2021 alone saw OML shoot 900 minutes worth of content that has garnered audiences in multiple countries around the world
2021 was a remarkably eventful year, but even more so for OML Entertainment, which onboarded 10 new talents to its already massive repertoire of 79 talents, booking over 1100+ shows across corporate, college, and ticketed shows alongside executing 1350+ brand deals only between OML managed talents. From an artist management agency to including a content production house: OML has metamorphosed into a full-fledged media & entertainment organization through the years.
Over the years, OML has expanded its operations to include a production house producing OTT shows, creating content for brands in 20+ countries, and building iconic live and virtual events—while amplifying its existing strengths by representing talents across a diverse spectrum. Having signed comedians Anu Menon and Kartik Kumar, director Anuya Jakatdar, creators Mansi Ugale, Honey Imm Home, Sharan Nair, Arushi Kapoor, Maya Krishnan, Sriram and chef Harsh Kedia in 2021, OML’s vast roster boasts 89 talents across diverse crafts of comedy, lifestyle, travel and fashion influencers, creators, chefs, writers-directors, mentalists and storytellers.
However, the company initially started with exclusively managing musicians. OML diversified its roster in 2014 by signing comedians after successfully identifying them as the next big thing in the entertainment world. In fact, in addition to the rapid growth of the Indian comedy industry within the country, 2018 also saw its expansion beyond Indian shores—with OML artists touring internationally across 54 cities in 12 countries and selling 45,000+ tickets. All in all, 120+ shows were organized across 18 comedians. Meanwhile, in 2019, OML optimized its artist touring to more relevant markets, thereby growing ticket sales—they sold 70,000+ tickets, with the artists touring across 53 cities in 9 countries, doing 150+ shows across 22 comedians.
Apart from that, OML has built and scaled artists’ international presence through live bookings, content projects amongst other collaborations and literary works with the support of two of the world’s most prominent artist management companies—UTA (United Talent Agency) and WME (William Morris Agency, merged with Endeavor). These companies are also agents to some of the OML managed talents like Kanan Gill (UTA), Sumukhi Suresh and Debbie Rao (WME).
Furthermore, OML leveraged the growing content industry with its production house, churning avant-garde content across various media and formats that strongly influence pop culture. From their first-ever unscripted series on Netflix, Comedy Premium League, to releasing the season 2 of One Mic Stand on Amazon Prime Video—OML shot 900 minutes worth of content in 2021 alone. While Comedy Premium League, the first-of-its-kind format in India with 16 remarkable comic talents, was shot in a bubble of 15 days in January 2021, 4 stand-up specials were also shot for Sumaira Shaikh, Gaurav Gupta, Sumit Sourav and Stand-up Shorts.
Gunjan Arya –
Chief Executive Officer – OML, said, “With a hugely successful 2021, we are excitedly looking forward to 2022, where we endeavour to add value and support the creators and their creativity. While OML has grown and evolved dramatically, we have always been an artist-first agency, where we focus on understanding the future direction of an artist’s career—thus, enabling us to bring relevant partnerships, navigate plans, and bridge the gap between arts and its economy. This new year will also see OML and the artists come together to build brands and IPs, including TV and OTT shows, brand and product launches, along with strategic artist-led equity partnerships and investments.”
Rishabh Nahar –
Vice President, Creator Management at OML added, “From managing only musicians till 2014 & then only comedians, our roster has evolved into being fairly diverse. Looking forward to this new year, we intend to gauge unique potentials & subcultures and continue to help pave the pop-culture way forward for upcoming professions like creators & lifestyle influencers, chefs, and comedians, of course. We are also very bullish about Live events & have seen global trends pan out really well for the Live industry. We have 5 North American tours lined up—two of them by Kanan Gill and Zakir Khan for March and April 2022, while the other three are underway. The tours have been routed and planned till September 2022, and we have 30,000+ tickets to be potentially sold just across these 5 tours!”
Rachita Arya –
Sr. Vice President, Content at OML, said, “The Indian content industry has seen a dynamic shift since the launch of OTT’s and enabled homegrown content players like OML to build a global reach. In tandem with this, we have been successfully packaging and producing content for OTT platforms, and 2022 will be no different—with exciting new series and specials in the pipeline..”
Preranaa Khatri –
Executive Vice President, Brand Solutions, said, “OML’s core essence has always been to maximize business for our roster of artists and support them to positively impact communities. With the convergence of brands and culture, we look forward to achieving this goal by connecting the artists with their audiences and, in the process, effectively engaging them with branded campaigns and events.”
Devarshi Shah – Vice President, Global Creator Network, mentioned, “Our focus has always been to foster a synergy between brands and creators globally to drive high efficiency in international content marketing and social media campaigns. We have in the past and will continue to work towards bringing the best of brands and talents across platforms to engage with fans while building and empowering an international community.”
Since its inception in 2001, OML has steadily climbed the ladder of success with resilience and agility while redefining newer ways of creator-led marketing and brand synergies. Keeping up with the ever-evolving creator economy by diversifying its roster—the organization has been successfully leveraging existing gaps in the market to create opportunities for its talent ecosystem.
