Vikram Malhotra's Abundantia makes key level appointments

The production company has roped in Shivaji Dasgupta and Shikhaa Sharma to lead the creative team.

Vikram Malhotra's Abundantia Entertainment has beefed up its creative team with the appointment of Shivaji Dasgupta and Shikhaa Sharma.

Dasgupta and Sharma have moved to Abundantia as senior vice-presidents, content and development. They will report to Malhotra.

The company has picked Dasgupta from Viacom18 Motion Pictures, where he was working as creative chief. Sharma, meanwhile, was with Sahara Movie Studios as head of content and development.

Malhotra, founder and CEO, Abundantia, says, "Creativity, ideas and innovation are at the heart of Abundantia's business model. I am delighted that we now have two of the brightest and most experienced creative minds in the business leading the charge at Abundantia. Shivaji has been associated with some of the finest film content in recent times and his production and commercial acumen will significantly enhance the quality and profitability of our slate. In Shikhaa we have somebody with formidable creative understanding and content development ability and coupled with her deep industry relationships, I look forward to taking our creative capability to the next level. I am confident that this dynamic duo will raise the bar for creative content in our business."

Dasgupta, an industry veteran of two decades, has played a key role in producing movies including Gangs of Wasseypur, Bhaag Milkha Bhaag, Madras Café, Kahaani, LSD, Once Upon A Time in Mumbai and Chashme Baddoor. He will run Abundantia's creative and production business and will have additional charge of commercial affairs for his slate of films.

Sharma will spearhead Abundantia's content development and incubation business across films, television and digital. Before joining Sahara Movie Studios, she had also worked with Balaji Motion Pictures and Tips Industries. Her work spans movies like Maqbool, The Dirty Picture, Kya Super Kool Hain Hum, Ek Thi Daayan, Shor In The City and Race. Her core strength of identifying and mentoring new talent has seen her successfully support work from first-time writers and directors in the past, the company says.

Driving the model of creating 'talent-studio partnerships', Abundantia has assembled a line up for the first two years of operations of its motion pictures business. Combined with a strategic stake acquisition of Crouching Tiger Motion Pictures, the studio has announced multiple film deals with production houses led by some of the "hottest" names in the movies business in India.

Top-lining the slate are projects with Neeraj Pandey (A Wednesday, Special 26), Shoojit Sircar (Vicky Donor, Madras Café) and Nikhil Advani(D-Day, Kal Ho Na Ho) as well as Soumik Sen (Gulaab Gang).