Eros Now, the over-the-top (OTT) platform by Eros International is out with its first original series called ‘Side Hero’, an eight-episode comedy series directed by Rohan Sippy and starring actor Kunaal Roy Kapur as a fictionalised version of himself, trying to become a hero to prove that acting is not just a ‘hobby.’ Ridhima Lulla, Chief Content Officer, Eros Group tells us more about the series, future plans and cracking the content code…

ON WHAT MAKES ‘SIDE HERO’ UNIQUE: Up until now, we did not have fun, situational modern comedy as part of our portfolio. That was the idea behind creating this series. Rohan and Kunaal have written a lot of it themselves. A substantial part of it is also improvised. As a platform, we didn’t want to take ourselves too seriously. We want people to just have fun. This show definitely does that.

ON CONTENT IN THE PIPELINE: We will be announcing something soon. The next original will be out next month. It will be interesting as it will cater to a wider audience. We have got some exciting things lined up in the teen space in the next two years, which we have been working on for quite some time. We don’t want to restrict ourselves to any genre. We want to cut across comedy, drama, mythology and fantasy.

ON CRACKING THE CONTENT CODE: There is no code to crack. Content speaks for itself. ‘Meri Nimmo’ on its own is enough to make people want to watch it. In ‘Sacred Games’, the script was the hero. So it all depends on the story. Supporting new talent and writers and making them the heroes of the show is something I have tried to implement within our content strategy. This is our brightest time to shine. As long as you pick the right people to work with and the energy is good between them, the product will eventually speak for itself.

(As told to Madhuwanti Saha)