Shemaroo Entertainment has been a company in transition over the last couple of years. Now, the company’s events are pulling in more varied talent and are on the transformation path to be a younger face; it even relaunched a new website last month. The cycle of changes was currently initiated after July 2022 post which Arghya Chakravarty took over the reins.
“Personally, I consider it an achievement to have dramatically changed the face of the organization in terms of leadership at various levels. The company is very different now, not just in the experience and quality of the team but also in diversity and talent,” says Chakravarty, COO, Shemaroo Entertainment.
The first one is the organization restructuring to minimize operations and put related business lines under more effective categories. For example, before, separate lines through YouTube, Facebook, and in other platforms are put under one digital video team. This kind of restructuring extends across all teams.
Second, it has brought in fresh blood into the company. “Of our 12-member executive committee, seven have joined in the last year and a half, bringing fresh perspectives to our 60-year-old company. Alongside longsta? ding members, this ble? nd of experience and new talent is crucial,” he says.
It has also initiated programs like the Shemaroo Leadership Club for building a second layer of leadership. This club involves training and grooming potential future leaders; it has flexible membership which can be refreshed annually.
In addition, the company has initiated several projects to freshen the image of Shemaroo and to give it a youth brand image. This is definitely going to be a new, young, and vibrant website. Brand campaigns are also planned to engage younger consumers through a college campus and engaging with social media touchpoints.
“Our strong presence on platforms such as YouTube, where we are placed in the top rungs in terms of the number of subscribers, gives us an opportunity to project a younger brand,” he says. Transitioning to a B2C focus will allow us to reach consumers more directly. But it is a long process to flash a youthful brand image, and at least one to two years is expected to fulfill our goals,” he says.
This will be a long process in changing the image of a brand to a youthful one, and we hope it will take at least one to two years before we can attain all we want.
Apart from its core syndication and distribution business, Shemaroo operates currently in two large B2C businesses—broadcast and OTT streaming. In its broadcast business, the vision for Chakravarty since he took over has been to have a strong presence in Hindi-speaking markets. It wants to dominate the Free Dish space in HSM and diversifying its channels portfolio.
Currently, Shemaroo runs three Hindi channels, including two GEC channels — Shemaroo Umang, Shemaroo TV — and a youth channel — Chumbak TV — and a Marathi channel — Shemaroo MarathiBana, which recently went pay and is no longer available on Free Dish.
“Our approach, over the next couple of years, will be to solidify these four channels and thereafter look at potential expansions into not only the Hindi but the regional space as well,” he avers.
The broadcast business is yet to become profitable. Chakravarty says he expects break-even in one to two years, but, as the company keeps on introducing new channels, that could get pushed back. He said that it would invest in the broadcast business for at least two to three years more.
“It wouldn’t be right to assess our profitability so far, as we are only two and half years into it. Maybe in five or six years, by which time we will have a stable grid of established channels, then we can assess this venture.”.
Chakravarty stresses on relevance more than profitability. Apart from this, he said, “We are now the second largest player in the Free Dish space for Hindi General Entertainment Channels (GECs), behind Dangal which has been around longer. Our relevance continues to increase, and we aim to be more than just another broadcaster – we want to be significant in the industry.”.
