MUMBAI: Going away from its normal procedure to buy only music rights of films, T-series has acquired the home video rights of Bbuddah Hoga Tera Baap and Murder 2.
Says T-series Director Ajay Kapoor, “We felt the movies had the potential and would be ideal to take the home video rights as well.”
Both Bbuddah Hoga Tera Baap and Murder 2 will be available on VCDs, DVDs and Blue Ray discs.
T-series had earlier acquired the home video rights for Tanu Weds Manu.
MUMBAI: In a major swoop that was conducted by Super Cassettes Industries on 19 July in the Lokhandwala area of Andheri, its raiding team led by Leon Joseph and D.K.Naik confiscated over 1880 CDs, DVDs, MP3s of films like Wanted, Ready, Double Dhamaal, Buddhah Hoga Tera Baap, Delhi Belly and Zindagi Na Mileage Dobara among others.
The raid was conducted by the police staff from Oshiwara Police Station, Mumbai, under the supervision of D.C.P. Zone- IX, K.M.M. Prasanna, Sr. P.I. Shri D.K. Raghuwansi, PSI Shri Raut, and two Police Staff.
The accused, Sanjay Bapi Das, has been arrested for further remand and has been booked under the section of the Copyright Act, vide FIR no:- C.R. No- 362/11 and the property confiscated is valued at Rs 218,500. The accused were remanded to Police custody for seven days.
Averred T-Series Creative Head Divya Khosla Kumar, “It is sad that we do not look at piracy as theft. We have to conduct regular raids to safeguard the interest of filmmakers who face tremendous losses due to piracy.”
MUMBAI: Hungama Mobile in association with T-Series launched the Kar Le kar Le Koi Dhamaal music for mobile. This is the first time in Asia that the music will be available for downloading on mobile before it is available in music stores.
Several other add on features like ‘Full Music’ monophonic ringtones, polytones, ringback tones wallpaper will also be available, suitable for every type of mobile phones.
The star at the launch of the music was ofcourse Shah Rukh Khan who has performed in the music video. Talking about the product he said, “When I personally downloaded the music it was a great experience hearing it on my own phone. Hungama Mobile is providing a new platform by giving a new experience to the audience. The Gen X is definitely going to be excited with such exciting features and I can say now mobile will be the next new destination, for music.”
Hungama Mobile managing director and CEO Neeraj Roy said, “We sincerely appreciate the support of Shahrukh, who in his own way encouraged this step. Experiencing the success and looking at the potential in mobile content market, we are delighted to partner with T-series. Through this initiative we can reach out to a vast audience across the globe.”
Speaking on the occasion T-Series managing director .Bhushan Kumar said, “Considering our long association with Hungama Mobile, we are delighted to take it one step further for the mobile content industry. Seeing the success of previous projects like the Krrish, added to which this time we have SRK himself. This combination makes us confident of this initiative being a great success!”
Hungama Mobile also owns Bollywood portal, www.indiafm.com and has worked on over 1000 films on the mobile and the online space.
To download the music one can SMS SRK to 4646 and it will be made available through Hungama Mobile distribution network with over 77 Wireless Carriers in 30 plus countries.
Hungama Mobile has exclusive worldwide rights to India’s largest music label T-Series and in addition has over 100 content alliances with companies as diverse as Warner Bros, Sony Pictures etc.
MUMBAI: T-Series big boss Bhushan Kumar is looking at transforming his very Indian music group, Super Cassettes into one that has international music on its roster. To achieve this goal, earlier this year, he flagged off YBR Records, headed by former Universal executive Vinay Sapru.
Since then YBR has been jetting around the world, in order to sign on artistes at various festivals and markets. And Sapru reveals that his push has been a success. “We are on the verge of doing deals with two artistes from the US, a band and a girl singer from Czechoslovakia, and an artiste from Germany,” he says.
Sapru points out that the artistes will have crossover appeal, in the sense that though they may be international in their broad approach, their music will have Indian elements built in so that it would appeal to Indian audiences. “It was earlier done with a band like Truth Hurts wherein we strung in strains like Kaliyon Ka Chaman into its track and the ploy worked like a charm,” he elucidates.
Releases under the new label are expected to debut in the summer. “We will take the 360 degree marketing approach with radio, TV, live, outdoors, digital, online – the works while promoting the albums and the artistes. We have been very successful with Himesh Reshmaiyya if you see our track record.”
Sapru, who is just back from Midem, believes that the annual music market which just concluded in Cannes a week ago is the best platform for the music trade. “We shook hands with most of our partners and the new artistes I am talking about at Midem,” he says. “We will be signing on the dotted line with them very soon.”
Kumar points out that the group is looking at tying up with an international major very soon. With Universal, Sony BMG, Virgin already entrenched in the market who could it be? Both Sapru and Kumar are not telling but when it does happen it will bring in a new sound to the Indian music market surely.
MUMBAI: Mukta Arts Ltd has has assigned music rights of five of their forthcoming films to Super Cassettes Industries Ltd (T Series) for a consideration of Rs 60 million.
The basket of films will include two films directed by noted filmmaker Subhash Ghai. While one will have a multi star cast, the other will be a small budget film.
The other three small budget movies will be from outside directors, the company has said.
Saregama, India’s oldest music company, is in makeover mode. Having slipped into the red with a net loss of Rs 211 million in the nine-month period ended 31 March 2004, the RPG Group company has chalked out a five-year growth plan in music, movies, TV content, home video, events and digital formats.
The man responsible for this new script: RPG Enterprises – Entertainment Sector president and CEO Subroto Chattopadhyay. The company has turned around and in FY06 posted a net profit of Rs 88.7 million on a turnover of Rs 1.19 billion.
The focus so far has been to put in place the management bandwidth for running the businesses. Now it is all set to execute these plans and scale up operations as a content company available on all platforms.
In an interview with Indiantelevision.com’s Sibabrata Das, Chattopadhyay talks of the efforts made to regain the grand old company’s status as a creative hothouse and of the challenges he faces in establishing Saregama as an entertainment powerhouse with stress on bottomline.
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How has Saregama managed to turn around after slipping into the red? We have put in place a five-year strategy. We have decided where to place our bets and where to withdraw. We, for instance, have taken a stance that we won’t get into owning radio stations. We have divided our businesses, are getting into adjacent areas and have identified touch points. |
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What is the plan for the music business with T-series grabbing the lion’s share in acquiring rights to new Hindi movies? We have decided to be a content company in music and not a distributor of CDs and cassettes. We will create, acquire and make available to consumers music while remaining platform agnostic. We will be exploiting different delivery systems like mobile and radio. That is a positioning we have taken as part of our restructuring strategy. And we are buying music rights for new Hindi movies like Gangster, Bluff Master, Anwar, Kaliyug and Vivah. |
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Have you tied up with the mobile and FM radio station operators? We are doing such deals through the Indian Performing Rights Society (IPRS) and the Phonographic Performance Ltd (PPL). That is a strategic decision which we took upfront. We have tied up with all the mobile operators. We also see upside in revenues from radio stations which would soon be springing up across the country. Out of our total revenues, 15 per cent comes from digital format. Our earnings from digital exploitation should go up. Digitisation is critical to our business model. |
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What are your digital initiatives? We are launching an entertainment portal and it is likely to be called saregama.com. The aim is to make it the digital supermarket of entertainment. Consumers can download music and later on we will add movies. We are behind schedule by four months as we are adding many other features. |
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How much of Saregama’s library is digitised? We have digitised 190,000 out of the 300,000 tracks we own. We will have the remaining content digitised and work on it will start by April-May. This process, in fact, has helped us discover our vast library. We, for instance, came to know that we have 30,000 tracks in Tamil. The challenge is for us to go out and make our products locally relevant. |
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Saregama had stopped producing movies as it started losing money. Why is it making a re-entry? When we sat down and took stock of the company, we decided that we had to be on the content side of the business. We identified our second vertical should be films because it is adjacent to music. The ecosystem is changing and we believe technology will have an impact. The game will change dramatically and we won’t have to depend entirely on the current star-loaded model. |
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What is the business model you are adopting? We have identified creative people to head the business. We have taken on board BR Sharan of Lalita-ji Surf ad fame and noted film actor-director Aparna Sen who will look after the Hindi and Bangla movies. We will be producing movies in these two languages initially. Bangla is a widely spoken language and the overseas population (including Bangladesis) is large. There is shortage of good content and we can create a business out of this market. Noted cinematographer Vijaylakshmi will also be involved. |
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What will be the budget size and how many movies will Saregama be producing in a year? We may start with mid-budget movies and see how we can scale up along the way. We have just taken in the people and will be firming up the business plan within three months. We will try and build a financial logarithm to movie making. Our focus will be to make good movies with strong scripts. |
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Saregama already produces TV content in the southern languages. Will you be expanding into Hindi as well? We produce 14 hours of programming per week for the Sun group of channels. We will be transferring that capability to the other languages. We have Sharan, Sen and Vijaylakshmi to take care of the TV content business. |
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Saregama was in negotiations to buy controlling stake in K Balachandar’s TV content company Min Bimbangal, but the talks failed. Is there a conscious decision not to take the acquisition route? We are in the phase where we realise that capability build up is crucial to us. We were in the buy mode, but now have decided to be rather in the `make your own product’ mood. Valuations are too high at this stage and the overall company philosophy is that we make rather than buy. It is because of a mix of both these reasons that we are not acquiring. |
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Do you have plans to ramp up your home video business? We are exclusive partners with some major Hollywood studios like Paramount, Warner Bros, Universal, Dreamworks and MGM for distribution of their home videos in India. We have access to 20,000 films and it contributes around Rs 250-300 million to our revenues. It is a nice business to be in. If we can expand our relationships with the studios into other areas, it will be a big ticket for us. We also distribute Hindi movies but our fundamental positioning in the home video segment is that we provide the best of international flavour. |
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Moser Baer has entered the home video segment and drastically dropped down prices of VCDs and DVDs. How do you see that impacting the industry? We don’t believe in price drops as a competitive strategy if we can hold them firm. People, after all, buy content. They will pay more for better content. |
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Will you be getting into event management as well? We will have a presence in this vertical as it brings consumers and entertainment together. Our broad plan is to be available for music, home video, theatrical, domestic and international consumers. |
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Saregama was earlier thinking of merging its two overseas subsidiary companies RPG Global Music and Saregama Plc. Is that plan dead now? We are happy being in the state of status quo. Our focus is to first fix the business and create clean surpluses in each subsidiary company so that they become robust. We use them to deliver products to consumers in different areas of the world. While Saregama Plc focuses on the UK, US, Europe, Canada, Caribbeans and South Africa, RPG Global looks at Middle East, South East asia and New Zealand. And as India globalises, our subsidiaries will become good and strong. |
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What is the status of HamaraCD.com? We are changing the positioning and it will become B2C. Consumers can place an order and we will get it delivered to them. |
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How much will Saregama be investing for expanding its business? We will be firming up our fund requirement after we decide what we will make and what we will buy. We are evaluating our options and haven’t taken the decision yet. We have been busy cleaning up our operations and strategising to be in businesses where our performance not only becomes successful but also sustainable. |
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Won’t Saregama forego a big opportunity by chalking out a slow process of growth while some media companies are taking an aggressive route? We have been funding our growth from internal operations and internal accruals. Our purpose is to keep tight control and make the businesses sustainable. Our ability to accelerate will be better two years later. We have not yet become a creative hothouse as we were earlier. We are preparing ourselves towards that. The entertainment industry needs management bandwidth to run the businesses. None of that was required in this industry earlier. But those days are gone. |
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Will you not then be left with too little space in the marketplace? We will be moving fast in the areas of exploitation, music and cinema content. We have formed business units and are building competitive advantage and strategy for them. If those dots join up, then it will be very exciting for us. |
NEW DELHI: With 10 million video streams across its site in its first month, Rrajshri.com has introduced pay media.
Viewers are now able to download and own any of the movie content available on the site for their personal consumption, starting last weekend. And coming up is download-for-keeps for their entire music content as well. Prior to this, films could be downloaded on payment but for a limited period of 72 hours.
“We have ensured that the price points are very aggressive and have chosen to offer downloads without DRM,” Rajshri Media (P) Limited VP sales William D’souza tells indiantelevision.com.
“Over the past month, we have received huge requests from viewers asking for downloads of the content,” he says, adding, “We are also at the final stage of introducing our ad-supported platform, through which we will soon integrate video ads and rich media banner ads on our site.”
This has been done at the “constant behest of advertisers, who see www.rajshri.com as an ideal destination to reach out to a global audience interested in Indian entertainment,” says D’Souza.
Regarding other services on the site, D’souza says they have bagged the famous GaneshaSpeaks Bejan Daruwala’s astro service, and Sanjay Jumaani, numerologist, to provide that genre of content for them.
“Besides generic advice and predictions, we plan to offer personalised video consultations to consumers worldwide,” he says.
“The online ad campaign is currently ongoing and our communication will constantly keep changing as we continue to add newer and better features, categories and services to the website,” D’souza adds.
Asked about the new alliances they are looking at, D’souza said: “The biggest names in the business are working with us. Many more alliances are at an advanced stage of negotiation and will be announced shortly. Some of our current partners include Sony BMG , Universal Music, T-Series, Mattel Toys, B R TV, Saregama HMV, Music Today, Films Division of India, Osho International Foundation, Baba Ramdev and others.”
However the company has no alliances in the UK as of now. “While we have no alliance with any UK-based company, Rajshri.com has alliances with two US companies: Limelight Networks, the worlds leading content delivery network for digital media; and Brightcove, an internet TV service that empowers video producers and programmers to build broadband businesses while giving viewers more choices and control over their use of video and television,” D’souza clarifies.
MUMBAI: The Zee Network owned music channels ETC and Zee Music have decided to take on T-Series, the audio company which controls a large of chunk of the Bollywood music market, over what they assert are pending dues amounting to over Rs 70 million.
ETC Networks has issued a notice declaring that it has “with immediate effect stopped accepting bookings for telecasting of film trailers and promos of film and non film music from Super Cassette Industries Ltd (T-Series).”
Countering the charge, T-Series has denied any outstandings and has retaliated by claiming that it is Zee that has infringed on the intellectual property rights of the entire film industry, including T-Series.
The ETC release, meanwhile, points out, “All concerned producers who have made bookings through Super Cassette Industries may kindly note that their trailers and promos will not be telecast by us on account of deliberate and purposeful default of payment.”
ETC has also highlighted that “all producers who are interested in telecasting their film trailers and promos of film and non film music with immediate effect as well as in future are requested to directly approach the company.” The statement further says that ETC is ready to provide “new revised and reduced rates and terms” specially for producers.
T-Series holds the audio rights of some big upcoming releases in 2006 including Babul, Salaam-e Ishq, Jaaneman and the Shah Rukh Khan-starrer Don, so how the face-off plays out could well have far-reaching implications across the industry.