‘Rana Naidu’ Producer Locomotive Global Expands Slate Through Pacts With All3Media, Endemol Shine India
EXCLUSIVE: Currently riding high on the success of Netflix series Rana Naidu, Indian production outfit Locomotive Global is building out its slate through a string of deals with companies including All3Media and Endemol Shine India.
Rana Naidu, an Indian adaptation of Ray Donovan starring Rana Daggubati and Venkatesh Daggubati, has recently been greenlit for a second season by Netflix after the first season trended in its Global Top 10.
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Sunder Aaron’s Locomotive Global, a subsidiary of Chicken Soup for the Soul Entertainment, developed and produced the series and has now added further scripted and unscripted adaptations to its fast-growing slate, along with original stories with filmmakers such as Prashant Nair.
Among the new titles, the company has signed a deal with All3Media to bring an adaptation of popular unscripted series Undercover Boss to India. It’s also acquired rights to UK series I’ve Created A Monster, written by Terry Clark, through a deal with indie Chudor Entertainment.
Locomotive Global is also working with Endemol Shine India to co-produce Mountain Dark, written and directed by Nair, whose recent credits include award-winning film Umrika and critically-acclaimed Netflix series Trial By Fire.
Currently in development, Mountain Dark is an original story described as an “Indo-Western thriller set in the foothills of the Himalayas.”
Working with Sidharth Jain’s House Of Talkies, Locomotive Global is also developing TV Town, a series about the early days of the cable TV industry in India, a time when the country shrugged off decades of isolationism and liberalized its media landscape, culture and economy.
The company has secured rights to non-fiction book The Making of Star India, written by Vanita Kohli Khandekar, which will be used as the basis for the series.
As revealed by Deadline last year, Locomotive Global is also working with India’s Applause Entertainment and Simon Mirren and Ben Anderson’s Case Closed Entertainment to produce a high-end procedural series for India. Mirren previously created series including Spooks, Versailles and Without A Trace and was the showrunner on Criminal Minds.
Elsewhere, Locomotive Global has also started to develop a slate of South Indian-language projects, including Tamil-language series Pallavapuram and Malayalam-language film Chelambara, which tells the true story of a bank heist. The company says it is also developing a slate of genre films for the mainstream Indian market, as they tend to be cost-effective.
“The market for original content in India has rapidly grown over the past several years, especially as streaming services like Netflix are heavily investing in scaling their services,” said Aaron, Managing Partner of Locomotive Global.
“We are well positioned to take advantage of this surge in demand for content by creating projects that are unique and draw large audiences. We’re delighted our series Rana Naidu has received a second season green light from Netflix, and to see how massive a hit it has become.”
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