Pooja Shetty

Introduction:

Pooja Shetty-Deora supervises the Film Production Department at Walkwater Media. She was one of the driving forces behind the success of Adlabs Films Limited before it was bought over by Anil Dhirubai Ambani Group. She is the daughter of Manmohan Shetty, the man who established Adlabs Films Ltd and is credited with bringing the multiplex revolution to India.

Early Life and Career:

Pooja was born in Mumbai. Her parents are Manmohan and Shashikala Shetty. She went to Maneckji Cooper School in Mumbai and later graduated from Purdue University in America with a Bachelors of Science in Management degree.

She started of at Adlab Films Ltd in 2000. Her brilliant entrepreneurial and operational skills saw her pilot ambitious projects for the multiplex business there. She was one of the cornerstones of Adlabs success and spearheaded the company’s expansion.

In 2008 she was named a Young Global leader by the World Economic Forum. After the establishment of Walkwater Media by Manmohan Shetty, she moved on to the Film & Production Department at Walkwater in 2008. Since then she's been instrumental in the development of Walkwater Media in various sectors of the entertainment industry.

Major accolades:

Pooja's biggest achievements include being a producer of movies like Rita and Tere Bin Laden.

- Rita (2009) a home production of Walkwater Media by Renuka Shahane which went on to win the Best Director Award at Star Screen, the Best Supporting Actress Award at the V Shantaram Awards and the Best Screenplay Award at the Pune Film Festival. Rita was officially screened at over 5 international film festivals.

- The overwhelming success of  Tere Bin Laden (2010) meant it was the first Bollywood movie to be invited to be screened at the Friars Club Comedy Festival in New York.

- Pratigya, another Walkwater Production, won the best serial at the Apsara, Indian Television and Big Star Awards.

Awards Won:

Best exhibitor- 11^th star screen awards

Film Foundation achiever of the year 2004

India's greatest brand builder

Indira Super Achiever Award 2004

Great women achiever Award 2007.

Future Projects:
Walkwater Media has also bought the rights for the book ‘Zoya Factor’ which was written by Anuja Chauhan. The rights of this book were originally sold to Shahrukh Khan’s Red Chillies Production. However, they have not worked on the film adaptation over the course of the past 3 years. This resulted in a lapse of rights period. Post that, Walkwater Media bought the book’s rights and are soon set to start work on it.

Walkwater Media has also lined up the sequel to Tere Bin Laden which is set to be directed by Abhishek Sharma.

There are various other projects in the pipeline.

Personal Life:

In 2008, she married Mumbai based politician Milind Deora.

Aarti Shetty

Introduction

Aarti Shetty serves as the Creative Head of Walkwater Media’s Film Production Department.  She is the daughter of Manmohan Shetty, the man who established Adlabs Films Ltd and is credited with bringing the multiplex revolution to India.

Early Life and Career
Aarti was born in Mumbai. Her parents are Manmohan and Shashikala Shetty. She went to Jamnabai Narsee school in Mumbai and later successfully completed a film direction course at New York University in the United States.

She has 4 years of on-set experience working as an Assistant director with big names in the industry like Karan Johar (Kabhi Alvida Na Kehna), Ram Gopal Varma (Bhoot) and Shimit Amin (Ab Tak Chappan). Post that, took up the position of Creative Head in Walkwater Media’s Film Production Department.

Major accolades:

Aarti's biggest achievements include being a producer of movies like Rita and Tere Bin Laden.

- Rita (2009) a home production of Walkwater Media by Renuka Shahane which went on to win the Best Director Award at Star Screen, the Best Supporting Actress Award at the V Shantaram Awards and the Best Screenplay Award at the Pune Film Festival. Rita was officially screened at over 5 international film festivals.

- The overwhelming success of Tere Bin Laden (2010) meant it was the first Bollywood movie to be invited to be screened at the Friars Club Comedy Festival in New York.

- Pratigya, another Walkwater Production, won the best serial at the Apsara, Indian Television and Big Star Awards.

Future Projects:
Walkwater Media has also bought the rights for the book ‘Zoya Factor’ which was written by Anuja Chauhan. The rights of this book were originally sold to Shahrukh Khan’s Red Chillies Production. However, they have not worked on the film adaptation over the course of the past 3 years. This resulted in a lapse in the original rights period. Post that, Walkwater Media bought the book’s rights and are soon set to start work on it.

Walkwater Media has also lined up the sequel to Tere Bin Laden which is set to be directed by Abhishek Sharma.

There are various other projects in the pipeline.

Walkwater Media Ltd

Introduction

Walkwater Media Ltd. is representative of a fully integrated content centric business encompassing production across films and television. It is promoted by Mr.Manmohan Shetty and was established in November 2007.

Inception

Manmohan Shetty was the driving force behind the establishment of Adlabs Films Limited, which went on to become one of the biggest entertainment corporations in India. In 2007 he floated a venture with the intention of primarily focusing on film production and strategic media investments. Hence, Walkwater Media came into being.

The main objective of the company is to emerge as a premium content creator across various media for the Indian and global entertainment market and to promote new ventures as well as well as enhance existing businesses in the media and entertainment sectors.

Work

In the film production department, Walkwater has supported a number of home productions and also worked with established names in Bollywood. The intention is to consciously encourage the development of new talent and to continue establishing Walkwater as a name synonymous with quality and reliability. Some of the projects Walkwater Media has already worked on include:

• Raajneeti (2010) – The film was co-produced with Prakash Jha
• Rita (2009) – A home production directed by Renuka Shahane. Rita (played by Pallavi Joshi) is a Marathi film, which portrays the story of a woman’s life that is thrown out of gear by circumstance and is reflective of her journey towards emotional stability. The movie cast also includes Jackie Shroff and Renuka Shahane herself. Each plays a strong and influential character that goes on to mold Rita into the person she finally becomes by helping her at various stages. The film went on to win major accolades at national and international film festivals.
• Tere Bin Laden (2010) – Another Walkwater home production directed by Abhishek Sharma. The film is a tongue-in-cheek comedy about an ambitious news reporter (played by Ali Zaffar) who is desperate to migrate to the US, but has his visa constantly rejected. However he strikes gold when he runs into an Osama Bin Laden look alike. He then comes up with a fake video, which he sells, to a number of news channels. However things go wrong when the US government agencies get involved and begin tracking him. The film went on to leave quite a mark at the Box Office while gaining appreciation on global fronts. Walkwater Media was also the worldwide distributor of the film.

Other Departments

Walkwater’s Television Content Production department is intent on creating high quality entertainment shows, which would appeal to audiences of all ages.

Upcoming Campaigns

Walkwater Media has already announced a sequel to ‘Tere Bin Laden’, which will be directed by Abhishek Sharma. The company is looking to build on the sleeping success of the original.

Walkwater Media has also bought the rights for the book ‘Zoya Factor’ which was written by Anuja Chauhan. The rights of this book were originally sold to Shahrukh Khan’s Red Chillies Production. However, they did not work on the film adaptation over the course of the past 3 years. This resulted in a lapse of rights period. Post that, Walkwater Media bought the book’s rights and are soon set to start work on it.

Strategic Investments & Partners

Walkwater has established itself alongside reputed names in the entertainment sector.

• Frameboxx Animation & Visual Effects: A premiere animation / VFX Training Academy.
• NDTV Lumiere: A JV with NDTV to showcase World Cinema Films in India on various platforms.
• Cine Imagine Films: A JV with NDTV for production of small budget films with eye on quality cinema.
• I-rock Media: A venture for development of Animation & VFx related Film properties.
• Scrabble Entertainment: The leading producer of Digital Cinema Projectors from Christie and is implementing the largest rollout of 2K D-Cinema compliant exhibition systems in the country.

Walkwater Media Starts Work on Tere Bin Laden Sequel

If you thought Osama Bin Laden was dead and forgotten, think again. The world’s most wanted terrorist is set to return to the silver screen from the afterlife as WalkWater Media begins pre-production on the sequel to their smash hit Tere Bin Laden. The original movie, produced by Pooja Shetty Deora and Aarti Shetty, received rave reviews for the satirical parody on Osama Bin Laden. The Shetty sisters are now working on a sequel to the blockbuster.

Titled Tere Bin Laden 3, the sequel (or three-quel!) of the comedy takes place after Osama’s death. “I’m very excited about Tere Bin Laden 3 as it reunites a young, talented bunch of people and will allow us to relive the exciting Tere Bin Laden journey,” Pooja shared. While she will be overseeing production, the film will be written and directed by Abhishek Sharma, with both Pradhuman Singh and Ali Zafar acting in the sequel. “Abhishek has a good script with a whole new format of story-telling,” discloses Aarti, adding, “We are looking forward to starting work on this film!”

WalkWater Media is set to begin the pre-production of Tere Bin Laden 3 on May 2, to coincide with the first death anniversary of the terrorist.  No doubt the sequel will be as funny as the original movie, but the producers aren’t giving anything away. When questioned about the film, Sharma responded, “All I can say is that Tere Bin Laden 3 will be one of the most original sequels!”