When Deepak Dhar told his family he was resigning as group head of programming at Star TV to join a Dutch company named Endemol, the reaction was one of amazement. "My mother wondered why I was joining a cough syrup company," says Dhar, Managing Director of Endemol India, with a joyful grin on his face. His mother wasn't the only one amused. After all, Endemol does sound like a medicine (think paracetamol). But, that was seven years ago. There is no such misconception now, as Endemol has emerged as one of India's largest TV production companies, weighing in alongside much older rivals such as Balaji Telefilms and Cinevistaas.

How did the company achieve this feat in such a short time? The success of Endemol, named for its Dutch founders Joop van den Ende and John de Mol, is largely a result of its hit reality shows such as Bigg Boss and Fear Factor-Khatron Ke Khiladi. Both are local adaptations of Endemol's popular reality shows Big Brother and Fear Factor in other markets such as the UK. Still, it wasn't easy to convince broadcasters to take up reality shows at a time when family dramas involving wicked mothers-in-law scheming against their daughters-in-law were the rage.

"Back then (in 2006) no production house dared to venture into differentiated content," recalls Dhar, who was Endemol's creative director at the time. That did not deter Dhar and his then boss, Rajesh Kamat. Both believed that Endemol's hit global reality shows would work in India as well. "We used to stock as many DVDs as possible of global reality shows in our cars while meeting with broadcasters," says Dhar, sitting in the company's cramped head office, in Mumbai's Andheri suburb, that is a far cry from the swanky sets where its shows are recorded.