Quaint wooden swings and benches strewn between potted plants dot the terrace that overlooks Dr. Akash Khurana's neat and sleek office in the refurbished building recently christened Nimbus Centre in suburban Mumbai.
Downstairs, the hum of workers giving finishing touches to the post production facilities and studios that will drive a large part of the software house's expansion plans is a constant reminder that Nimbus is growing, and bigger still. But even though the gentle breeze that sways the leaves outside beckon to creativity, Khurana turns his swivel chair the other way, and gets down to the more serious business of running Nimbus. Meet Akash Khurana, scriptwriter, actor, HRD professor and, MD and CEO of Nimbus Communications.
A year after taking charge at the helm, Khurana has eased in well into each of the roles he continues to play with finesse. The promised facilities at Nimbus have almost all come up, Nirvana Television, the subsidiary spun off to service satellite channels is raring to go, and Nimbus' movie division is ready with its first Hindi feature film.
In a chat with indiantelevision.com's Aparna Joshi, Khurana spoke of his experiences of the year gone by, his projections for the growth of Nimbus and his hopes for the television industry.
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How would you trace the growth of Nimbus as a company? It was Nimbus which initiated the practice of adding value to television programming, which can be especially tricky with a state owned channel. The first sign of corporatisation of Doordarshan, as it were, in the area of air time sales, was catalyzed by Nimbus. Then again, on DD, Superhit Muqabla was one instance of milestone programming that we set. All this made us a specialist on advertiser/sponsor led channels.After that, of course, it became a business opportunity for everybody. But even after 15 years, we still dominate the space, in content creation as well as marketing. We will soon have two new shows on DD National Network and given Nimbus' national presence and continuing association with Doordarshan, we are also marketing shows like Hawayein and Shaktimaan on the DD national network. Nimbus is also present on the Trivandrum DD channel with the No. 1 daily soap, Allakal. |
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Does regional television figure high on Nimbus' agenda as well? More recently, Nagamma, a socio-mythological currently in its 3rd year has been among the Top 3 shows on Gemini TV. It was launced on a sunday night slot, which was traditonally considered to be a low viewing and unpopular slot. And the success of Nagamma in Telugu, prompted us to remake the same programme in kannada, which has now been on air for more than 12 weeks and continues to be among the Top 3 shows on Udaya TV. Apart from a major participation through programmes in the South, we have produced programmes for other regional channels as well. We did Indradhanush for Alpha Marathi. And to drive this business forward, we have recently floated a subsidiary Nirvana Television, that would cater to and create programming specially for satellite channels. |
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How has Nirvana Television been active in its sphere of operations? Apart from this, a diverse range of shows are being developed. We are working with some great talent on our new shows, and are looking forward to an association with more creative people in all departments. Developing the comedy genre, in particular, would be a major challenge that we would like to take up. We have already commenced production of a show in this genre. |
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How has the last year been for you? It's been a learning, and a challenge. On the one hand, thus far, I have been perceived as a creative person, or as an HR management person. On the other hand, as CEO, interacting with every division and department in the company, and the wearing of more than one hat, has been an interesting journey for me. I'm sure in the entertainment industry, it's a dream assignment for anyone to combine creative talents with managerial skills, although it does call for effective time and task management, more than anything else. |
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What are Nimbus' plans on the film production front? We are also going to be expanding our international network in a major way in the coming days. We already have a representative in Los Angeles, who is working on alliances with Hollywood studios. Plans are already on to make international feature films. |
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Is the broadcast industry a better place than it was say five years ago? |
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But are channels willing to experiment and innovate? |
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Where will the innovation come from? Are there good concepts and scripts being evolved? |
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Is there a good actors' pool available to the industry to implement the innovative concepts that broadcasters would be willing to try? |
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It was last year that Nimbus launched itself in a new 'lean, mean, keen' avatar. What exactly does it stand for? The word 'mean' in the slogan however, has no negative connotations, but implies that we are as driven as we are passionate about our work. And anyone who delivers on these counts gets immediate rewards and recognition. Recently, we have redefined certain leadership roles in the Nimbus top management: Sunil Manocha, who has had the longest tenure at Nimbus is now Executive Vice President, Television and Sports, Raju Udupa will head air time sales as Vice President, Marketing, and head of production James Rego has been promoted to Vice President, Sports Television. |
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Seasonal businesses like cricket have driven Nimbus' revenues to a major extent. |