Saurabh Tewari launches Tequila Shot Productions

The new company will focus on multiple platform content creation, including TV, film and digital.

Saurabh Tewari, the creative brain behind Nautanki Films, is all set to launch a second production house, Tequila Shot Productions. The new company will focus on multiple platform content creation, including films and digital, along with television.

When contacted, Tewari says that while Nautanki was his and Abhinav's (Shukla) brainchild and has successfully launched four shows and one feature film in the past two years, he now wants to branch out and do independent business.

Tewari will continue to work on the existing shows of Nautanki Films (Rangrasiya and Madhubala) but the future ventures of Nautanki Films will be handled independently by Shukla. He says, "Abhinav and I had a great stint running Nautanki Films together. The two on-air shows (Madhubala and Rangrasiya) of Nautanki Films are extremely close to me. I will continue to oversee the entire creative aspect of these two shows, the way it has been going till now. Besides this under Nautanki Films, Abhinav and I have just finished producing a feature film, 'Ekkees Topon Ki Salaami'."

Tequila Shot Productions will be Tewari's independent venture and there will be no tie-ups, as it is learnt for now. The production house will work on two projects for television, details of which Tewari refuses to divulge. Having said that, the first two ventures from the company will be launched in the next quarter and will be announced soon. The production house also plans to roll out a feature film sometime in September-October.

Tewari adds about the new company, "Through Tequila Shot, I aim to continue my promise of delivering entertaining and engaging content to my audience. It will not only create content for television but will also foray into film production very soon."

Besides the television and film plans, it will also produce short films for the digital medium. "I feel that there is a dearth of writers and directors in the industry and at the same time there are many talented people outside the industry who are looking for a break or trying to make their way into the industry. With the digital plan, I want to generate new talent for the television and film industry which will be exclusively with me," Tewari adds.

Tewari clarifies that he is not really looking at monetising the digital medium as of now, and only wants to give a chance and provide a platform to fresh talent.

A bachelor of arts from Lucknow University, Tewari began his career directing ad films. Once he moved to television production, he has worked with a variety of production houses primarily as a writer, which has given him a complete understanding of the creative and production business.

In 2006, he moved to Zee Telefilms as assistant vice-president, programming for Zee TV, where he was instrumental in growing the market share of the channel. In late 2007, he moved to Viacom18 as a part of the start-up team for the launch of Colors. In his role as associate vice-president and head of content, fiction programming, Tewari played a key role in the launch of the channel and was involved in creating and designing the entire line up of fiction shows for the channel. He then joined Imagine TV, the flagship Hindi GEC of Turner General Entertainment Networks India as head of programming, fiction in 2010.

In 2011, Tewari joined hands with BAG Films to launch his film and TV production company, Nautanki Films.