Siddharth Roy Kapur COMING FULL CIRCLE

The founder of the production house Roy Kapur Films on why content needs to be compelling and not star-driven, and learning to not let either success or failure get to him

- Lata Jha

Siddhartha Roy Kapur's work cabin is an ode to the films he grew up on. Nestled in a bustling corner of Mumbai's Khar area, with an entire wall taken up by a window that overlooks the street below, it's hard to miss the iconic movie posters on the walls—Mughal-e-Azam, Pyaasa and Sholay. And then there is the prized possession: a poster of the 2023 film Napoleon, signed by the director, Ridley Scott, himself.

It's a space Roy Kapur, 50, says he worked closely with the designer on, when he started his independent production company Roy Kapur Films after leaving the Walt Disney Co. India, where he served as managing director until 2016.

The content studio has churned out films like Deva (2025), Pippa (2023) and The Sky is Pink (2019) besides web originals such as Yeh Ballet (2020), Aranyak (2021) and Rocket Boys (2022), keeping the pipeline steady though not cluttered. After a manic couple of years at Disney where he oversaw everything from the studio business to the broadcast network and the consumer products vertical, all at the same time, it is easy to see why Roy Kapur is taking it slow.

"In the last two to three years, there has been a slowdown in terms of the number of films and shows getting made (across the industry). While it's very easy to have a lot of activity going on (in terms of new announcements), I feel it makes sense to take a breath, look at the landscape, really focus on development, and then make the things worth making," Roy Kapur says.

The studio is currently filming a project called Matka King starring Vijay Varma for Amazon Prime Video to be directed by Nagraj Manjule and has announced a web series adaptation of William Dalrymple's book The Anarchy, to be directed by Stephen Frears.