continent,” added Roy Kapur.
Dalrymple will act as creative consultant for the show. The Historian-author has penned bestsellers like City of Djinns, White Mughals and In Xanadu.
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.
