Sujatha Narayanan, CEO, Hansa Studio

From iconic five-day soaps and super-hit films to sports broadcasts and star-studded concerts, Hansa Vision, the production company from the RK Swamy Group, made a mark on Indian television for decades. Now, as the media industry resets for a new era of content consumers, the storied company from Chennai is revamping itself as Hansa Entertainment — and this time a new generation of leaders are stepping in at the helm.

Hansa Entertainment will be led by Sruti Swamy and Siddharth Swamy — the grandchildren of the group’s founder RK Swamy — as Directors, while industry veteran Sujatha Narayanan will be CEO. The ensemble brings with it a broad mix of expertise. Narayanan has over 20 years of experience in film and content production, while Siddharth and Sruti have led the group’s technology-driven marketing consulting and real estate divisions, respectively.

The trio’s objective is clear — build Hansa into a younger, faster and more focused brand that does not limit itself to movies or television shows but also creates content tailored for the digital age.

As Siddharth puts it, content today goes beyond larger-than-life immersive movies to include OTT shows for planned, uninterrupted watch time, vertical ‘snackable content’ — portrait format suited for mobile phones — for short pockets between tasks, and podcasts for passive consumption in the background.

He says Hansa will double down on each of these new-age formats and, unlike incumbent production houses that take a ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach, it will curate offerings based on the format.

Vertical content is a special focus area, as it is the fastest-growing segment in the industry. “In China, the vertical format has already overtaken the domestic box office. The Indian market is projected to be around $4.5 billion in the next five years,” he says. Moreover, with tier-2/3 cities accounting for about 70 per cent of consumption in this format, the plan is to be regional-first across multiple languages.

IP creation

Hansa’s legacy of content creation could prove an advantage — it can leverage the infrastructure and contacts built over decades of production across regions.

Narayanan points to the natural synergy between Hansa’s past and what it is setting out to do now.

“Production houses come with a legacy and people are already responding positively to us when we go out into the market seeking talent, stories or brands to collaborate with. There is an instant trust, and we believe our production values and storytelling will stand out from the clutter,” she says.

That said, the firm will deviate from legacy in terms of its business model — Hansa Entertainment will prioritise owning and distributing IP rather than being a service provider to platforms.

Sruti believes the market is open to this shift, and Hansa is building a team with expertise in creating and distributing IP. “At the end of the day, you are working with people and the key thing is to have the right team to get through it,” she says. The company has brought in filmmaker and writer Barath Neelakandan as content lead and Aditi Ravindranath as films and OTT business lead.

Amid the rising use of AI across industries, Siddharth says Hansa plans to deploy AI mainly for operational efficiency, including lowering production costs and understanding platform dynamics. “We are also exploring newer layers, such as interactive chatbots and early-stage AR/VR integrations, to build tech-enabled content ecosystems,” he says. Creative decisions like scripting and ideation will remain human-led, he added.

Looking ahead, Narayanan says the company has initiated plans for a couple of projects and would see a positive movement soon. As for the production roadmap, she says the firm has specific monthly, quarterly and yearly targets for each vertical, without revealing the exact details.

Srinivasan Swamy, Executive Group Chairman of RK Swamy Limited, says about the new venture, “I am happy that the next generation has taken the bold step to re-enter the business about 20 years after Hansa Vision stepped away from it. The current media landscape is quite different, and they have understood it well and are focusing on the mobile-first audience and OTT platforms. Hansa Entertainment is very different from what we do in RK Swamy Hansa Group, which is more in the space of integrated marketing services.”

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Published on April 6, 2026