Dharma 2.0 strategy on business growth

Despite being one of the most prolific home-grown production houses, Karan Johar’s Dharma Productions seems to not want to rest on past laurels. With nine directors, access to infrastructure for filming long and short form content, and the aim to lift its business profile, Dharma last year launched a creative output unit called Dharma 2.0, led by director Punit Malhotra. 

This offshoot of the parent production house  develops, executes and produces advertising films for brands across the board. It has worked with Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Jio extensively since the launch of their service last year. And, has been steadily growing its client base over the year. It has done video campaigns (TV and digital) for Jio, Reliance Digital and the current ad campaign by Nirav Modi (jewellery label), featuring Siddharth Malhotra and Priyanka Chopra, Reliance Lyf and Poonawala’s Clean Initiative, among others. 

“As a company primarily in the business of film production and distribution, our biggest strength has been the churning out of great creative content, with high production values. However, we are always looking at ways in which we can diversify our body of work by leveraging our core competencies. As we have the right set of creative minds on board, together with the resources, it was only a matter of time that we diversified into the space of advertising production. Wherein we could leverage our existing strengths to put out good content. It is purely a business-driven initiative that has manifested from Dharma’s vision to grow as a company that produces great content,” says Apoorva Mehta, chief executive at Dharma Productions.

Given the skewed risk-reward ratio that Bollywood is seeing at the box office, it would make sense for a production house to play on its strengths and diversify revenue streams using these. While Dharma has a creative output (distribution) deal with Fox Star Studios and Amazon Prime Video (OTT rights to the Dharma Library, new and old), a lot of the revenue is dependent on footfalls and box office performance. Dharma 2.0 reduces the variables impacting revenue generation. 

Punit Malhotra, who heads this division, has directed movies I Hate Love Stories (2010), Pyar ka the End (2011) and Gori Tere Pyar Mein (2013). His vision for Dharma 2.0 is to be a boutique creative output, with capacities across scripting, casting, production and execution. 

“We understand brands are already working with agencies. We’re fluid in our approach. That is, we will cater to the need to of the client. If their team has an idea, we’ll polish it and make the best ad film based on that. If they only have an idea of what they want to communicate, we’ll develop the idea in-house and present the final product. At Dharma, we have a sense of aesthetic, and brands are realising we can translate that into a 30-second ad film as well,” says Malhotra. 

 Adds Mehta: “What gives us the edge is a very settled team of professionals, who understand their respective roles in the organisation. From a creative standpoint, we have a diverse set of minds, accomplished directors in their respective genres, carrying an extensive body of critically acclaimed work. It is the strengths we are able to draw from the creative side of things that gradually translate into business-oriented results.  In that sense, Dharma 2.0 is definitely a key asset in terms of our business growth.”

While this isn’t the first time a production house is trying its hands at ad film-making, this is the first concerted effort to develop it as a business unit. Yash Raj Films has in the past worked with Chings Noodles for the ‘My Name is Ranveer Ching’ and ‘Ranveer Ching Returns’ campaigns. However, in this case, Singh is a talent managed by YRF’s youth and talent wing. So, it was more a question of maximising resources through a collaboration, and not developing a revenue stream, as Dharma is trying.

Malhotra adds, “While it’s a 20-30 second video that we are shooting, the infrastructure required is similar to a film to get the results we want to give. Being a part of Dharma, we have access to the best of talent and resources. Brands have started to realise that and we’ve done much better than we expected in the first year itself. We had accepted that the first year was going to be about getting ourselves noticed and making an impression. We’ve managed to do that and make some money, too!”  Having five active clients in a year has helped the team achieve its financial targets, he says, and given a boost to its confidence. 

Going forward, Dharma 2.0 will continue what it does, and try to expand its roster of clients. While it has no intention of venturing into the digital fiction content space right now, Malhotra says there is a lot of scope for innovation.