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Gayathiri Guliani and Uzair Merchant are unveiling K2 Media Capital, a new entertainment investment and production venture, at the Toronto Film Festival market.
The company aims to identify, finance and produce high-value intellectual property that crosses borders and formats.
Guliani, a media industry veteran, and Merchant, an award-winning filmmaker and writer, created K2 to meet what they describe as a shift in how entertainment value is generated: a project can matter as much for its franchise potential, technology tie-ins, licensing deals, gaming spinoffs and immersive extensions as for the film or series that started it, according to the company. The slate spans movies, television, documentaries, educational content and immersive storytelling, anchored by long-term ownership of IP, international co-productions and monetizing that IP across formats.
Guliani’s 27-year career includes stints at Sony, Lionsgate, Viacom, Reliance and Star, spanning global media, distribution rights, licensing, production and content deals. Merchant’s screen credits include “Deadpool 2,” “Fast and Furious 7” and the “Superman & Lois” series in the art department, alongside numerous international awards for his original IP.
“The entertainment industry is at an important inflection point,” said Gayathiri Guliani, partner at K2 Media Capital. “The opportunity is no longer simply to finance a production; it is to identify intellectual property that can build value across multiple platforms, territories and generations. Uzair and I come from different sides of the entertainment ecosystem, but share the same conviction: exceptional IP needs the right creative architecture, commercial strategy and capital to reach its full potential. K2 is being built to create that bridge.”
The company describes its process as a chain that starts with creating IP and moves through development, packaging, financing and production before reaching distribution and exploitation across multiple formats, with no fixed medium preferred. A project might end up as a film, a TV series, a streaming title, a book, a game, a soundtrack, a licensed product or an immersive experience, wherever it fits best internationally.
Uzair Merchant, partner at K2, said: “I have spent much of my career creating worlds, developing stories and exploring how technology can expand the way audiences experience them. K2 gives us the opportunity to take that creative thinking and build a much larger ecosystem around it, one where original IP can be developed with both creative ambition and commercial foresight. We don’t want to simply make content. We want to build worlds, own and develop IP, create franchises and give creators a pathway from an idea to a global entertainment asset.”
The venture has brought in an advisory board whose members work across intellectual-property and entertainment law, filmmaking, screenwriting and franchise development on one side, and international production, finance, media strategy, technology and distribution on the other. Board members are based in Hollywood, Asia, the Middle East and other production hubs, and will help K2 vet and build out opportunities as they move from initial rights work through financing, production, partnerships and monetization.
K2 is entering the market with a pipeline that already includes “Masala Boba,” a Taiwan-India-Jordan co-production feature currently in pre-production; “Vault X,” a sci-fi action and espionage property from India and the U.A.E. with a 20-minute proof of concept already produced; “Every Living Thing,” a completed Canada-India-U.A.E. documentary about water scarcity narrated by Kabir Bedi and set to premiere at the Toronto Market; “Big Man Small World,” a Canada-U.A.E. culinary reality series following chef Albert Valentine; “Sincerely Sofia,” a U.K.-U.A.E. suspense thriller in development with a completed script; and “The Kreativ Universe,” a five-title interconnected franchise with genres running from noir and myth to retro-futurism, spiritual action and tech-thriller stories.
At the market, K2 intends to open talks with potential partners spanning the industry: sales agents, distributors, investors, family offices and media funds on the financing side, and studios, streamers, broadcasters, production companies, publishers, gaming firms, technology companies and licensing partners on the content and distribution side. The list of deal types on offer runs from project financing and co-production partnerships to IP acquisition, option rights, licensing, merchandising and publishing and gaming tie-ins, plus format and adaptation rights, along with global distribution and sales opportunities and potential immersive and technology collaborations.
“K2 is about creating a pipeline rather than chasing individual projects,” said Guliani. “We want to build a portfolio of IP where creativity, ownership, capital and global market access work together. Toronto is the first major international platform where we are opening that conversation.”
Merchant said nothing exists in isolation, and that he believes the future of storytelling works the same way. “K2 is about building a new ecosystem where artists can own the worlds they create, where technology amplifies rather than replaces imagination, and where culturally authentic stories rooted in science, philosophy and human experience can travel beyond borders,” he said. “The future isn’t just about creating content. It’s about creating universes that artists can own, audiences can inhabit, and cultures can see themselves within.”
K2 Media Capital is based in the U.A.E.
English (US) ·