Gaurav Banerjee doesn’t use the word ‘pivot.’ In an industry where the term is deployed at the slightest strategic twitch, the managing director and CEO of Sony Pictures Networks India (SPNI) reaches for a different vocabulary entirely — one built around conversations: with audiences, with languages, with the country itself.
After 30 years of building one of India’s most recognisable entertainment portfolios, SPNI is now doing something ambitious. The company’s southward expansion — anchored by a new Tamil channel, Sony Vizha — is only part of the story. Banerjee is simultaneously rearchitecting Sony LIV’s streaming identity, reclaiming the disruptive edge of Sony Entertainment Television, and unifying creative teams that once worked in silos.
He talks to The Hollywood Reporter India about running several large conversations at once, and why reclaiming brand presence for Sony Entertainment Television (SET) is crucial.
THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER INDIA: Sony has operated predominantly in Hindi for 30 years. What does the southward move, and Sony Vizha, represent?
GAURAV BANERJEE: We’ve been in this country for 30 years, and we’ve predominantly had a play in Hindi, which only allows you to talk to roughly half of India. We want to talk to all of India. Talking in South Indian languages is strategically important to us. The creative leaps out of the South, particularly in Malayalam cinema in recent years, have been phenomenal. We already have a presence there through Sony LIV, and we want to scale that. We should also be creating content in Tamil and Telugu. We are working hard on figuring out how to approach those languages and what kind of stories we want to tell. Our new Tamil channel, which launches soon, is a start.
THR INDIA: How have you gone about repositioning SPNI’s content strategy across its various brands?
BANERJEE: We worked on defining the positioning of the different brands asking, ‘Why are they important today? Who are their likely consumers, and therefore what kind of content belongs there?’ Look at Sony Sab: most GECs (general entertainment channels) have traditionally had a singular focus on women, but Sony Sab was family-first. That highly differentiated positioning allowed us to create stories that have done well. The channel is much stronger today than it has ever been.
The second part was reclaiming brand presence for SET, which has been a disruptor — but in recent years, the conviction behind doing different things had weakened. We addressed that with a repositioned Indian Idol, newer seasons of KBC and Wheel of Fortune. Ratings are up 30 per cent and no longer dependent on any one show.
On streaming, we wanted Sony LIV’s character to be much sharper. We have well-loved shows, but they used to arrive with very little frequency. We’ve tried to change that. After new seasons of Undekhi and Gullak recently, new seasons of Maharani and Scam will drop soon.
THR INDIA: How is SPNI thinking about broadcast’s role as streaming continues to grow?
BANERJEE: In India, television and streaming both continue to be important. Streaming is gaining, but television remains super important. There are millions of households in this country who watch TV, and that’s critical to us. Those audiences have built our businesses over the last 30 years — we owe them, and we don’t take it lightly that we need to entertain them every night.
Television in India is also affordable, and for many, that affordability is super critical. We are not here only to do a premium play, only to talk to a few million rich — we want to talk to the length and breadth of this country, and for that, TV is still very, very important.
THR INDIA: So, you see a strong future for television, even 10 years from now?
BANERJEE: Of course. We will likely see more aggressive growth on streaming than on TV over the years, and that’s okay. We are not here only to entertain a small, niche segment. We are here to entertain this entire country, if we can. For our content to have that massive footprint, television continues to be the most important medium.
THR INDIA: What’s the hardest creative challenge at SET right now?
BANERJEE: SET is doing a lot better than before, but the challenge is always: How do you give audiences a new way to connect with your shows? SET’s grammar is also different — male audiences matter here. On Indian TV, traditionally, not enough good entertainment has been made for them.
Over 30 years, we’ve had CID, Crime Patrol, Aahat — there’s no reason more of that can’t happen. But cracking it creatively is hard, because not enough of it has been made in the last several years. You have to build the confidence, find the writers, create the right ecosystem. If you want to make a woman-oriented long-running drama, the writers and directors who know what works are right there. That equivalent creative ecosystem for male-skewing content — we’re working on building it.
THR INDIA: Are micro-dramas a space SPNI wants to explore?
BANERJEE: Not right now. We’re aware of the trend, but it’s not in our wheelhouse today. Our sweet spot is that if we get a show right, we get multiple family members to come together and watch it — and there are millions of families who want to do exactly that. That’s a good brief. Once we’ve truly nailed our core, we’ll think about other areas. But we have more than enough to get right first. We are not in a race to be first so much as we’re in a race to be good.
THR INDIA: What’s the creative philosophy behind SonyLIV’s slate?
BANERJEE: The philosophy is simple: when a show drops, people should not be able to easily reach for a comparison. Scam is about the stock market and Harshad Mehta. Maharani is about a woman who never coveted a political chair but finds herself on one. These things have happened — they’re rooted in reality — and yet they haven’t really been explored as entertainment storytelling. That’s broadly where we are, in the market for original stories that don’t have too many reference points.
THR INDIA: What’s next for SonyLIV?
BANERJEE: Beyond new seasons of Undekhi, Gullak, Scam and Maharani, we have new shows and exciting stories in development. There’s an interesting animation project — based on one of India’s most iconic mythic heroes — that we’ve been working on for the last year. Animation is so exciting. We’re also making investments in streaming films. We had the wonderful Gujarati film Lalo, and Sitaare Zameen Par — and there are a few more movies planned for the next six months.