TED, the company renowned for its talks and conferences, is the latest U.S. player bidding to attract Indian eyeballs.
In February, the company greenlit “TED Talks India: Nayi Soch” in association with 21st Century Fox’s Star India and the FremantleMedia Group, a show hosted by Bollywood megastar Shah Rukh Khan. The Hindi-language show, TED’s first not in English, is now in post-production.
TED’s head of television and the show’s executive producer Juliet Blake told Variety that there will be eight episodes, with each featuring 4-5 speakers, 35 from India and a few from the U.S. and the U.K. Speakers include Google CEO Sundar Pichai, Indian media personality Karan Johar, screenwriter, lyricist and poet Javed Akhtar, controversial television producer Ekta Kapoor, and Indian women’s cricket team captain Mithali Raj.
TED is owned by the Sapling Foundation, a private non-profit organization established in 1996 by publishing entrepreneur Chris Anderson. The company had revenues of $62 million in 2016 from a mixture of conference registrations, business sponsorships and philanthropic donations. Revenue surpluses are reinvested into the company’s programs that include TED Talks, TEDx events around the world, and TED-Ed educational initiatives.
Blake, whose producing credits also include “The Hundred-Foot Journey” and “Farscape,” says: “It’s been an extraordinary experience finding these miraculous people doing unbelievable work. We’ve also found lots of other people who are not so well-known but are doing really interesting work, whether they’re working in slums, photography, or science, or people that are involved in the space race in India.” Read more Shah Rukh Khan Headlines TED Talks Launch in India (EXCLUSIVE)
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