1
00:00:02,520 --> 00:00:06,480
Speaker 1: This is Bloomberg Business Week from Bloomberg Radio. I'm Jason

2
00:00:06,559 --> 00:00:09,160
Speaker 1: Kelly and I'm Carol Masser. Welcome to the Bloomberg Business

3
00:00:09,200 --> 00:00:11,600
Speaker 1: Week Extra. It's our weekly podcast bringing you an in

4
00:00:11,640 --> 00:00:14,319
Speaker 1: depth interview you will not hear anywhere else. And this

5
00:00:14,360 --> 00:00:16,639
Speaker 1: week we'll bring you an extra extra because we just

6
00:00:16,720 --> 00:00:19,840
Speaker 1: loved this conversation with Keyshore Lula. He's an old friend

7
00:00:19,840 --> 00:00:22,439
Speaker 1: of mine, is the chairman of Aos International. They're the

8
00:00:22,680 --> 00:00:25,920
Speaker 1: Baliwood Netflix in many ways. They just did a deal

9
00:00:26,280 --> 00:00:29,280
Speaker 1: with a Hollywood studio called STX. We talked a lot

10
00:00:29,280 --> 00:00:31,960
Speaker 1: about the media landscape, but we also spent a minute

11
00:00:32,320 --> 00:00:35,200
Speaker 1: talking about the state of the world. And I gotta

12
00:00:35,280 --> 00:00:39,840
Speaker 1: tell you this will change. In Keyshore's words, your vibrations. Yeah,

13
00:00:39,880 --> 00:00:42,559
Speaker 1: it's all about raising the vibrational level and really just

14
00:00:42,760 --> 00:00:45,040
Speaker 1: taking in what's going on around the world and how

15
00:00:45,040 --> 00:00:47,360
Speaker 1: do you create those conversations that make a difference. I

16
00:00:47,360 --> 00:00:50,080
Speaker 1: have to say his conversation stayed with me big time.

17
00:00:50,320 --> 00:00:52,400
Speaker 1: Before we get to to the world of entertainment, I

18
00:00:52,440 --> 00:00:54,720
Speaker 1: do want to ask you sort of about your view

19
00:00:54,760 --> 00:00:56,880
Speaker 1: of the world. You spend a lot of time sort

20
00:00:56,880 --> 00:01:00,720
Speaker 1: of moving around, you know, obviously in India, but time

21
00:01:00,720 --> 00:01:03,680
Speaker 1: in London, time in California, and I wonder, you know,

22
00:01:03,840 --> 00:01:07,120
Speaker 1: this moment where we are, uh, you know, June eight.

23
00:01:07,880 --> 00:01:11,000
Speaker 1: I'm not sure anybody anticipated that was going to to

24
00:01:11,120 --> 00:01:13,200
Speaker 1: look like this. What do you make of it? What

25
00:01:13,240 --> 00:01:16,240
Speaker 1: does the world feel like to you right now? See? Um,

26
00:01:16,360 --> 00:01:18,959
Speaker 1: you know, manager, I always think there's a silver lining

27
00:01:18,959 --> 00:01:21,840
Speaker 1: and everything, So there could be some silver lining coming

28
00:01:21,840 --> 00:01:25,440
Speaker 1: out of this COVID nineteen. Everybody's blaming, but you know,

29
00:01:26,360 --> 00:01:28,759
Speaker 1: from my entertainment point of view, I think the way

30
00:01:28,760 --> 00:01:30,720
Speaker 1: I'm looking at it, say, suppose the company we have

31
00:01:31,440 --> 00:01:34,640
Speaker 1: fifty percent traffic comes from the studio model, comes from

32
00:01:34,640 --> 00:01:38,000
Speaker 1: the ot D model because of the COVID of course,

33
00:01:38,040 --> 00:01:41,200
Speaker 1: you know, because of the theaters closing down and people

34
00:01:41,160 --> 00:01:44,680
Speaker 1: are unlod ob theaters, but that is getting compensated from

35
00:01:44,720 --> 00:01:47,360
Speaker 1: our ot D platform. So what we have seen in

36
00:01:47,400 --> 00:01:50,600
Speaker 1: the last three months, the engagement has grown up by

37
00:01:52,280 --> 00:01:56,280
Speaker 1: on our traffic, whether it's iOS or Android or that traffic.

38
00:01:56,720 --> 00:02:00,200
Speaker 1: And also the engagement levels by the consumer, which goes

39
00:02:00,200 --> 00:02:04,000
Speaker 1: around spending about seventy minutes per day, has gone to

40
00:02:04,080 --> 00:02:08,760
Speaker 1: about fourteen minutes. So that's a lot of you know,

41
00:02:08,919 --> 00:02:12,560
Speaker 1: rise in that and that's the silver lining for us.

42
00:02:13,160 --> 00:02:16,480
Speaker 1: So I'm not sure whether this is the last, uh,

43
00:02:16,560 --> 00:02:18,600
Speaker 1: you know, when the theater comes back. So I suppose

44
00:02:18,600 --> 00:02:20,440
Speaker 1: if you go back hundred years, so let's assume when

45
00:02:20,480 --> 00:02:23,680
Speaker 1: there were only theaters, when then the black and white

46
00:02:23,720 --> 00:02:27,360
Speaker 1: television came in, Then the color television came in, and

47
00:02:27,400 --> 00:02:30,720
Speaker 1: then you had VHS, DVD, everything came in, and everybody

48
00:02:30,760 --> 00:02:33,520
Speaker 1: was talking about, oh no, that format will disappear. In fact,

49
00:02:33,520 --> 00:02:36,320
Speaker 1: what we have seen the industry growing worldwide and the

50
00:02:36,320 --> 00:02:38,799
Speaker 1: new formats kept on coming. But the consumer had the

51
00:02:38,919 --> 00:02:42,440
Speaker 1: choice to watch the content in the way they wanted,

52
00:02:42,840 --> 00:02:46,480
Speaker 1: and the pie grew. So I think, you know, whatever

53
00:02:46,520 --> 00:02:48,760
Speaker 1: has happened in the last three to four months, of course,

54
00:02:49,200 --> 00:02:52,080
Speaker 1: I think the governments have decided that when to end

55
00:02:52,080 --> 00:02:54,080
Speaker 1: the lockdown and when the people can go back to

56
00:02:54,120 --> 00:02:58,520
Speaker 1: the theaters. People are resilient, people want to go back

57
00:02:58,560 --> 00:03:01,959
Speaker 1: to the normal life. I think with whether the vaccine

58
00:03:02,040 --> 00:03:05,480
Speaker 1: or some other self distancing rules, you would see the

59
00:03:05,560 --> 00:03:08,720
Speaker 1: normalcy and the life of the theaters people coming back.

60
00:03:09,160 --> 00:03:12,920
Speaker 1: But in the meanwhile, the studios and the content makers

61
00:03:13,480 --> 00:03:15,960
Speaker 1: are a bit worried, saying that until the theaters does open.

62
00:03:16,040 --> 00:03:19,239
Speaker 1: So therefore, you've secene whether in Hollywood or in Bollywood.

63
00:03:19,240 --> 00:03:21,840
Speaker 1: The Hollywood have seen the movie state of we're going

64
00:03:21,840 --> 00:03:24,560
Speaker 1: to streaming platforms, whether it is by Peacock or whether

65
00:03:24,560 --> 00:03:28,120
Speaker 1: it's by Netflix, or whether Prime or whether Apple. You've

66
00:03:28,160 --> 00:03:30,600
Speaker 1: seen a big movie by Apple, you know, the Tom

67
00:03:30,600 --> 00:03:34,600
Speaker 1: Hanks movie directly going to Apple platforms. So in that way,

68
00:03:34,639 --> 00:03:37,040
Speaker 1: the content owners are going to make money. Of course,

69
00:03:37,200 --> 00:03:40,240
Speaker 1: I think the Bible will grow h it's just adapting

70
00:03:40,280 --> 00:03:43,080
Speaker 1: to the new norms uh and the new ways of

71
00:03:43,120 --> 00:03:46,720
Speaker 1: watching content. And also if you look at the next

72
00:03:46,840 --> 00:03:48,920
Speaker 1: three to five years, the way we're going to consume

73
00:03:48,960 --> 00:03:51,920
Speaker 1: content with the world which is coming in the VR,

74
00:03:52,600 --> 00:03:57,840
Speaker 1: MR A R, of course, the consumption of the consumer

75
00:03:57,960 --> 00:04:00,720
Speaker 1: will have a different way of consuming the content, and

76
00:04:00,760 --> 00:04:03,520
Speaker 1: I think the pipe for the content owners will go

77
00:04:03,640 --> 00:04:07,000
Speaker 1: only so key sure, I guess you know, what do

78
00:04:07,040 --> 00:04:10,360
Speaker 1: you think dramatically changes in our world because of what

79
00:04:10,440 --> 00:04:12,600
Speaker 1: we've all been experienced by the virus? You know, you've

80
00:04:12,600 --> 00:04:15,080
Speaker 1: talked a little bit about, you know, streaming versus kind

81
00:04:15,080 --> 00:04:18,120
Speaker 1: of the more traditional forms of distribution. Is there anything

82
00:04:18,160 --> 00:04:21,880
Speaker 1: that really sticks longer term? I see? I think still

83
00:04:22,040 --> 00:04:24,480
Speaker 1: for the big great movies, the theaters will be the

84
00:04:24,520 --> 00:04:26,800
Speaker 1: place to watch. But you will see that for the

85
00:04:26,839 --> 00:04:29,479
Speaker 1: next three to six months will be difficult for theaters.

86
00:04:29,520 --> 00:04:32,520
Speaker 1: Until the people come back and until people feel secure

87
00:04:33,040 --> 00:04:36,680
Speaker 1: and on self distancing, you will see a lot of

88
00:04:36,680 --> 00:04:41,000
Speaker 1: releases coming on OTT definitely striving business. You have seen

89
00:04:41,160 --> 00:04:45,680
Speaker 1: that all the odd businesses outsiding under the circumstances and

90
00:04:45,720 --> 00:04:48,080
Speaker 1: also the consolidation which is happening. You saw a d

91
00:04:48,200 --> 00:04:51,080
Speaker 1: n D acquiring Wanna and then you know measure of

92
00:04:51,120 --> 00:04:54,320
Speaker 1: Disney and Fox, and then you know Netflix, you know

93
00:04:54,360 --> 00:04:56,520
Speaker 1: where it has gone in the subscription level and Apple

94
00:04:56,560 --> 00:04:59,560
Speaker 1: getting into the free And that's what we were thinking

95
00:04:59,600 --> 00:05:02,239
Speaker 1: that how do we see as EROS. We were thinking

96
00:05:02,240 --> 00:05:04,400
Speaker 1: that we have two businesses, as I said, Eros Studio

97
00:05:04,400 --> 00:05:07,520
Speaker 1: and Eros now the ot D business. The OTT business

98
00:05:07,560 --> 00:05:09,839
Speaker 1: is driving in a big way, and Eros Theatrical is

99
00:05:09,880 --> 00:05:13,080
Speaker 1: taking a hit definitely, but that is getting compensated by

100
00:05:13,120 --> 00:05:17,080
Speaker 1: the digital business. So when we did merge with st X,

101
00:05:17,160 --> 00:05:20,400
Speaker 1: the Hollywood Studio, that's was the thinking. You'll see the

102
00:05:20,600 --> 00:05:25,640
Speaker 1: premium content UH is getting more costlier and costlier because

103
00:05:25,880 --> 00:05:29,560
Speaker 1: the consumer wants to watch the content Beat theater, b TV,

104
00:05:29,800 --> 00:05:32,240
Speaker 1: Beat Bay Television or BEAT pay per view or beat

105
00:05:32,320 --> 00:05:35,160
Speaker 1: ot T o t T has just become the easier

106
00:05:35,240 --> 00:05:37,560
Speaker 1: method because of the bench watch and they can you know,

107
00:05:37,839 --> 00:05:41,440
Speaker 1: engage with the shows or the movies whenever they want.

108
00:05:41,520 --> 00:05:43,440
Speaker 1: They don't have to make an appointment with the television

109
00:05:43,560 --> 00:05:45,400
Speaker 1: or they don't have to make the appointment to go

110
00:05:45,520 --> 00:05:48,000
Speaker 1: and watch the movie in the theater. And that's the

111
00:05:48,000 --> 00:05:50,760
Speaker 1: reason we have seen the consumption on the OTIT going out.

112
00:05:51,480 --> 00:05:53,720
Speaker 1: What will drive the future in the business, as I said,

113
00:05:53,720 --> 00:05:58,680
Speaker 1: the new new formats and also now the language language

114
00:05:58,680 --> 00:06:01,480
Speaker 1: because of this new OTIT platforms. You've seen Spanish shows,

115
00:06:01,480 --> 00:06:05,400
Speaker 1: You've seen different languages on Prime Video, on Netflix that

116
00:06:05,440 --> 00:06:09,400
Speaker 1: are getting really a lot of attraction. So hence the

117
00:06:09,480 --> 00:06:11,680
Speaker 1: language will not be a barrier. So if the content

118
00:06:11,720 --> 00:06:13,960
Speaker 1: will have no language, it can come from India, it

119
00:06:14,000 --> 00:06:17,360
Speaker 1: can come You saw Parasite, a movie from Korea getting

120
00:06:17,360 --> 00:06:20,880
Speaker 1: the Oscars this time in the main stream, and that's

121
00:06:20,920 --> 00:06:23,600
Speaker 1: what is getting transformed. The ot T is taking out

122
00:06:23,640 --> 00:06:26,320
Speaker 1: the barriers and for the world to come under one

123
00:06:26,520 --> 00:06:30,200
Speaker 1: unified world to watch content. And that's what is going

124
00:06:30,279 --> 00:06:32,520
Speaker 1: to happen. I think in the future you will see

125
00:06:32,520 --> 00:06:35,280
Speaker 1: a lot of interactive content being made. You will see

126
00:06:35,320 --> 00:06:38,159
Speaker 1: in the next coming one or two years, immersive content

127
00:06:38,200 --> 00:06:40,760
Speaker 1: being made that you will getting immersed into the content,

128
00:06:41,400 --> 00:06:44,240
Speaker 1: and that's possible because of the technology and not saying

129
00:06:44,240 --> 00:06:46,280
Speaker 1: the theaters will go away. The theaters will go exist,

130
00:06:46,520 --> 00:06:49,800
Speaker 1: but the pie will increase. So I think as see,

131
00:06:49,960 --> 00:06:53,480
Speaker 1: you know when we had DVD. When DVD disappeared, people thought, oh,

132
00:06:53,560 --> 00:06:55,400
Speaker 1: you know the studios which are making so much money

133
00:06:55,440 --> 00:06:57,560
Speaker 1: from DVD, where the money will come from. In fact,

134
00:06:57,560 --> 00:06:59,839
Speaker 1: the pipe grow more than DVD revenue, which came because

135
00:06:59,880 --> 00:07:02,960
Speaker 1: of the odd platform or the digital so similar kind

136
00:07:03,000 --> 00:07:05,080
Speaker 1: of you know, the biggest I think if you look

137
00:07:05,080 --> 00:07:06,880
Speaker 1: at in the last fifty years, the biggest thing which

138
00:07:06,920 --> 00:07:10,080
Speaker 1: happened first was the Internet in eighties, then it was

139
00:07:10,080 --> 00:07:13,120
Speaker 1: the smartphone in late two thousand and I think the

140
00:07:13,160 --> 00:07:16,040
Speaker 1: biggest innovation of all, bigger than the Internet and bigger

141
00:07:16,080 --> 00:07:19,760
Speaker 1: than the smartphones, will be the A R V R

142
00:07:19,920 --> 00:07:23,920
Speaker 1: M R going forward, and that's going to give us

143
00:07:23,960 --> 00:07:28,440
Speaker 1: more revenues. But ultimately what will happen it's the premium content.

144
00:07:28,720 --> 00:07:32,040
Speaker 1: Is the content getting reformatted into different formats and the

145
00:07:32,080 --> 00:07:35,920
Speaker 1: consumer chooses. You see, you cannot stop consumer to choose

146
00:07:35,960 --> 00:07:38,320
Speaker 1: what they want to watch and when they want to watch,

147
00:07:38,560 --> 00:07:41,200
Speaker 1: because they want to be in control, and the content

148
00:07:41,280 --> 00:07:43,520
Speaker 1: owners think that they can be in control and they

149
00:07:43,520 --> 00:07:46,040
Speaker 1: can h you know, force consumer to watch it through

150
00:07:46,040 --> 00:07:49,559
Speaker 1: the medium. I think that fund happened so the belt

151
00:07:49,600 --> 00:07:52,080
Speaker 1: picture to get the best conton out and let the

152
00:07:52,120 --> 00:07:54,640
Speaker 1: consumer decide what they want to watch and when they

153
00:07:54,680 --> 00:07:57,760
Speaker 1: want to watch and through which medium. Right, all right,

154
00:07:57,840 --> 00:08:00,320
Speaker 1: So I have to ask you. You and I sat

155
00:08:00,360 --> 00:08:05,120
Speaker 1: together in acron Ohio a few years back, and I

156
00:08:05,160 --> 00:08:10,680
Speaker 1: was really impressed by not just your view of the

157
00:08:10,760 --> 00:08:13,320
Speaker 1: content world, in the entertainment world, but sort of your

158
00:08:13,360 --> 00:08:16,520
Speaker 1: view of life candidly, um and you talked a lot

159
00:08:16,560 --> 00:08:18,960
Speaker 1: about sort of what it takes to be a good person,

160
00:08:19,040 --> 00:08:21,360
Speaker 1: what it takes to sort of put the right vibe

161
00:08:21,440 --> 00:08:24,280
Speaker 1: out in the world. And I've thought about that a

162
00:08:24,320 --> 00:08:26,600
Speaker 1: lot in this sort of world that we're living in

163
00:08:26,720 --> 00:08:29,360
Speaker 1: right now, and you know, all this despair and all

164
00:08:29,400 --> 00:08:32,559
Speaker 1: this anger and protests, and I wonder what what you

165
00:08:32,600 --> 00:08:36,719
Speaker 1: make of it from that perspective right now. See, it's

166
00:08:36,840 --> 00:08:40,080
Speaker 1: very important as a global community to help that all

167
00:08:40,080 --> 00:08:42,920
Speaker 1: over by the sansistors of every color. You know, That's

168
00:08:42,920 --> 00:08:44,960
Speaker 1: what I believe in. And the other thing, you see,

169
00:08:45,000 --> 00:08:46,880
Speaker 1: I believe that you know, you It's all about the

170
00:08:46,960 --> 00:08:49,959
Speaker 1: vibrations and the thoughts. You know, you get about six

171
00:08:50,480 --> 00:08:53,600
Speaker 1: thoughts today and what do what the talks? You think?

172
00:08:53,679 --> 00:08:56,360
Speaker 1: If you think negatively, you see that comes back to

173
00:08:56,400 --> 00:08:59,640
Speaker 1: you then X. So my message is clear that you know,

174
00:09:00,080 --> 00:09:03,680
Speaker 1: be careful on every thought which is being emitted out

175
00:09:03,720 --> 00:09:07,400
Speaker 1: of you because whatever you're thinking, if it is not positive,

176
00:09:07,600 --> 00:09:09,559
Speaker 1: it will come back to you at an X. So

177
00:09:09,600 --> 00:09:12,200
Speaker 1: please accept the responsibility when that comes back to you.

178
00:09:12,600 --> 00:09:16,160
Speaker 1: So therefore, be responsible and think always positive and at

179
00:09:16,160 --> 00:09:19,360
Speaker 1: a higher vibration so that you know you make the

180
00:09:19,480 --> 00:09:22,720
Speaker 1: life good for you, but also for the community living there,

181
00:09:22,760 --> 00:09:25,959
Speaker 1: you know, and I think if everybody can raise the

182
00:09:25,960 --> 00:09:29,600
Speaker 1: thought level and the vibrational level, the whole community will

183
00:09:29,640 --> 00:09:32,600
Speaker 1: be so good place to live and peace. So you know,

184
00:09:32,679 --> 00:09:36,600
Speaker 1: eminate peace, emanate positivity and I bet you that will

185
00:09:36,640 --> 00:09:39,480
Speaker 1: come back to you. So don't emanate anger. You know

186
00:09:39,520 --> 00:09:41,840
Speaker 1: when you emmanate anger, that comes back to you only.

187
00:09:42,200 --> 00:09:45,800
Speaker 1: So just emanate positivity. And that's Keyshorta, chairman founder of

188
00:09:45,840 --> 00:09:50,880
Speaker 1: Aerros International, again the netflix of Bali Wood doing a

189
00:09:50,920 --> 00:09:54,599
Speaker 1: big deal to expand their global empire. But also a

190
00:09:54,720 --> 00:09:57,040
Speaker 1: very thoughtful guy. You know, someone who i've learned a

191
00:09:57,080 --> 00:09:59,400
Speaker 1: lot from over the years just in terms of how

192
00:09:59,400 --> 00:10:02,120
Speaker 1: he views world. And even after this interview, who is

193
00:10:02,160 --> 00:10:05,000
Speaker 1: sending me emails with articles and little quotes here and there.

194
00:10:05,080 --> 00:10:07,360
Speaker 1: It really does sort of change your mindset. So grateful

195
00:10:07,360 --> 00:10:09,200
Speaker 1: to him for spending some time. And I'm just gonna say,

196
00:10:09,240 --> 00:10:11,559
Speaker 1: I'm making t shirts that say raise the vibrational level.

197
00:10:11,600 --> 00:10:13,680
Speaker 1: I'm going to do it all right, you've been listening

198
00:10:13,679 --> 00:10:16,320
Speaker 1: to Bloomberg Business Week Extra, be sure to tune into

199
00:10:16,320 --> 00:10:18,640
Speaker 1: Bloomberg Business Week Radio Live Money through Friday at two

200
00:10:18,640 --> 00:10:21,640
Speaker 1: pm Wall Street Time on Bloomberg Radio. I'm Jason Kelly

201
00:10:21,679 --> 00:10:24,079
Speaker 1: and I'm Carol Masser, and this is Bloomberg