India’s Sippy Films is rolling out its legacy IPs including “Sholay” and “Shaan” across animation, microdramas, gaming and merchandising in a multi-format strategy backed by investor Kuberans Tech Ventures, custodian Shehzad Sippy and Kuberans director Jeet Wagh tell Variety.
The approach draws from Western character IP models and Japanese anime’s cross-platform playbook, targeting younger audiences while the studio prepares to announce a new feature film partnership by mid-2026.
Sippy outlines a strategy that positions films as the primary driver while supplementing with multiple revenue streams and audience touchpoints.
“With specifically with character IP, how one approaches development and roll out of these things is it’s almost like a wheel of monetization that you and planning that you have to have,” Sippy says. “Films, live action content, really drive the character IP business more than anything else. So you need to have those things coming out, but then it should be supplemented with these other touch points and being able to constantly engage with your fan base. So whether that’s animation or gaming, or merchandise, or there’s new forms of fan interaction with Web3 platforms… all of this is being looked at [including] stage plays.”
The strategy draws from established Western models. “You can look at the classic Disney model, they have this huge portfolio of character IP, and this is how they strategically plan and develop and roll these things out,” Sippy says. “That’s the kind of approach we want to take, which we felt has been lacking from an Indian studio perspective.”
Sippy emphasizes the revenue diversification potential. “Character led IP lends itself well to other streams of revenue, also not just that one weekend at the box office,” he said. “They lend themselves to gaming, merchandising, various forms of licensing that can occur after the fact. And the fact is, we haven’t had a lot of homegrown IPs out of India. I think you could say Green Gold Animation [the company behind globally successful IP “Chhota Bheem’] is the main one that has been able to do it successfully.”
Wagh stresses that the evolving market requires flexible content strategies across theatrical, streaming and emerging formats including microdramas.
“Everything might not be a film or full fledged series. It can be smaller content pieces also that can go throughout the world, throughout cross streams, cross platforms, microdramas,” Wagh says. “You never know where what fits what. It’s very content driven – whatever fits a piece, because we can’t have a plan for that. Wherever the content is, how the content is developed, and how, what is the go to market strategy for it, that’s where we have to sit on that platform.”
Wagh contrasts the approach with traditional theatrical planning. “That traditional thinking of ‘We are making an IP, I think this will do these many theater days, in these many territories,’ that is, I feel, personally, has gone out of the window where so many parallel streams of platforms are actually coming across now,” he says.
Sippy adds: “We’re in 2026. We have a new young audience in this country. We have to rethink the approach. We’re trying to create stuff that will resonate with young people and hopefully for generations to come.”
“The goal is, having taken over the company now and taking it forward in a new direction, is to build that with all the legacy IPs we have, to build those worlds out in the form of new content, specifically film and animation,” Sippy says. “These IPs have a lot of appeal as they are, but we want to set them up for the future generations, and have them have that cross generational appeal across formats, whether it be film or animation.”
Development work spans origin stories, new character introductions and world expansion. “The goal is to try to set these up as franchises moving forward,” Sippy says.
The studio has been in active development for over a year. “We’ve been heavily involved in development of several of these IPs over the last year or so, and we’re getting close to now making formal announcements of some of the new content that will be rolling out,” Sippy says. “In terms of the new content, I think towards mid this year there’ll be an announcement that comes out regarding a partnership we’re working on at the moment for the new feature length film we’re planning to start shooting later this year.”
Sippy points to the Japanese anime industry as a blueprint for character IP exploitation, drawing on early career experience working with Gen Fukunaga, who brought “Dragon Ball Z” to U.S. audiences.
“The reason anime resonates across the world with young people is that even though culturally, the storylines are steeped in Japanese culture, the themes are universal,” Sippy says. “If you look at some of the IP and the legacy IP we have, the underlying storylines are all universal.”
Sippy notes Fukunaga’s merchandising success. “The first year he made no money on ‘Dragon Ball Z’ from a broadcast perspective, but he made $50 million in merchandising, controlling the merchandising,” he says. “The quality of the animation, and the way they keep audiences interested in the craft they’ve been able to put together. That’s the secret sauce.”
The studio plans to incorporate manga-style content development. “A lot of Japanese anime, it’s manga that drives the content first, first the manga comes out, and then the content comes post that,” Sippy says. “In the same way, if you look at DC and Marvel comics, comics books led to their business moving forward and being able to tell those stories in different formats.”
Wagh emphasizes the importance of multiple consumer touchpoints beyond film releases, citing the Japanese anime industry’s approach to merchandising and brand integration.
“Creating touch points, what Japanese anime actually does, is for younger [audiences],” Wagh said. “A lot of social media is also curated towards the anime. As a young generation, when you’re watching something on TV and you’re creating more touch points across your life, be it books, be it in schools, be it on social media, you tend to actually live them rather than just watch them. That’s where the craze and fandom starts in the character IP or anime business as well.”
While the studio’s library consists of properties that are 50 years old or slightly less, Sippy emphasizes the focus on younger demographics while maintaining family-friendly content.
“There is a disconnect between an older audience and the audience today. So that’s specifically what we’re trying to bridge with the way we’re approaching the rollout of our content,” Sippy says. “The main focus is the youth of today and the youth moving forward.”
The approach aims to create multi-generational appeal. “We hope to emulate that family friendly content that we’re creating so where a mother, father, grandparent can come watch the film along with their kids and grandkids, and there’s something there for everybody,” Sippy says. “Not only through how we develop the content, but the modes of consumption, whether it’s animation or Web3. We want to take a holistic approach to how we are planning all these things.”
The strategy follows the Film Heritage Foundation’s restoration of “Sholay” after discovering 500 cans of original material and 500 cans of “Shaan” material in Technicolor’s storage facility in London. The restored “Sholay” is in discussions for limited theatrical releases through Criterion in North America and BFI in the U.K., with a Criterion Blu-ray edition and streaming release also planned.