Sanjeev Das & Sanjeet Das
Founder & CEO
Mitigating all the odds, they have delivered close to 9000+ hours for Dubbing and 15k+ Hours for subtitling, being a startup with two team players, they have clients like NFAI (Govt), Sony, Turner, Zee5, MX Player, Eros NOW and Lionsgate India. And operating out of Mumbai, Noida, and South Africa.
In an exclusive conversation with CEO Insights Sanjeev Das takes us through the virtual tour of their success journey.
Tell us about the journey so far at Native Ninja.
We started this journey in 2017 with a clear goal to make Native Ninja a global localization company. The goodwill and trust created by us in the last 27 years worked in our favor. Operating out of car and tea stall, we got our first project from PVR pictures to dub a Spanish film into English, followed by six languages dubbing & Subtitling contract from ALT Balaji for their top series and multiple language dubbing contracts from Sony YAY in animation. Lionsgate India trusted us to dub, master and deliver their library content of some best Hollywood flix in 5 Indian languages, and the journey continues.
1st year was tough on us, but our friends supported us financially and our old and loyal team joined us back as the business flourished. Second year as we decided to start our studios, Pandemic and lockdown derailed us. The business continued during those tough times with lots of innovation, courage, and team work. After all `the show must go on'.
Highlight some instances that taught you some crucial lessons of company operations and to evolve as a business leader?
‘Change is the only constant' Our aim to build studios with all the Infosec compliances in check in multiple locations and get them certified/audited with existing and new clients is delayed due to an ongoing pandemic. Collaboration was key to survival. We handpicked our partners, trained them, enrolled them, then engaged them for consistent delivery and business growth.
In WFH scenario the coordination between multiple stake-holders was quite tedious but the managers
soon tweaked and orchestrated the workflow to suite the client's need. The practice developed during that time is still being followed even when most of them are working from office and studios. Must say, our clients also supported us during these tough time specially Sony YAY, Lionsgate & Zee5.
Lastly, We both are from a creative and technical background, financial hygiene, working capital gaps, recovery, and payment to 100s of contributors every month was initially very challenging and time consuming, which took our attention away from the focus of sales and delivery. Continuously learning on the job and evolving had been our key mantra, we divided the responsibility in sales and finance and creative and operations and built a team specific to the task.
Few of our team members are with us for the last 10+ years. From two founding member teams to 30 strong in three years with 100s of contactors, we learned to move with time and keep learning to stay ahead of the curve as we build our infrastructure.
Also, tell us about your achievements at Native Ninja and the business transformation you led via those achievements?
We get our mojo when we are asked to deliver something impossible. If you need 200 hrs of dubbed content every month or 500 hrs of subtitling every month, we can make it happen. Regardless of any region, genre, geography or language.
We were instrumental in opening many new territory based on the language requirement.
Last year March, as the lockdown was imposed in the media industry, we were prudent enough to plan and were ready to meet the impossible deadlines demanded by our customers, infact we could take up additional work which had got struck for many of our customers due to lockdown and delivered with consistent quality.
This pandemic helped us to evolve and innovate and we were successful in acquiring many new customers. We could close 3000+ movies with major OTT Platform for subtitling, four new original shows from MX Player, and the most significant NFAI Subtitling Agreement for 100,000+ Minutes.
Lastly, as a complete audio post-production unit and having past experience of 2D animation and live production, we ventured into PAAS(Production as a service).
Lastly, We both are from a creative and technical background, financial hygiene, working capital gaps, recovery, and payment to 100s of contributors every month was initially very challenging and time consuming, which took our attention away from the focus of sales and delivery. Continuously learning on the job and evolving had been our key mantra, we divided the responsibility in sales and finance and creative and operations and built a team specific to the task.
Few of our team members are with us for the last 10+ years. From two founding member teams to 30 strong in three years with 100s of contactors, we learned to move with time and keep learning to stay ahead of the curve as we build our infrastructure.
Thanks to our customers and partners, Today, We have successfully opened a facility in Noida and Mumbai, and we work with exclusive local partners in Chennai, Kolkata, South Africa, Malaysia, Dubai, and Indonesia. This organic growth despite the pandemic was not possible without their support
Also, tell us about your achievements at Native Ninja and the business transformation you led via those achievements?
We get our mojo when we are asked to deliver something impossible. If you need 200 hrs of dubbed content every month or 500 hrs of subtitling every month, we can make it happen. Regardless of any region, genre, geography or language.
We were instrumental in opening many new territory based on the language requirement.
Last year March, as the lockdown was imposed in the media industry, we were prudent enough to plan and were ready to meet the impossible deadlines demanded by our customers, infact we could take up additional work which had got struck for many of our customers due to lockdown and delivered with consistent quality.
This pandemic helped us to evolve and innovate and we were successful in acquiring many new customers. We could close 3000+ movies with major OTT Platform for subtitling, four new original shows from MX Player, and the most significant NFAI Subtitling Agreement for 100,000+ Minutes.
Lastly, as a complete audio post-production unit and having past experience of 2D animation and live production, we ventured into PAAS(Production as a service).
This is our edge. We are probably the only production house who can provide a complete turn key solution for animation pipe line. Yes, we create the script, followed by animation with complete audio post and video master.
As the Founder of Native Ninja, what strategies have you laid to enhance the functionalities of the organization post-pandemic?
Pandemic has taught us a lot. I must confess that being an agile startup we experimented and evolved with time. Managers now happily work from home,(so is half of the employees) and we had to re-think on our future plan & investments.
As a strategy we want to focus more on automated work flow for dub, sub & animation production. Continue to develop our home grown platform with AI & ML. Thus minimise the cost and pass the benefit to our customers.
In your journey so far, which are the milestones that bestowed you with utmost satisfaction?
Our collaboration to direct Spiderman-Home coming (with Tiger Shroff as voice-actor for Tom Holland), Jumanji welcome to the jungle & Spiderman Far from Home with PFT to deliver Hindi version for theatrical releases is worth mentioning.
Delivering some of best Lionsgate movies in five language and creating promos for the launch.
Huge shout out to Warner Media team for giving us the opportunity to work on Academy award winner movie ‘JOKER’ for Hindi subtitles.
Our recent win ‘National film archive of India’(NFAI) as a client for trusting us to subtitle some of the best movies ever produced by Indian regional film makers.
Lastly, Delivering 2D animation for one of the top show of Sony YAY gives us a new high.
Sanjeev Das, Founder & CEO, Native Ninja
He is an innovative, dynamic, entertainment industry professional who brings in more than 20 years of experience in content localization and its ancillary services. He started his carrier as a Sound Engineer when the media industry was moving from analog to digital. Worked with Sony Entertainment, VGP Video Vision, UTV, PFT, etc.
Sanjeet Das, Founder & CEO, Native Ninja
With creative mindset, Sanjeet landed a job in UTV immediately after graduating from Jai Hind College Mumbai. He got associated with his mentor (Eli) and crafted the skills of dialogue adaptation, direction, recording, mixing, and sound design during his early years. After Working on some of the most iconic (now classic) movies for Disney & Warner Bros with her, he produced the first regional movie for Uttarakhand. Also worked with CMM Studios, Modi Entertainment (Disney) & PFT.
As the Founder of Native Ninja, what strategies have you laid to enhance the functionalities of the organization post-pandemic?
Pandemic has taught us a lot. I must confess that being an agile startup we experimented and evolved with time. Managers now happily work from home,(so is half of the employees) and we had to re-think on our future plan & investments.
As a strategy we want to focus more on automated work flow for dub, sub & animation production. Continue to develop our home grown platform with AI & ML. Thus minimise the cost and pass the benefit to our customers.
In your journey so far, which are the milestones that bestowed you with utmost satisfaction?
Our collaboration to direct Spiderman-Home coming (with Tiger Shroff as voice-actor for Tom Holland), Jumanji welcome to the jungle & Spiderman Far from Home with PFT to deliver Hindi version for theatrical releases is worth mentioning.
Delivering some of best Lionsgate movies in five language and creating promos for the launch.
Huge shout out to Warner Media team for giving us the opportunity to work on Academy award winner movie ‘JOKER’ for Hindi subtitles.
Our recent win ‘National film archive of India’(NFAI) as a client for trusting us to subtitle some of the best movies ever produced by Indian regional film makers.
Lastly, Delivering 2D animation for one of the top show of Sony YAY gives us a new high.
Sanjeev Das, Founder & CEO, Native Ninja
He is an innovative, dynamic, entertainment industry professional who brings in more than 20 years of experience in content localization and its ancillary services. He started his carrier as a Sound Engineer when the media industry was moving from analog to digital. Worked with Sony Entertainment, VGP Video Vision, UTV, PFT, etc.
Sanjeet Das, Founder & CEO, Native Ninja
With creative mindset, Sanjeet landed a job in UTV immediately after graduating from Jai Hind College Mumbai. He got associated with his mentor (Eli) and crafted the skills of dialogue adaptation, direction, recording, mixing, and sound design during his early years. After Working on some of the most iconic (now classic) movies for Disney & Warner Bros with her, he produced the first regional movie for Uttarakhand. Also worked with CMM Studios, Modi Entertainment (Disney) & PFT.