CAA Signs Deal With India’s Largest Talent Agency

CAA is going Bollywood.

The agency has entered into a joint venture with KWAN Entertainment & Marketing Solutions, the largest talent agency in India, to represent talent locally as well as in other South Asian countries.

The goal is to create global opportunities for those clients in movies, TV, music, sports, commercial endorsements and live events.

The idea is to copy CAA’s approach — with teams of agents representing clients, whether they’re talent or companies. CAA’s David Taghioff and Caleb Franklin will work with KWAN’s CEO and managing director Anirban Das Blah and COO Indranil “Niel” Blah to jointly lead the new joint venture.

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The company will start with more than 60 employees and be based in Mumbai, with offices in Delhi, Bangalore and Hyderabad.

“India’s robust entertainment industry offers CAA KWAN tremendous opportunities for talent across multiple platforms,” CAA president Richard Lovett said.  “In a very short period of time, KWAN has intelligently scaled and diversified their business to maximize this thriving marketplace for their clients. KWAN’s deep network of relationships, local-market knowledge and collaborative business philosophy make them a powerful partner in furthering CAA’s existing business in India and providing our clients with more opportunities.”

Said Anirban Das Blah, “We believe that the combination of CAA’s experience, influence and expertise with KWAN’s extensive knowledge of the Indian entertainment industry will enable us to provide an unmatched spectrum of services for our clients.”

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Blah formerly was CEO of sports and celebrity management company GloboSport before he co-founded KWAN in 2009. He had joined GloboSport from Ericsson Telecom AB in Stockholm, where he was the youngest portfolio marketing manager in the broadband fixed networks unit.

Niel Blah also joined KWAN in 2009 from GloboSport, where he was vp sports. He oversees KWAN’s day-to-day operations, including sports, events and brand management services.

Other South Asian countries in which the company will operate include Pakistan, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Afghanistan.