Rakesh Vasani, director of Content Acqusitions, and Jimmy George, co-founde of GoQuest Media, spoke to ttvnews at Mipcom about the company’s latest initiatives in terms of content acquisitions and distribution, both aimed at growing a varied catalog that’s suitable for all audiences and platforms.
*with production by Mónica Iriarte, from Cannes, France
As the new reality has set in after the global pandemic, a few trends stand out in the global market in terms of content and entertainment, mainly audiences’ demand for lighter titles that provide and outlet from everyday life.
Aware of the latest trends and with the goal of putting together an offer that’s as varied and adaptable as possible, GoQuest Media was present at this year’s Mipcom in Cannes, to showcase the latest additions to its catalog and search for new productions with potential to travel the globe.
“This year has been a ver good Mipcom,” said Rakesh Vasani, director of Content Acqusitions. “We’ve met a lot of people from across the globe, seen a lot of opportunities, met all our partners here. And we are hoping to make new partners as well. Because we’ve seen a lot of content that presents opportunities,” he added.
In this regard, the executive explained that when it comes to the current demand for content, it’s all about lighter dramas, as well as variety in terms of genres and selections.
“Post-pandemic there’s been a shift in the kind of content the market is looking at,” he explained. “Lighter dramas, so that’s the kind of content we’ll be looking at. Fortunately GoQuest has always had a very varied catalog. It’s not something new for us. Now as we go ahead, it’s going to be more about looking at a diverse catalog and something that will be interesting for all the markets that we are aiming for in terms of distribution.”
“From a Mipcom perspective, what we’ve seen is romance, family, crime… these are fool-proof genres,” added Jimmy George, co-founder of GoQuest Media. “Something like a light-crime genre with romance and a procedural mixture is interesting for audiences. Still, I don’t believe there’s only one thing the market wants; there are several genres working at the moment.”
Reinforcing this motto of offering a diverse slate, GoQuest presented several new titles at this year’s market in Cannes, starting with Troll Farm. “Troll Farm is a very interesting and relevant title. We seldom find shows which can combine technology very well,” George highlighted. “It’s a five episode entertainment series about a female protagonist who is wronged by a corporation and how she uses AI to get revenge from all these corporations.”
“You know how popular AI is today, so getting a series with a female protagonist and AI together, it’s the right combination. And it’s coming from Lithuania, which started producing very interesting shows. This is something to watch out for for a lot of platforms.”
The distributor is also two crime dramas: Erinyes, which is based on the crime novels by writer Marek Krajewski and set on in pre- and post-war Lviv and Wrocław, following Edward Popielski, a detective inspector of extraordinary intellect and physical strength who is tormented by visions caused by epilepsy attacks, which he uses to his advantage in investigations. And Crusade, a contemporary police procedural drama. The suspenseful action series focuses on the investigations conducted by Detective Jan ‘Manjaro’ Góra and his colleagues from the Crime and Criminal Terror Division of the Warsaw Metropolitan Police.
“Erinyes and Crusade have seen interest from various parts of the world and we are in talks to close more, so probably after Mipcom we’ll be able to share more news about new deals,” said George. “Both titles are seeing a lot of interest especially because it’s crime and they belong to different time periods. One which transports you to 1930s Poland and Crusade, which is very hard-core action. So we are excited about both these titles.”
The co-founder also highlighted long-running series Sacrificiul, “a very strong family and romance genre, which is something we think can work a lot for TV and digital platforms.” Sacrificiul is the extraordinary story of three sisters who were separated when they were children and were only reunited years later by the fortuitous connection of their children.
“And also we have the fourth season of Civil Servant, which we’ve been selling the last two years and it’s done great for us. And the new season is going to be even more exciting,” he added. The series follows young, ambitious Serbian Secret Service (BIA) agent, Lazar Stanojevic, who is negotiating the rules of the international spy game in the modern world.
With Mipcom already finished, the company is already planning their trip to Mexico for the upcoming MipCancun, where they will be arriving with a slate of titles dubbed into Spanish. “For MipCancun we’ve started dubbing a lot of our titles into Spanish. You’ll see a couple of Indian titles dubbed in Spanish, as well as a couple of Arabic titles,” he revealed.
“In fact we have Sacrificiul dubbed in Spanish, available for audiences both digital and TV. All in all we should have 5 to 6 strong titles at MipCancun. We look forward to having a MipCancun that’ similar to Mipcom,” he concluded.
Vasani agreed with this wish, stating “Mipcancun is going to be intense market for us. We are interested in content like telenovelas. We are looking at what we can bring from that market, looking at new relationships, strengthening old ones and looking at new content that we can take to the rest of the world. It’s something we are looking forward to and hopefully it’s as good as Mipcom has been for us,” he concluded.
