Applause Entertainment acquires rights to six novels of Jeffrey Archer

Applause Entertainment has acquired the rights to six novels by Jeffrey Archer for adaptation into films and series. The acquisition marks the company's first global fiction book venture

Applause Entertainment, a content and intellectual property (IP) creation studio from the Aditya Birla Group, has acquired the rights to six novels by author Jeffrey Archer to adapt the books into series and films for an undisclosed amount.

 

The six novels include The Clifton Chronicles, Fourth Estate, First Among Equals, The Eleventh Commandment, Sons of Fortune, and Heads You Win, the company announced in a press conference on Monday. This marks Applause Entertainment’s first global fiction book acquisition. The company, which focuses on premium drama series, movies, documentaries, and animation content, will expand its genres with the adaptation of these six books, covering political drama, espionage, media power struggles, and multi-generational family sagas, according to its release.

 

Sameer Nair, Managing Director of Applause Entertainment, which has produced shows like The Hunt: The Rajiv Gandhi Assassination Case, Black Warrant, the Criminal Justice franchise, and the Scam franchise, told Business Standard that work on the six books will begin immediately and simultaneously. Depending on the director and their vision, the books could be adapted into series or films across platforms or other languages, he added. While Nair did not disclose the financial details of the rights for the six books, he noted that they were comparable to international standards. 

 

“It’s an absolute pleasure to collaborate with Sameer Nair and the team at Applause Entertainment. Their passion for storytelling, their body of work, and their global outlook make them the perfect partners to bring my books to screen,” Archer said in a statement. “I’ve always had a deep fondness for India, a nation that has embraced my stories like its own, and as an ardent cricket lover, it’s a country I feel incredibly connected to. I’m thrilled to see my characters and stories take on a new life, across India, and far beyond.”

 

In the press conference, Nair highlighted that the availability of a vast range of content and the streaming boom in India were among the major factors that helped the company collaborate with Archer and adapt his books for audiences across the globe.

 

“Whatever we create, he (Archer) will see some sort of return on that, and he is very interested in how it all plays out (adaptation of Archer’s books). I am hoping that this becomes a long-term deal, and I am hoping that we get to work on his other books as well,” said Nair.

 

Apart from this, the company is focusing on creating series, subsequent parts of its existing series, and movies. Additionally, it is exploring the possibility of building a cartoon animation related to Amar Chitra Katha.