Lionsgate Play, a major player in the OTT space in India, has expanded its footprint with Tiger TV, a vertical dedicated to Punjabi and Hindi content. It includes ₹500 crore-plus content IP commitment, 50-plus title premieres in Year One, names like Diljit Dosanjh, Ammy Virk, Gippy Grewal, and more, and the launch of Eklavvya, the platform’s first AI project, which introduces Yug R.Ai, Lionsgate Play’s first AI actor. t2 caught up with Rohit Jain, founder and CEO of Lionsgate Play, to know more.
What is the story behind the launch of Tiger TV?
Over the last six-seven years, we have really enjoyed the journey of Lionsgate Play, especially the razor-sharp focus we have had. There has been a focus on bringing the best of Hollywood to India, largely sticking to action, crime and thriller content. We focused on making sure that we have a certain volume of programming. That was a part of the blueprint I had in mind when I did the management buyout last year.
Over the last one year, we have been working behind the scenes on Tiger TV. It carries the same ethos as Lionsgate Play, but will focus largely on Hindi and Punjabi programming, because it is a combination that covers large parts of the HSM (Hindi-Speaking Market). It is also a combination that allows us tremendous access to some of the key diaspora countries with a predominant Hindi-speaking audience — US, Canada, UK, Australia, New Zealand.... We are looking forward to taking the same template, same rigour of Lionsgate Play into Tiger TV.
Delivering Punjabi content definitely covers a key gap in the market...
Yes. In many ways, Tiger TV is the alter ego of Lionsgate Play. Lionsgate Play has been about bringing the best of the world to India; Tiger TV is about taking the best of India to the world. The focus of Tiger TV is very much on the CDR (comedy-drama-romance) mid segment. I feel that is an underserved space. Punjabi has always been underserved because of a lack of choices. And even in Hindi, if you look at the four choices that are there, over a period of time, each of them has taken on a certain personality content. Like Netflix focuses on large theatrical movies and their originals. Prime Video’s focus is on programming like Mirzapur. JioHotstar serves the youth. In the mid-segment content space, the ‘Bareilly ki Barfi’ world doesn’t have a home. We thought that is an interesting space to focus on and bring in a combination of Hindi and Punjabi content.
What has your research shown with respect to what audiences want from this particular segment?
One of the things that we increasingly find in our research is that there is a difference in consumer behaviour at home and in the theatre. In my view, most of the OTT platforms tend to want to mimic theatre behaviour, which is not the approach that we are following. We believe that OTT and theatres have synergy with each other and they help in cross promotion rather than cannibalisation. But the behaviour pattern is different. We have just announced an Arshad Warsi film, which may not be a big tentpole film for theatre, but it could be the kind of movie people may want to repeat-watch at home. There is also a Shreyas Talpade film... we released a Sanjay Dutt film (Aakhri Sawal) last month. If I have to bring on an analogy, I would say our focus is on comfort food.
Lionsgate Play is the home of Tiger TV, but there is a subscription element to it, right?
In the existing market, it sits in the same platform, but it will have a subscription. It is ₹799 per year. We want to keep it competitive and affordable. In the newer geographies like US, Canada and UK, it will be a standalone app called Tiger TV. Over there, it will be priced at $5.99 per month in their local currencies.
Over the last two years or so, what would you pick as the highlights of the Lionsgate Play journey?
The Lionsgate Play journey each year has been exciting. It is a journey that has also been well oiled for the last seven years. We continue to grow our content pipeline. Our programming grows sharper every year because the (feedback) data we get is so sharp. Our theatrical business is doing very well now. We released Tony (the Anthony Bourdain biopic) recently. Michael (based on the life of Michael Jackson) was a Lionsgate film. We now have Primetime (starring Robert Pattinson) playing.
The platform has its journey of continuing to grow subscribers, but content is finding its own path to monetise across various windows. We are transforming into a media house rather than just an OTT company because we are now very strongly anchored around content, IP accumulation and multi-window ownership.
What are you doing differently from your immediate competition?
In terms of OTTs in India, there are four or five large guys. The second segment probably has seven or eight players that are meaningful. In that segment, we are probably the largest guys in subscription and revenue. We are at about five million paying subscriptions, and with the journey we are undertaking, we are targeting to get to 10 million subs in the next three years.
Ultimately, it comes down to building a sharp content portfolio. The kind of movies and premieres and the exclusive library that we are building holds the key. That is really the heart of the engine. We are looking at building multiple windows, at building fandom... There is a science that goes into it, but at the end of the day, you need to keep funneling in good content.
Who are the dominant consumers of Lionsgate Play in India?
From the data we have seen year after year, Lionsgate Play consumers are largely young and mature adults, in the age group of 25 to 45, with a decent bit of male skew, since the focus is action-crime-thriller. We are looking at multi-generational family audiences, especially with Tiger TV’s focus on comedy-drama-romance. While our content today gets watched in around 3,000 cities, there is clearly more centricity in the top 50 cities. Tiger TV will probably play out stronger in the next segment. So, in that sense, they are kind of complementary to each other, especially in a country which is so multilingual in consumption.
Is there a title on Lionsgate Play whose success really took you by surprise?
A whole bunch of them! On the English side, we did a couple of Jason Statham titles last year. Statham, Gerard Butler, and Keanu Reeves continue to bash opponents, and we just can’t have enough of them! In Hindi, the two spaces that we are really enjoying are family movies and nationalist movies. The Taj Story (starring Paresh Rawal) did very well for us. Theatre was always a great market for Spider-Man and films like that. But a whole new space is emerging for story-driven movies. Two years back, I would not have imagined Tony doing so well in cinemas.
Will you be expanding to include more regional content?
Our focus is clearly major underserved languages. I don’t want to get ahead of myself, but we are already doing homework around what is next on this template. We do have a clear view on what major languages are underrepresented. Right now, the focus will be on building the content lineup for Tiger TV. We have announced some great content, and over the last year, we have been working a lot on AI. We are announcing our first AI actor, Yug R.Ai (in the AI-led original project titled Eklavvya) and also building a roster of AI actors.
Taking off from that, where are you on the AI vs human talent debate? There obviously needs to be a balance somewhere...
I look at AI as a great enabler. In the journey we want to undertake, the scale of content we want to do and the scale of universes that we are making, it was impossible for us to make it in real budgets and shoot them. That is where AI comes in. But that is only on the production side; the process to lead it is entirely creative, driven completely by human talent.
So you basically haven’t let go of humans yet...
In many places, we are doing actual shoots to capture performances, we are using real voices for dubs, and real artists to do background music. Project by project, we will keep toying with different balances. Ultimately, it is a creatively led process by humans and with scale executed by AI.