No matter early monsoon rains disrupting manufacturing schedules and a troublesome exterior environment, Abundantia Leisure CEO Vikram Malhotra stays bullish regarding the Indian leisure panorama — and his agency’s formidable enlargement plans.
Speaking from the models of his latest film “Ma Behan,” starring Madhuri Dixit and Triptii Dimri, which has been capturing by means of unseasonably heavy rains, Malhotra outlines an aggressive improvement approach that options worldwide enlargement, vertical content material materials enchancment, and a strategic fundraising initiative to gasoline the company’s three-year roadmap.
“Whatever the troublesome exterior environment, we’re staying on observe. We’re staying heading in the right direction, and dare I say, really enhancing and bettering on the plan that we’ve set for ourselves,” Malhotra tells Choice.
The momentum comes on the heels of a robust effectivity from “Chhorii 2,” the sequel to Abundantia’s 2021 thriller, which Malhotra says “exceeded its targets” on Prime Video by means of every viewers response and platform effectivity. The success has emboldened the company’s franchise-building ambitions, with Malhotra “presently exploring the potential of a continuation” for “Chhorii 3” with director Vishal Furia.
Abundantia’s robust slate spans plenty of platforms and codecs. “Subedaar,” an action-drama that features Anil Kapoor as a former soldier defending his family, is prepared for Prime Video launch later this yr, moreover starring Radhikka Madan, Saurabh Shukla, and Aditya Rawal. “Daldal,” a thriller sequence starring Bhumi Pednekar as Mumbai DCP Rita Ferreira investigating a cold-blooded killer, can be heading to Prime Video. The company has launched its first set of Netflix duties — a film and sequence that may launch throughout the first two quarters of 2026.
Additional duties in enchancment embody untitled choices from acclaimed directors Randeep Jha (“Kohrra”), Mayank Sharma (“Breathe”), Hansal Mehta (“Rip-off 1992”), Bhav Dhulia (“The Freelancer”), Palash Vaswani (“Gullak”), and Sandeep Modi (“The Night Supervisor”). The slate moreover choices “Daring,” a youth action-drama directed by Madhumita S. starring Arjun Das. The manufacturing house is doubling down on youth-oriented content material materials and genre-specific areas like horror and paranormal, with two productions specializing in youthful audiences set to start out throughout the September and December quarters.
The company can be making a Nirav Modi biopic primarily based totally on Pavan C. Lall’s information “Flawed,” regarding the fugitive diamond service supplier who fled India amid allegations of financial misconduct. Malhotra says they’ve “an excellent, compelling screenplay in place” and are “presently in casting” for the problem, which is ready to use “a fairly fascinating narrative kind” that’s “completely entertaining mainstream” whereas being “appropriately fictionalized.”
Malhotra’s strategic imaginative and prescient extends previous standard long-form content material materials into the shortly rising vertical storytelling market of fast, vertically shot dramas tailored for mobile viewing. Citing China’s $7 billion vertical content material materials market and India’s mobile-first consumption patterns — with 82% of Indian buyers being mobile-first primarily based on PwC statistics — he sees enormous untapped potential.
“The vertical storytelling format market is a really utterly totally different ecosystem,” Malhotra explains. “It’s not merely bite-sized content material materials, nonetheless it’s moreover low involvement, low engagement content material materials, which signifies that the filters to accessing and the benchmarks for satisfaction, delight, exhilaration ranges are very utterly totally different.”
The company is creating “an in-house ecosystem” capable of producing vertical content material materials at “assembly line diploma of performance” with “low value and extreme frequency.” Malhotra notes that worthwhile vertical content material materials genres — romance, romantic drama, tender erotica, and “soapy content material materials” — are “antithetical to what we’re seeing happen on the streaming on-demand side.”
Reverse to Bollywood commerce doom-and-gloom narratives, Malhotra maintains an optimistic outlook on theatrical exhibition, pointing to present successes like “Raid 2” and “Bhool Chuk Maaf” as proof that viewers urge for meals stays sturdy.
“I’ve always maintained that the desire to devour motion pictures in theaters was as extreme, if not higher, than ever sooner than. Merely what was being consumed in theaters had developed and altered,” he says. “There isn’t a floor to how badly a film can perform. Equally, there isn’t any ceiling to how correctly a film can perform.”
The essential factor shift, primarily based on Malhotra, is that audiences now search each “an excellent cinematic experience the place they’re very clear that they’re seeing one factor that they benefit from on the massive show” or “a bunch outing” with family and associates. This has impacted which genres work theatrically, with dramas, thrillers, and mysteries — content material materials that doesn’t require group viewing — migrating to streaming platforms.
Perhaps most ambitiously, Abundantia is getting ready for worldwide enlargement with plans to create content material materials for worldwide audiences previous the Indian diaspora. Malhotra envisions establishing “bases westwards” to entry worldwide experience and create tales with worldwide resonance.
“I’ve always believed that India needs to maneuver from being an importer of content material materials to being an exporter of content material materials,” he said. “There’s no motive why India can’t have the following ‘Squid Sport’ or the following ‘Parasite’ or the following ‘Narcos’ or the following ‘Money Heist.’”
To gasoline these enlargement plans, Abundantia is actively pursuing a fundraising spherical, evaluating every strategic commerce companions and financial patrons. The company at current has a slate value INR5-6 billion ($58-70 million) spanning 2025-2027, with most duties already hooked as much as customers or platform companions.
“Fortunately, Abundantia is at a scale correct now the place enterprise as peculiar will get taken care of by benefit of the character of our work and credentials,” Malhotra notes. The funding would significantly objective scaling up domestically, worldwide enlargement, and accessing “newer codecs and crossover mediums.”
As Abundantia navigates the evolving leisure panorama, Malhotra’s strategy of sustaining creative top quality whereas rising into new codecs and markets positions the company for continued improvement no matter commerce headwinds. With a sturdy slate, strategic partnerships, and worldwide ambitions, the manufacturing house is betting enormous on content material materials that travels — whether or not or not vertically on mobile screens or globally all through borders.
