The year 2021 marked 10 years in the business for Mars Media, the leading Russian content company founded by Ruben Dishdishyan, who previously set up and ran fellow major player Central Partnership.
At Mars, Dishdishyan and his team initially focused on producing TV, but have since moved more into the film business, at a time when most of the industry seems to be going in the other direction. The pivot to large-screen production has paid dividends, however, with its family movie Palma proving a local hit, and spawning a sequel, while its war pic T-34 was both a local box office success and also made waves in China. On the horizon, Mars’ projects include Woland, the $15M drama starring Inglorious Basterds actor August Diehl in a loose adaptation of Mikhail Bulgakov’s classic novel The Master and Margarita.