Pocket Aces' Dice Media to remake JTBC Studios' K-drama 'Something In The Rain'

Digital entertainment company, Pocket Aces’ long-form studio, Dice Media joined hands with South Korean production house - JTBC Studios. The two are partnering to remake popular K-drama shows, starting with the award-winning series ‘Something In The Rain’.

The adaptation by Dice Media will be co-produced by JTBC Studios, making this their entry project in India.

A pioneer of the K-drama content industry, JTBC Studios encompasses all value chains in the content business by discovering the source IP, producing content, and distributing it worldwide. 

As per the companies, the decision to partner with Dice Media was taking owing to its expertise in the relationship and family drama genres, making it the perfect partner.

Originally broadcasted through JTBC’s Television network in 2018, ‘Something In The Rain’ was awarded ‘Excellence in Korean Drama’ at Seoul International Drama Awards in 2018 and ‘Best Drama Series’ at Asian Television Awards in 2019.

The story is a narrative around issues that plague both Korean and Indian cultures, seen from the lens of a girl in her mid-30s and a boy in his mid-20s who try to make their taboo relationship work amongst the backdrop of conservative families, workplace harassment, and socio-economic differences.

As per Dice Media, Indian audiences are becoming adept at consuming content from regions that are not native to them - whether it is content from regions across India or from countries such as Korea or Turkey. Out of these, Korean content is the clear leader with shows like ‘Squid Games’, ‘Descendants Of The Sun’, ‘Itaewon Class’, ‘Crash Landing On You’, etc being widely appreciated by Indian audiences.

With the viewing for K-dramas on Netflix in India increasing more than 370% in 2020 over 2019 according to a Netflix report. However, this is mostly an urban centre phenomenon since less exposed audiences in smaller towns are often not adept at reading subtitles at the required speed, and also find it harder to relate to faces that don’t look like them.

A remake, therefore, is an effective way to further increase the reach and adoption of these stories by Indianizing the characters and plot points, thus making them more relatable and accessible to audience pan-India. An example is the Sushmita Sen-starrer ‘Arya’, which is a remake of the Dutch show ‘Penoza’. The Indian version moved the story to Rajasthan, giving it a genuine Indian touch. 

Jung Kyung-Moon, CEO of JTBC Studios said, “We are excited to present our successful TV series ‘Something In The Rain’ to Indian audiences through a remake. We expect this collaboration to bring a significant opportunity for JTBC Studios to make the first step into the dynamic Indian content market. We also hope that Pocket Aces' production expertise will be able to make an excellent result, with JTBC Studios’ proven IP. We believe the partnership between JTBC Studios and Pocket Aces will deliver a wonderful experience to the Indian audience.”

Aditi Shriastava, Co-founder and CEO, Pocket Aces, said, “The key for a successful remake is maintaining the soul of the story and characters while localising plot points and motivations. Korea and India have very similar hearts - the societal and familial structures are quite alike. This makes the content ripe for adaptation. We look forward to working with the JTBC Studios team and are extremely excited to co-produce their highly successful shows here in India. What we share in common is that both JTBC Studios and Pocket Aces truly care about the creatives and about localising the content in the right manner. With our expertise in relationship/family/workplace dramas, and our methodology of using audience insights for development, I am confident that we will be able to do this effectively. ‘Something In The Rain’ is my personal favourite K-drama, and I look forward to making one of India’s most sought after franchises.”

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