“Entertainment industry needs fresh ideas to be in showbiz”, says Anant Roongta, M.D, Famous Studios

Jyothi Venkatesh

Anant Roongta, MD, Famous Studios, has set an exhilarating example in his 4 years since taking over the heritage left behind by his grandfather. Anant is the grandson of J B Roongta—who needs no introduction, and who conceived and founded Asia’s first air-conditioned studios (Famous Studios) in 1946, i.e. in the pre-independence India. Anant is the third-generation entrepreneur at Famous Studios, and is taking forth the 75-year legacy. As a kid, he was always deeply intrigued by content. Anant comes across as an individual, who maintains the beam of focus towards introducing innovative technologies, learning and development in order to add new-age relevance to the industry and expansion of services at Famous Studios. He has spearheaded new offerings at the studio such as visual engineering, Motion Capture, content creation, production and post-production, VFX, a fully-equipped preview theatre, virtual production, co-working spaces, and has launched India’s second largest Dolby Atmos home mixing facility for the OTT original content space. He is determined and is dedicatedly working towards expanding its creative studios and visual effects facilities.

“On changing scenario of entertainment industry Mr. Roongta said “India is a country of rich heritage and that has had a substantial influence and been a key driving force for most of the cinematic stories coming from the region. With the boom of the internet, content consumption has increased drastically but cinema experience is being missed. With the advent of OTT platforms and given the scenario where the audiences have more time to spare sitting at home, the digital content has expanded exponentially with users getting easy access to consume content online having a variety of genres to choose from with a plethora of digital platforms options at their disposal. Cinema on the other hand has always been a very impact driven experience providing a two – three hours long getaway to the viewers who are immersed in the story leaving all the real-life stress behind. The escapism and anonymity offered by a dark theatre was the reason people loved going to the movies. When the lights dimmed and the screen came on, people could disconnect from real-life struggles and get fully invested in a fantasy world. People don’t watch movies;  they experience the magic of cinema and that is going to play major role in bringing audiences back to the cinema halls. While the current circumstances are such that the mobility and public gatherings are restricted but with OTT platforms offering realistic relatable content, producers and film-makers have the opportunity to leverage the current trend in creating more quality and resonating content at a much higher pace.”