NEW stories . Baahubali’s Bhallaladeva scouts for content creators

Tollywoodicon Ramanaidu “Rana” Daggubati — best known as the antagonist Bhallaladeva in India’s biggest multi-lingual blockbuster two-parter Baahubali — is now scouting for new content and story-tellers to bring literature back onto various platforms of entertainment.

“Earlier, many a literature-based film was made. Some great littérateurs even contributed as story-screenplay-dialogue writers in films, theatre and other forms of entertainment. It is no longer so.

“Sadly, very few Indian students now even read or opt for literature as a career. This has considerably weakened content in entertainment as well. We are trying to create a talent pool and get literature back into film-making and other forms of entertainment,” Rana, 34, told BusinessLine in a telephonic interview.

“With our newly-formed Literature Team (LIT team) we want to change the way content is perceived, created and treated. We will train more film-makers and writers and help them get their work to the audience. Starting with 10 members in the LIT team, we hope to train more writers and bring experts from various fields to mentor them. We will pitch these stories to production houses and directors, help them set it up and also package it for the audience.”

The two-part Baahubali was based on great content. Its director, S S Rajamouli, had said he was inspired by Amar Chitra Katha comics in his childhood. Children’s iconic magazine Chandamama was also said to have been a source of inspiration in that film.

In three languages

To encourage pooling of good content and promote literature, Rana said that his talent management company, KWAN South Entertainment, is scouting for content creators in three languages: Telugu, Tamil and English. “By March 2019, we hope to set up a team of 30-40 professional content writers in these languages. Also, next year, we will begin work on the Hindi content team as well.”

“To start with, our aim is to make 10-15 Tamil and Telugu films for cinema halls and other platforms every year.” Mythological and heritage literary works can also be used to create content for multiple platforms.

He said KWAN South is focussing on literature, talent and technology to revolutionise content for the entertainment industry. “We are giving our team enough time to set up all-inclusive projects, beginning with the LIT Team’s creation of good content. “Content is the seed of good story-telling.”

In 2016, KWAN Entertainment and Marketing Solutions had set up a joint venture with Rana Daggubati’s Suresh Productions for a specialised division, Kwan South Entertainment, a talent management company headed by Himank Duvvuru. Its objective was to provide a one-stop solution for all stakeholders in the film industry — actors, producers, directors, writers, technicians, etc — and to take care of all the needs of stars, advertisers, brands and media corporations.

The LIT team helps aspiring film-makers and writers develop their ideas into workable scripts that can be taken to producers and actors. Apart from this, regular workshops are conducted by mentors and experts. Along with that, Rana Daggubati will mentor the team and supervise the complete process of taking the right stories to the right place at the right time. KWAN South will rope in experts from various fields to guide them.

Focus on small towns

Top Bollywood film-makers are now going to small towns for fresh content and betting on Southern cinema which offers state-of-the-art visual effects, as in Baahubali . Film-maker Karan Johar was part of the Baahubali project and megastar Amitabh Bachchan apparently regretted that he was not part of it!

Some years ago, eminent poet-writer Javed Akhtar, who co-created with his partner Salim Khan iconic blockbusters like Sholay and Deewar , had also observed that most Indian films recycle 8-10 ‘standardised’ stories every few years as there was a dearth of good content in the industry.

KWAN South will also help marketers and brands to better plan, manage and execute their projects with ease.

KWAN Entertainment is a celebrity and entertainment marketplace which packages 15-20 films every year and has a portfolio of over 1,000 endorsements among other things.