Tel Aviv-based Ananey Studios, part of Paramount Global, has signed a deal with Indian content producer Abundantia Entertainment to develop an Indian remake of the hit Israeli live-action teen drama, “The Hood” (“Schuna”).
The original series, created by Giora Chamizer (Netflix’s “Greenhouse Academy”), is set in The Hood, a dingy cluster of low-income housing, where blue-collar families live, located in the middle of one of the richest districts. Kids in The Hood regularly prank the rich community’s snobbish teens, while the mayor constantly tries to get rid of the The Hood altogether. “The Hood” has had three hit seasons (150 x 22′) on Nickelodeon in Israel and was also sold to Portugal’s free-to-air channel RTP2.
“The Hood” adaptation will be produced under Abundantia’s young-adult focused label Filters, which joins Psych that specializes in horror and paranormal. Also being produced under the Filter label are the Indian adaptation of Israeli young-adult drama “The Missing” and the adaptation of Apeksha Rao’s young-adult book “Along Came a Spyder.”
While a platform hasn’t been revealed yet, Abundantia’s series usually land on Amazon Prime Video, including “Breathe’ (2018), “Breathe: Into The Shadows” (2020) and upcoming titles like “Hush Hush” and “The End,” which mark the streaming debuts of Bollywood stars Juhi Chawla and Akshay Kumar respectively. Abundantia’s recent films “Jalsa” (2022) and “Sherni” (2021) both debuted directly on Amazon.
Adaptations of Vish Dhamija’s novels “Bhendi Bazaar,” “Doosra” and “Lipstick,” featuring female cop Rita Ferreira, are also in the works at Abundantia.
Vikram Malhotra, founder and CEO of Abundantia Entertainment, said: “It is a matter of great honor to partner with a creative powerhouse like Ananey Studios and I am super pumped to develop the very popular and successful ‘The Hood’ in an Indian avatar for local audiences. The association with Ananey Studios underlines our vision to partner with top-quality global creators to bring impactful stories and unique story-telling voices for progressive Indian viewers. I am also excited to add to our slate of content for the rapidly-growing youth and young-adult segments”.
Orly Atlas Katz, CEO, Ananey, and executive VP Paramount Israel, added: “We are confident that, with their rapid growing slate of hits, Abundantia are the perfect production company to turn ‘The Hood’ into a huge hit in India as well. ‘The Hood’ joins a list of Ananey studio titles that have reached viewers all over the world and we are thrilled to bring our content to Asia as well with this deal.”
