Viewpoints: acquisitions strategies

Kamal Punwani
Director Europe
Carving Dreams Entertainment
India

What are your acquisition strategies?

Carving Dreams Entertainment has recently set up its Television production division - currently, we are working on production and on-ground management of celebrity based shows for television broadcasters in India.  We have already produced a couple of shows for a big television broadcaster in India and discussions are on for a few other programs.

We have not yet started acquiring programs - in future, we are looking to acquire reality based formats which have a celebrity host or other formats around film and celebrities. 

What genres are you looking for?

Reality based formats with a celebrity host, other formats around film / celebrities and going forward non-fiction programming around travel, fashion and arts.  Non-fiction programming is expected to become quite big in India with the advent of Direct to Home television and niche television channels like food, weddings, lifestyle etc coming up. 

Given that celebrities are at the core of Carving Dreams' activities, a branch out into celebrity based programming for TV is a logical extension to our business.  Any international formats around celebrities would be very interesting for us. 

Can you give us several titles of domestic and international products that you acquired this year?

We have recently set up our television production division and not yet acquired any programs.  We expect acquisitions to commence some time next year. 

How many hours of programming will you acquire this year?

As mentioned, we expect acquisitions to commence next year - we would be looking at 2 to 3 programs with an average of 30 to 35 episodes. 

Products from what countries are important for you?

US, Middle East and Latin America.  Middle East and Latin American formats could be really interesting for us as the cultures and the kind of emotions that work in these markets are quite similar.