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Tag: movie business

  • SPE appoints Shony Panjikaran & Lada Guruden Singh to lead distribution and production biz in India

    SPE appoints Shony Panjikaran & Lada Guruden Singh to lead distribution and production biz in India

    Mumbai: Sony Pictures Entertainment (SPE) appoints Shony Panjikaran and Lada Guruden Singh to take over the reins of its distribution and production business in India.

    Lada Guruden Singh has been named general manager and head of Sony Pictures International Productions (SPIP), India. He will be overseeing SPIP India’s local film development and production slate as well as its expansion in regional cinema. Lada will report to SPIP co-heads Michael Rifkin and Shebnem Askin.

    Shony Panjikaran has been named general manager and head of Sony Pictures Releasing International, India. He will manage Sony Pictures’ theatrical releasing business across the Hollywood and local cinematic slate in India, including all distribution, sales, and marketing efforts. Shony will report to Sony Pictures Entertainment senior vice president distribution Asia Adam Herr.

    In addition to its impressive Hollywood line-up of upcoming feature films, Sony Pictures is further committing to investment in Indian theatrical projects, and it has expanded its footprint in regional cinema including Telugu, Tamil, and Malayalam projects.

    Shony Panjikaran said, “Sony Pictures is a global force that creates imaginative and engaging content for audiences across the world. It is an absolute privilege to oversee SPE’s theatrical business in India and bring an incredible slate of Hollywood and Indian cinema to Indian audiences. For both Lada and I, it will be hugely rewarding to lead Sony Pictures Entertainment, India into a new era. Today, the film market in India is virtually borderless, and I am looking forward to pioneering new initiatives and partnerships in this dynamic distribution space and to satisfy the demand for brilliant global and local stories in India.”

    Lada Guruden Singh said, “As India leads the world in entertainment, creating content in volume and quality that ranks right at the top, we are excited to give it our all to become one of the top players in the country. From tentpole hits to clutter break-through content, from stories unfolding at the margins to the celebration of Indian mythology; we want to push the boundaries and synergies with leading talent as well as with fresh new voices. Shony and I are committed to making this dream come true, breaking all language barriers, and turning Sony Pictures Entertainment, India into the most sought-after creative studio in India!”

    Lada has been with Sony Pictures group since 2014 in multiple capacities across public relations, marketing, and creative development. He has worked on titles like “Piku”, “PadMan”, “102 Not Out”, “Looop Lapeta” and has led the studio’s expansion in Malayalam and Telugu with “9” and the recent blockbuster “Major”. India’s youngest biographer at the age of 22, Lada is a published author and a poet with three books to his credit. He is a former journalist and has worked with India Today as an anchor. He has also worked at Fox Star Studios and Disney India previously. Most recently, Lada has been instrumental in snagging the rights to “Shaktimaan”, a superhero trilogy currently in the works at SPIP.

    Shony Panjikaran has spearheaded Sony Pictures Entertainment India’s marketing initiatives over the past four years helping to launch enormously successful releases including “Spider-Man: No Way Home”, “Spiderman: Far From Home”, “Jumanji-The Next Level”, “Venom” and “Major”. Prior to this tenure at Sony Pictures, Panjikaran spent ten years at Fox Star Studios where he led their marketing efforts in a variety of roles; his work included films such as “Avatar”, “Life of Pi”, “Deadpool”, “Sanju”, “Baaghi 2”, Atlee’s “Raja Rani” amongst others.

    “Lada and Shony’s elevations underscore the film studio’s commitment to continue creating theatre-worthy tentpole films in India with a slew of big-ticket announcements set to come out in the coming weeks, as well as building on the track record of success with beloved Hollywood movies,” said the company statement.

  • ALTBalaji adds 3.48 mn subscriptions in 9MFY22; direct sub revenue at Rs 45 cr

    ALTBalaji adds 3.48 mn subscriptions in 9MFY22; direct sub revenue at Rs 45 cr

    Mumbai: Balaji Telefilms announced its third quarter financial results for FY 2022. The company’s quarterly income from operations at the end of 31 December 2021 stood at Rs 76.2 crore. It posted a net loss after tax of Rs 26.4 crore for the quarter.

    The company reported that total subscriptions sold for their OTT platform ALTBalaji for the third quarter year-to-date FY22 stood at 3.48 million. The direct subscription revenue was recorded at Rs 45 crore.

    Engagement time on the video-on-demand platform was recorded at 82 minutes with a watch time of 15.45 billion in minutes. Till date, cumulative video views on the platform stands at 1.26 billion.

     ALTBalaji added 11 shows in the nine months and has taken the overall library to 89+ shows.

    The company said its TV business continued normal in the past nine months with 618 hours of production across seven shows and a strong pipeline for the year. “Three new shows have been lined up and should commence shortly,” said the company statement.

    The company also has five film projects in the pipeline. “Movie business resumed production and the company made good progress,” said the company adding that it continues to wait for availability for theatrical launch windows and looking at deals across direct to digital as well. As part of its strategy it continues to control investments in movies and pursue pre-sales and co-production deals where feasible.

    “ALTBalaji continues to drive subscription growth and we added 3.48 million subscriptions during the nine months,” said Balaji Telefilms managing director Shobha Kapoor. “We added 11 shows in the nine months and now have a solid line up for the rest of the year. Our strategic content sharing deals will ensure we control on the cash spend while driving overall profitability. Our TV business has shown good recovery in terms of production hours and we hope to improve this momentum as three new shows will commence. In the movie business, production for some exciting projects is at various stages of completion. We closely monitor the availability of theatrical releases and direct to digital launches. Overall, the year has been good and expected to continue the momentum.”

  • Balaji Telefilms’ financials: an improving picture in Q4 2013

    Balaji Telefilms’ financials: an improving picture in Q4 2013

    MUMBAI: Television production powerhouse Balaji Telefilms, which has recently made successful forays into the movie business, has posted an impressive 235 per cent jump in net profit to Rs 5.17 crore in the latest quarter ended 31 March 2013 as against Rs 1.5 crore in Q4-2012. It has done well even when one compares its performance against the previous preceding quarter ended 31 December 2012 when it recorded a net profit of Rs 4.94 crore. However, what looks disappointing is the 28 per cent dip in its net profit in FY 2013 to Rs 14.58 crore as against Rs 20.44 crore in FY 2012.

    The company recently ran into accounting troubles with the I-T Department, resulting in a dip of around 20 percent in its share price and it hit an all-time low of Rs 35.25 on 27 May.

    However, it has been moving northward since this morning’s announcement of its financials and it closed at Rs 37.80.

    Let us look at the Q4-2013 financials as against Q4- 2012

    Q4-2013 financials report a healthy growth in its net profits at Rs 5.17 crore as against Rs 1.54 crore in the corresponding last year’s Q4-2012. The massive surge is attributed to reduction in expenses especially if one looks at the staff costs which have halved in Q4-2013 at Rs 1.57 crore as against Rs 3.44 crore (Q4-2012).

    Expenses fell 13.5 per cent in Q4-2013 at Rs 34.72 crore as compared to Rs 40.16 crore in Q4-2012. The investments of the company have paid off well in the quarter with a reported Rs 7.05 crore pouring in as other income. (Through its other non-core operations considering its non current investments for the year FY-2013 have nearly doubled at Rs 31.72 crore (Rs 17.60 crore in FY-2012)).

    While net sales revenue has increased to Rs 31.77 crore in Q4-2013 as against Rs 27.88 crore in Q4-2012, the total revenue for the quarter has shrunk by 8 per cent to Rs 34.09 crore in Q4-2013 as against Rs 36.92 crore. Its major revenue source continues to be from commissioned programs amounting to Rs 32.7 crore, a rise from last corresponding quarter’s Rs 25.88 crore.

    Let us look at the Q4-2013 financials as against Q3-2013

    When it reported Q4-2013 revenues of Rs 34.09 crore as against Rs 33.32 crore in Q3-2013, it was the first time in three quarters that it registered a positive uptick in revenues. Its Q4-2013 net profit at Rs 5.17 crore is an improvement over Q3-2013’s Rs 4.94 crore.

    Let us now look at the consolidated year ending results of FY-2013

    Even after a euphoric performance maintained during Q4 and Q3 quarters, the financials for FY-2013 fail to show an impressive growth YoY. The consolidated revenues for FY-2013 at Rs 204.36 crore report a decrease as compared to Rs 221.66 crore in FY-2012, which also included Rs 6.62 crore from its discontinuing operations.

    Better and efficient production in FY-2013 saw its expenses fall to Rs 186.05 crore as against Rs 202.13 crore in FY-2012.

    PAT for the year ending 31 March 2013 stood at Rs 14.58 crore, as against Rs 20.44 crore in FY-2012, a disappointing 28.6 per cent drop YoY.

    In spite of the drop in profits, the Board has recommended a dividend of Rs 0.40 per equity share, considering a healthy growth momentum sustained in its last couple of quarters.