Priyanka Chopra’s Production House To Venture Into Web Series

Bollywood star Priyanka Chopra's production house Purple Pebble Pictures is planning to venture into digital entertainment, says the banner's co-owner and the actress' mother Madhu Chopra, pointing out that it's a result of how the GST is affecting the entertainment business.

“High taxation on entertainment is quite an unfair factor for our audience, filmmakers and theatre owners. The regional film business is getting affected because there are local tax and GST, so double taxes right. Until we are getting more clarity on things, we might just slow down a little. Because at the end of the day, filmmaking is a business,” she added.

Asked if the newly implemented Goods and Services Tax will affect their work, Madhu told IANS: “Yes, it is affecting the whole entertainment business. If the ticket price will go up, the footfall of cine-goers will automatically go down. As a production house, though we have films lined up that are going on the floors and will release in the coming few months, I would say digital is the future.”
"So yes, we will also venture into digital entertainment like web series.”

Purple Pebble Pictures made its debut with the mobile series It’s my City, a sitcom starring four women living in an apartment owned by Chopra. Its next production was Bam Bam Bol Raha Hai Kashi, a Bhojpuri film, and then came to the National-Award winning Marathi film Ventilator, which was released in November 2016.

“Considering the fact that the production house aims to provide a platform for new talent and regional cinema, instead of going by popular Bollywood culture, Chopra admits it is a risky affair but a risk, worth taking,” she said.

Purple Pebble Pictures is working on the Marathi movie Kay Re Rascala, a film set in Sikkim, productions in Konkani, Hindi and Bengali, and a Bengali-Marathi bilingual.

In addition, the increasing popularity of digital media has provided for a paradigm shift in the global advertising spends. Marketers are following the changing trend and increasingly allocating their budget to digital mediums. Spending on digital media as a percentage of total advertising spend is expected to reach 36 per cent by 2020.

The industry has been largely driven by increasing digitisation and higher internet usage over the last decade. The Internet has almost become a mainstream media for entertainment for most of the people. Other big production houses such as Ekta Kapoor’s Balaji Telefilms and Shah Rukh Khan’s Red Chillies Entertainment has stepped into digital space this year.