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Tag: Ishan Saksena

  • Mittal, Binani cede majority control in B4U Media to Abecross Holdings

    Mittal, Binani cede majority control in B4U Media to Abecross Holdings

    MUMBAI: Indian billionaire Lakshmi Mittal has for long been wanting to offload his media investment in Indian music and movie channel network- B4U Media – as it does not form a part of his core businesses and has been looking for an exit.

    Well he seems to have got one, partially at least, with the announcement at the beginning of the month that medium-sized equity firm Abercross Holdings is picking up a majority stake in B4U Network for pounds sterling 20 million. Abecross is led by former England cricketer Alex Loudon and Issam Hamid, former chief investment officer for the Saudi royal family, and Andrew Woodhouse who was formerly director of corporate finance and development at SABMiller.

    B4U Media is being led by CEO Ishan Saksena, at the time of the Abecross acquisition, who had earlier managed the Queens Parks Rangers for the Lakshmi Mittal group. The company has a clutch of channels under its belt which includes: B4U Music, B4U Movies, and B4U Aflam. The channels are available in more than 100 countries globally. Additionally, it has been building up its on-the-go service B4U Mobile in recent times. B4U Media has a film production and distribution offshoot B4U Films.

    “We are proud of the growth of B4U as a major content platform for Indian entertainment. Indian entertainment has many fans all over the world and B4U has played an important role in driving the awareness and enjoyment of this great art form,” says Swordfish Investments managing partner Amit Bhatia, the son-in-law of Lakshmi Mittal, who is the largest shareholder in B4U. The others being Gokul Binani and Eros’ Sunil Lulla (diamond merchant and film producer Bharat Shah was initially an investor too).

    “Abercross has a vision to further grow the brand and cement its leadership position in this space. We wish them every success for the future and will follow the company’s progress with great interest,” he adds.

    Adds Abecross managing partner Issam Hamid said: “B4U has developed into a fantastic brand with strong potential for growth and a proven management team. We are very pleased to welcome the company to our portfolio and are committed to growing the business and making it the foremost player in its space.”

  • Relativity – B4U ties up with Balaji Motion Pictures

    Relativity – B4U ties up with Balaji Motion Pictures

    MUMBAI: Relativity – B4U, a joint venture established earlier this year, announced an association with Balaji Motion Pictures to produce three films, with the first being the Hindi remake of The Best of Me. The cast for the Hindi adaptation of the film is yet to be announced.

     

    Announcing the agreement, Relativity-B4U CEO Ishan Saksena said, “Balaji has been producing hugely successful films over the last few years. This coupled with their undisputed TV content leadership makes Balaji an automatic choice for us to tie in. This three film co-production, a natural step in our progression provides a platform to bring the best of Relativity’s intellectual property, production skills, and unique monetising strategies to India, and partner with Balaji whose strengths in this area are unsurpassed.”

     

    Commenting on the new deal, Balaji Telefilms Group CEO Sameer Nair said, “B4U has always been at the helm for delivering Bollywood content in India and internationally. This association with Relativity-B4U allows both our organizations’ synergies to be maximised and allows us to create engaging successful content for Indian audiences. We feel that this co-production deal plays to our mutual strengths and will give Indian audiences uniquely creative filmed content.”

     

    Adding to the same, Balaji Telefilms joint managing director and creative director Ekta Kapoor revealed, “The co-production tie-up also brings us unprecedented access to Relativity’s catalogue past and future and allows for the films to be re-imagined for India. Relativity boasts of an exciting array of films and a creative collaboration with Relativity is something that excites all of us at Balaji.”

     

    “The agreement brings great strength to Relativity’s existing catalogue of content, and we believe that this is a unique blueprint that further bridges two great filmmaking industries — Hollywood and Bollywood,” added Relativity CEO Ryan Kavanaugh.

     

    Relativity – B4U also recently premiered its first distribution venture The Best of Me, at the first South Asian premiere of a Hollywood film in the company of its lead actors Michelle Monaghan and James Marsden, and Director Michael Hoffman.