COS COB, Conn.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Chicken Soup for the Soul Entertainment’s (NASDAQ: CSSE) production subsidiary in India, Locomotive Global, today announced its hit series Rana Naidu has been named one of Netflix’s top 10 original series streamed globally by Parrot Analytics. The series earlier this year received a greenlight from Netflix India for a second season and is currently preparing for production.
Locomotive Global continues to grow rapidly and has become a force in the Indian television market. The company recently added several key executives to further its efforts, including Meghna Joshi, as creative producer for non-fiction series and films, Yuvika Sharma as associate creative producer for series, and Binitesh Baruri as creative producer for films.
The company also announced several key content deals earlier this year, including:
- Applause Entertainment (India) and Case Closed Entertainment – Agreed to create a high-quality episodic procedural series for India. Simon Mirren from Cased Closed Entertainment previously created the series Spooks, Versailles, and Without a Trace and was the Showrunner of Criminal Minds. The series is also produced by Ben Anderson of Case Closed Entertainment, and formerly of Medavoy’s Phoenix Entertainment
- Acquired the rights to the British series I’ve Created a Monster – Through a deal with Chudor Entertainment, the company is producing an Indian adaptation of this original British series written by Terry Clark
- Development of TV Town – Locomotive Global is creating a drama series set in the early years of cable television in India. It tells the story of the emergence of an entire nation as it shrugs off decades of isolationism and liberalizes its culture and economy. The company secured the rights to the book The Making of Star India, which will be used as a basis for the series. The series will be co-produced with House of Talkies
- Mountain Dark – Locomotive is working with Endemol Shine India to develop an original Indo-Western thriller set in the foothills of the Himalayas. The series is being written and directed by Prashant Nair, who made the award-winning film, Umrika, and earlier this year released his critically acclaimed series, Trial By Fire, on Netflix. The series was labeled by Variety as “One of Netflix India’s best yet.”
- Developing South Indian language projects – The first series in development is titled Pallavapuram (Tamil language), and a film titled Chelambara (Malayalam) tells the true story of a bank heist. The company is also developing genre films for the mainstream Indian market – emphasizing cost-effectiveness
“Following the success of Rana Naidu, we have been scaling our company, and working with some of the world’s leading content owners, allowing us to widen the scope of our productions,” said Sunder Aaron, managing partner of Locomotive Global. “We’ve added some of the most talented entertainment executives who will further grow our business across television and films. We are uniquely positioned in the Indian content space, and I’m very excited to see what’s ahead for us.”
About Chicken Soup for the Soul Entertainment
Chicken Soup for the Soul Entertainment (Nasdaq: CSSE) provides premium content to value-conscious consumers. The company is one of the largest advertising-supported video-on-demand (AVOD) companies in the US, with three flagship AVOD streaming services: Redbox, Crackle, and Chicken Soup for the Soul. In addition, the company operates Redbox Free Live TV, a free ad-supported streaming television service (FAST), with nearly 180 FAST channels as well as a transaction video on demand (TVOD) service, and a network of approximately 28,500 kiosks across the US for DVD rentals. To provide original and exclusive content to its viewers, the company creates, acquires, and distributes films and TV series through its Screen Media and Chicken Soup for the Soul TV Group subsidiaries. Chicken Soup for the Soul Entertainment is a subsidiary of Chicken Soup for the Soul, LLC, which publishes the famous book series and produces super-premium pet food under the Chicken Soup for the Soul brand name.
About Locomotive Global Inc.
Locomotive Global Inc. (LGI), a Chicken Soup for the Soul Entertainment Company (NASDAQ: CSSE) was co-founded in 2013 by media and entertainment industry executives Sunder Aaron and Scott Anderson. LGI is a US-incorporated company that holds several media assets and operates primarily in the US and India focused on developing, producing, and distributing Indian-themed global quality television and film content for the Indian market and around the world. Through its India-based subsidiary, Locomotive Global Media LLP (LGM), LGI incubates and operates its India media business. The company has an active development slate that includes both scripted drama series as well as feature films. LGI is also active in programming sales and distribution across broadcast TV and OTT platforms.
Forward-Looking Statements and Available Information
This press release includes forward-looking statements within the meaning of the federal securities laws. Forward-looking statements are statements that are not historical facts. These statements are based on various assumptions, whether or not identified in this press release, and on the current expectations of management and are not predictions of actual performance. Such assumptions involve a number of known and unknown risks and uncertainties, including but not limited to risks relating to our core strategy, operating income and margin, seasonality, liquidity, including cash flows from operations, available funds, and access to financing sources, free cash flows, revenues, net income, profitability, stock price volatility, future regulatory changes, price changes, ability to achieve and sustain market acceptance of our content streaming services and other content offerings, ability to recruit and retain officers, key employees, or directors, ability to protect our intellectual property, ability to complete and integrate into our existing operations future strategic acquisitions, ability to manage growth, ability to pay dividends and our debt obligations, as well as evolving regulatory or other operational risks, and risks presented by changing general market conditions impacting demand for our services. For a more complete description of these and other risks and uncertainties, please refer to Item 1A (Risk Factors) in the Company’s Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2022 filed with the SEC on March 31, 2023. If any of these risks materialize or our assumptions prove incorrect, actual results could differ materially from the results implied by the forward-looking statements contained in this press release. Information regarding the acquisition of Redbox and related transactions is qualified by reference to the Company’s Current Reports on Form 8-K filed with the SEC on May 11, 2022 as amended May 12, 2022, June 6, 2022, August 12, 2022, November 14, 2022 and thereafter from time to time, and all exhibits filed with respect to such reports. The forward-looking statements contained in this press release speak only as of the date hereof and the Company expressly disclaims any obligation or undertaking to release publicly any updates or revisions to any forward-looking statements contained herein to reflect any change in the Company’s expectations with respect thereto or any change in events, conditions or circumstances on which any statement is based.
