India’s Abundantia Entertainment Shares Plans For 2025

Indian star Anil Kapoor in a still from 'Subedar', one of the most-awaited projects coming from ... [+] Abundantia Entertainment.

Amazon Prime Video/Abundantia Entertainment

When they started out in 2013, Abundantia Entertainment was not a name many knew, even in India. However, their films and shows have made quite the noise ever since. The Indian production house is now seeking investors to the tune of $30 million. With Anil Kapoor-starrer action flick Subedar set for a 2025 release, the company has eyes on bigger milestones. In an exclusive interview, founder and CEO of Abundantia Entertainment Vikram Malhotra shares plans for 2025 and more.

It all began with Neeraj Pandey's high-octane espionage thriller Baby in 2015. Kumar's social drama directed by Shree Narayan Singh, Toilet Ek Prem Katha, came next in 2017 and proved Abundantia Entertainment believes in backing unconventional ideas that eventually turn out to be profitable ventures. Their digital debut with Prime Video's India original web show Breathe In The Shadows (2018) featuring Abhishek Bachchan and R Madhavan, was also quite impressive. Abundantia Entertainment is now scouting for investors as they hope to expand and accelerate their content creation worldwide.

Funding for Abundantia Entertainment: Plans and purpose

Responding to reports of his company seeking around $30 million funding, Malhotra says they have been assessing opportunities for a few months. He does not confirm the amount, neither does he deny it. The Abundantia Entertainment founder goes on to talk about the reasons that drove them to scout for more now. "There are three principal reasons why I'm actively looking at capital infusion. First is that it will allow us to bolster our content slate. There are strong ROI markers for the slate that Abundantia Entertainment has delivered. We have substantial relationships with large strategic players, platforms, and studios in the market. The second reason is that the availability of capital within the organization will allow us to improve our financial margins behind these projects. We are not going to shift our model of taking balanced risk to aggressive risk, but we can cherry pick economic models that we build behind our projects with the additional funds."

India's Vikram Malhotra is the founder & CEO of Abundantia Entertainment. He previously headed the ... [+] motion pictures business at Balaji Telefilms and also worked as the COO of Viacom18 Motion Pictures.

Abundantia Entertainment

Citing it as the third reason, Malhotra admits that the funding will also help in scaling up his team, building more creative and production bandwidth within the company. "Especially with an eye to international expansion. I don't mean crossover cinema or shows; I don't mean film or shows that we produce in India and find their market overseas. We're already doing that. I am talking about building an infrastructure and capability that allows Abundantia Entertainment to be an exporter of content. We're already seeing successful examples of how countries like Korea and Israel have become mainstream contributors to digital platforms. There are also examples of theatrical releases that have resonated with audiences across the globe. There is a significant opportunity to take uniquely Indian stories to a global audience that will involve producing and creating in India and for Indian as well as overseas markets."

Expressing hopes for "disproportionate inorganic growth", Malhotra insists the production house is not seeking capital for business "as usual". He reminds us that in an era when a single film has a budget of more than $40 million when headlined by big stars, seeking $30 million may not appear like a big feat. "Funding always needs to be towards organization and capability building in a strategic manner rather than project financing. We are not looking at these funds for slate financing."

Asked about foreign investors, Malhotra says he is not at liberty to disclose details, but confirms that two active conversations are underway, for strategic partnership as well as financial investment. "They're not necessarily mutually exclusive because they tie in purposes for each nature of investor. Abundantia Entertainment is in a bit of a unique position in our peer group - Not only are we independent and non-legacy, but we are also strongly focused from a consumer side on the kind of evolving landscape that's emerging - more streaming focused, more progressive and new-age content. That clubbed with a pretty strong pre-sold slate, could unlock significant value for all parties concerned."

Elaborating on near-future plans for his company, Malhotra says Abundantia Entertainment plans to go in for low-budget films with the number of films going higher even for the digital space. "That additional capital (from the funding that they seek) at hand, will allow us to take these films to theatres. The real upside continues to be in the theatrical business and we are very bullish about it. It will allow us to be selective about what we pre-sell and what we retain. We can be more selective with projects to go risk-free, and those where we'd like some amount of balanced risk."

India and the West

Asked about the difference in content production and consumption in Indian and western markets, Malhotra lists down a few. "Some attributes make the Indian production and consumption scenario very unique to the western world. The first one is that streaming is an extremely new phenomenon here. The dominance has been aggressive from a subscription consumption view in a short period. But really, we are just seven-eight years into it - that's a toddler in the overall life cycle. Once we see consolidation here, and objectives change from subscriber-acquisition to steady state play and engagement, we will see sure-footed growth." He believes it is a major edge that Indian players have over the West where the market is almost plateauing.

"Unlike the West, the cost of access for content is relatively much lower in India. We are not a market where streaming is growing at the cost of television. There may be a shuffle with advertising money and consumer preferences shuffling, but everything is only additive. You have a linear broadcast connection, you are also getting a few apps for on-demand consumption, and you are still going to theatres. That makes India a very unique market. I am not saying there won't be growth at the cost of the other. But, from an aggregate-level view, it's not going to be one versus the other or one of these going into oblivion."

Changing markets

Dwelling upon the changing patterns of cinema viewing in theatres, he says, "I think low-budget, high-impact, and clutter-breaking films are the need of the hour. (Right now,) What we are serving (to the theatrical audience) follows a one-size-fits-all kind of strategy. There are large underserved market segments that have the ability to come to theatres for the same community viewing experience. Abundantia Entertainment is already building a model that looks at theatrical output without the urgent need for significantly high budgets.

Understanding the market

Malhotra reveals they try innovative ways to gauge the audience and understand their preferences. "It is an under-researched industry and unfortunately, that's not changing any soon. We've set up tracks at Abundantia to talk to the audience. When we create content for the younger segments, we don't necessarily read the market from what films and shows they watch. We focus on their attitudes and life preferences. Are they as driven about social issues as their previous generations? They are, probably more than the previous generation. That is an opportunity to tell socially and environmentally responsible stories."

"Look at their relationship with money and material well-being. At Abundantia, we constantly evaluate how cross-demand is working. For example, we evaluate how consumption of food and beverage has a tie-in with the growth of streaming services, their kind of segments and content. We have even done an in-house study on what kind of food people consume when they binge-watch at home. What are the kind of growth areas in terms of food delivery companies. It gives you insights. In many ways, data in a subjective industry can largely only be pointers. This is an industry where majority of consumer choices are made in a split second, just a category away from impulse."

Plans for 2025 and Abundantia Entertainment 2025 slate

"I have always been very proud of the fact that Abundantia has a very determined sensibility that has remained our identity and our identity in many ways across the years. I see us only accelerating that skill, sense, and that sensibility further. We have a very decided focus on genres that are underserved – such as horror, youth-centric, clutter-breaking stories, abd stories that are based on societal insights in and around us. We want to tell these stories in the most compelling and most relevant manner possible."

Abundantia Entertainment has an interesting upcoming slate for the year 2025. The first look teaser of Anil Kapoor-starrer Subedar was unveiled on Tuesday. Several other films and shows, including a business drama by Hansal Mehta, a crime drama by Randeep Jha, and a Palash Vaasvani's film. The skate also includes Bhumi Pednekar's Daldal and Nushrratt Bharruchha's Chhorii 2.