Formulaic and stereotypical content no longer makes the cut for today’s audience. After being exposed to a variety of content, they are now drawn to and demand new ideas. Taking a cue from the audience, Creative Viibe, a production house by noted actress turned producer Tejaswini Pandit and entrepreneur Santosh Kher, has made 2022 their year of giving experimental hits.
For the web, they created a variety of absolutely unique works, including Sai Tamhankar starrer ‘Pondicherry’ a film that was entirely shot on a smartphone and praised for its global level storytelling, along with the recently released "Athang," a never done before, period-horror/thriller web series with an eerie plot. They released Marathi’s cinema's biggest magnum opus "Chandramukhi, in theatres as well as produced "Sunny" a coming-of-age story from a completely different genre that dealt with rarely explored themes. Making a mark in Marathi cinema and OTT landscape, they are gearing up to enter other regional industries and have their eye on Hindi content too.
Read on for excerpts of the interview with Santosh Kher, founder of Creative Viibe where he shares insights on his 2022 hits and what audiences can expect from the production house in 2023.
Q. You gave back-to-back risk-taking concepts despite being a new production house. What was your intention behind this?
We are approaching projects with our intuition and a fearless approach. Our intention is to make a mark and be known for our innovation-first outlook towards stories. We have achieved this to an extent by showcasing our prowess by working with great talent and teams in Marathi cinema.
Q. How do you pick scripts? What makes you believe in a story?
Our focus is on backing unique content that audiences will enjoy watching. It needs to offer something new to the industry as well as the viewer. That being said, we are not running solely behind creativity. Being in the content business, it is important for the projects to have commercial value. This is where we come in, we marry the commercial and creative potential of the project and if fits the bill we back the project. That is a risk we are willing to take.
Q. Why do you think the audience is liking such content?
The audience is saturated with run-of-the-mill content. Today they are exposed to global content and come with high expectations. They can choose from 100 offerings available on OTT, why should they choose us? There needs to be a compelling reason behind it. The audience likes content which gives them a reason to watch. The same applies to cinema. We are catering to a smart audience and they like to see storytellers pushing boundaries.
Q. Where is Creative Viibe headed? What are your upcoming projects?
Creative Viibe is headed towards disrupting the content landscape irrespective of language or medium. We have our eyes on realising the commercial potential of regional industries, giving a platform for talented artists and helping them shine. One of our upcoming projects will be in the Gujarati regional industry and another one will be in the Hindi. Our banner will also release a Marathi movie named ‘Bamboo’, which is a fun take on the science of love for the youth and will be a family entertainer.
