If there’s one content studio that is currently dominating OTT, it is Applause Entertainment. Part of the Aditya Birla Group, Applause finds itself in its most prolific phase. In development are new seasons of Criminal Justice, Scam, Avrodh, The Illegal and Your Honor. Other series being produced are the Ajay Devgn-starring Rudra The Edge of Darkness for Disney+ Hotstar, Indian adaptations of Fauda and Guilt, and a show with Vir Das. Applause is also expanding its slate to include documentaries and small to mid budget films. The first one, The Rapist, directed by Aparna Sen and starring Konkona Sensharma and Arjun Rampal, will have its world premiere in October at the Busan International Film Festival, where it is also up for an award. As if that’s not enough, Applause recently signed a deal with Amar Chitra Katha to adapt 400-plus comics into animation. Not bad for a studio that’s just four years old.

The hub-and-spoke model, says Sameer Nair, the company’s CEO, is working well. “We invest time and money into ideation and development and bring in production partners who help us execute it,” he says. “Then we show the finished product to the streamer.” One such show of theirs, which did wonders for SonyLIV, was Scam 1992: The Harshad Mehta Story. Applause will do another edition of Scam with filmmaker Hansal Mehta, this time focusing on another infamous personality–Abdul Karim Telgi.

Nair saw the OTT wave coming as early as 2011. “The writing was always on the wall,” he says. “Consumption of video on the internet was only growing. No one really took it seriously enough. I was always drawn to it.” Nair quit television to focus on developing streaming content. He joined ALTBalaji. The move paid dividends with the launch of Jio in 2016, which made 4G cheaper and more accessible. India’s mobile revolution, says Nair, set the path for OTT to grow.

Netflix and Amazon Prime were launched in 2016; ALTBalaji followed the next year. The same year, both Netflix and Amazon Prime launched their first Indian originals–Inside Edge and Sacred Games, respectively. Nair describes Netflix original Sacred Games, directed by Anurag Kashyap and Vikramaditya Motwane and starring Saif Ali Khan and Nawazuddin Siddiqui, as a “defining moment” that led to more filmmakers warming up to the idea of going OTT. “It put the whole series business on the map,” he says.

Four years later, both streaming platforms and creators have become “more ambitious”, according to Nair. He also feels it’s the need of the hour as Indians are now exposed to topnotch international content. “They want to tell better, complicated stories and period pieces,” says Nair. “The quality standards have gone up.” Applause has so far thrived on making adaptations of popular international shows. After making Your Honor, The Office, Criminal Justice, Hostages and Mind the Malhotras, its upcoming series is the Bollywood edition of the popular French show Call My Agent. It will stream on Netflix.

Applause is only going to get busier as OTT platforms compete for eyeballs and look to expand their subscriber base. “The biggest requirement is to give as much new content on a regular basis,” says Nair. “Subscribers need to know what they are getting for their money. If you want to have a loyal customer, you need to feed the beast with new exclusive content of better quality.” Applause is already up to the task.