Endemol India plans to turn Bigg Boss into a movie

It plans to produce 5 Hindi, regional movies a year under film arms Eyedentity Motion Pictures, Logline Productions

Endemol India, a subsidiary of the Netherlands-based, over $1-billion television content  production and distribution house Endemol, is gearing up to transform its popular celebrity reality show Bigg Boss into a feature film for theatrical release, according to chief executive officer and managing director Deepak Dhar.

“The plan is definitely on the cards. The script has already been written and we are in the process of roping in a renowned director. It will be for the Hindi audience but the same script will be translated into regional languages as well. The Bigg Boss film will be ready for release sometime in the middle of the next calendar,” he told Business Standard.

After tasting success with the Kannada version of Big Boss, the company is lining up Monday-to-Sunday, 100-episode Telugu and Tamil versions of the reality show for telecast starting this June, he added.

Endemol India, which has signature properties like Big Boss and Fear Factor-Khatron Ke Khiladi, also intends to bring popular international game show ‘1 Vs 100’ into the country. In ‘1 Vs 100’, each contestant has to take on the audience (all 100 of them) and do whatever is required to eliminate each and everyone of them. Questions are asked to the contestant and the audience, and for each audience member who gives a wrong answer, the contestant’s prize total increases.

“1 Vs 100 will be targeted at both Hindi and regional audience,” Dhar said, adding the company was in the process of introducing Khatron Ke Khiladi, currently on air on Colours channel, to Tamil and Telugu audience by the end of this calendar.

On the upcoming fiction drama television series with Amitabh Bachchan, he said it was in post-production right now. He, however, was reluctant to divulge further details.

Endemol India forayed into Hindi film production with the remake of Malayalam blockbuster Traffic, starring Manoj Bajpai and Jimmy Shergil, under its Eyedentity Motion Pictures banner. It is making its debut in the regional film market with Anaamika, a bilingual (Telugu and Tamil) adaptation of cult Bollywood film Kahaani, which is slated for release on May 1, 2014.

“We intend to have at least five releases under Eyedentity (Hindi) and Logline Productions (regional) banners every year, with a healthy balance between Hindi and regional. We will be playing in the range of Rs 20 crore to Rs 30 crore in terms of budget,” Dhar said, adding they wanted to keep Endemol alive on all possible screens — phones, television and big screen.