NEW DELHI : Online self-publishing and audiobook portal Pratilipi, which has diversified from text to audio and now comics, has found a set of key partners to produce different versions of its success stories. From Disney+ Hotstar and Audible, the Amazon-owned online audiobook service, to record label and film production house T-Series, the company believes in keeping intellectual property (IP) at the center of its strategies and leverages its literature to spawn podcasts, cartoons and, now, a web series .
Launched in 2014 as a self-funded platform, Pratilipi raised ₹30 lakh from TLabs (Times Internet Accelerator) in March 2015 and another $1 million from investors led by Nexus Venture Partners in 2016. In 2020, it launched two more storytelling platforms, Pratilipi Comics and Pratilipi FM, to expand into newer formats like for example audio. and graphics, and acquired podcast network IVM Podcasts the same year. It publishes content in 12 languages, of which English, Hindi and Gujarati are the most common.
“Stories were, are and always will be powerful. Languages and formats may change, but compelling stories will always travel across geographies and forms. That’s why our goal has always been to be a home for multilingual, multi-format storytelling,” said Pratilipi Ranjeet Pratap Singh, CEO and co-founder. Mint. Singh added that the company, which started as a platform for users to publish stories, essays and poetry, has enough data to see which stories work across audiences. The catalog consists of more than 13.5 million literary works, and the most popular titles include Pranayam, Anokhi Shadi, and Anni vaipulaa nannu allukundi nee kala.
This September, media and entertainment company Disney Star partnered with Pratilipi for a multi-series content deal that will allow the former to develop multiple new fictional television shows adapted from stories available on Pratilipi, intended to be broadcast across languages on Disney Star’s television and digital . platforms In October, Pratilipi partnered with film and music production company T-Series for film-to-comic adaptations. Bhushan Kumar’s Yaariyan 2the sequel to the Hindi-language romantic comedy-drama film Yaariyan (2014), was brought to life in comic format by Pratilipi Comics. Its 10 episodes were published across print and digital formats, in Hindi and English, and available to be read on Pratilipi Comics app for free.
“Our approach is to have IP ownership at the center of everything we do. We look for the best IPs to leverage across formats, whether it’s comics, audio, series, movies or games,” he said. However, when it comes to partnerships with other media and entertainment companies, Singh said collaborations happen in different ways; Pratilipi can license IP to make a show or use its own IP to develop and produce one.
The company, which is in active conversations across TV, OTT and audio platforms, prefers a fixed fee for such partnerships.
Singh said users are willing to pay for high-quality content in any format. “Our IPs have already proven themselves in one language or format, so these are not just judgment calls that we take for no reason,” he added.
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Updated: 22 Nov 2023, 22:51 IST
(tagsTo Translate)Pratilipi