Applause Entertainment completes five years, reveals current and upcoming works

Applause Entertainment, a content and IP creation studio backed by the Aditya Birla Group, completes five years. The production house is known for hits like SonyLIV’s Scam 1992: The Harshad Mehta Story (2020) and Undekhi (2020).

Applause's upcoming film slate includes Aparna Sen's award-winning feature The Rapist, which premiered at the Busan Film Festival, Nandita Das's social satire about the Indian food delivery gig economy starring Kapil Sharma and Shahana Goswami tentatively titled Zwigato, and Tahira Kashyap Khurrana’s Sharmaji Ki Beti with Sakshi Tanwar, Divya Dutta and Saiyami Kher.

An exclusive report in Variety.com also revealed that the production house has lined up Saurabh Shukla's Jab Khuli Kitab which is based on the actor-director's play. The Hindi film, starring Pankaj Kapur and Dimple Kapadia, follows the love story of a 70-year-old couple. Kapadia is also part of the Hindi adaptation of the short story Salaam Noni Apa written by her daughter Twinkle Khanna. The directorial debut of ad filmmaker Sonal Dabral, the film is a romance between a Muslim widow and a Hindu yoga teacher.

CEO Sameer Nair said, “The purpose of a storyteller is not to tell you what or how to think and feel, but to give you something to think and feel about. This is what we strive to do.  Building a scalable creative business requires art, science and magic blended with considerable fiscal discipline. As we celebrate our 5-year anniversary today, we feel a deep sense of gratitude towards every single person who helped make our vision to dazzle, disrupt and delight, come alive.”

He continued, “The journey from being ‘Applause Entertainment’ to becoming the ‘House of Applause’ has been a dramatic yet rewarding ride and the love has been definitely worth all the risk. Heading into the future, we are excited to continue telling stories that are intensely local, but also aspire to resonate with diverse audiences across the globe.”

Chief creative officer Deepak Segal shared, “The magic of storytelling comes alive in a powerful blend of creativity, screenplay, direction, photography, dialogue, music and design. It has been an exhilarating and memorable journey producing 40 shows over 5 years and working with the best of creators, filmmakers, platforms across industry.”

Their other films include Shirsha Guha Thakurta’s romantic comedy starring Vidya Balan, Pratik Gandhi, Sendhil Ramamurthy, and Ileana D’Cruz, the Tamil thriller Por Thozhil by first-time filmmaker Vighnesh Raja, starring R Sarathkumar and Ashok Selvan.

The content studio has produced 16 Indian adaptations, eight book-to-screen re-imaginations and 16 originals in the past five years.

Applause is also working on a series on the late Ramakant Achrekar, cricketer Sachin Tendulkar's first coach. Tanaav, the Indian adaptation of the Israeli series Fauda, and Gandhi, a series based on historian Ramachandra Guha's books on the freedom fighter, starring Pratik Gandhi and directed by Hansal Mehta, are already in production.

Chief business officer Prasoon Garg added, “These fabulous five years have been nothing short of a memorable journey, creating shows like Scam 1992, Criminal Justice (2019), Mithya (2022) and more. Contributing in the success of our platform partners, we are even more excited for the years ahead to bring alive new stories and expanding into newer horizons of content creation.”