Reliance Money provides customers with access to equities, equity and commodities futures, mutual funds, life and general insurance products and off-shore investment. The company has aggressive plans to venture into the Africa, UAE, Saudi Arabia and Hong Kong. The company has already forayed into the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Hong Kong, and plans to expand its operations in over 15 countries spread across Europe, North Africa, the West Asia and South East Asia by next year.
As part of its plan to expand its global footprint, Reliance Money, the brokering arm of the Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group, has launched a joint venture in Saudi Arabia with Bahrain-based advisory firm Riyada Consulting.
The new entity Riyada Reliance Money is the new joint venture company. The Riyada Reliance Money plans to raise $53.34 million (Rs.2.3 billion) in the first phase through sale of a stake to Gulf institutional investors. Reliance Money chief executive and director Sudip Bandyopadhyay said, "We plan to have a significant footprint in the region. We will be seeking regulatory approvals and also be looking at strategic dilution of equity to institutional investors in the Gulf region."
The venture will seek regulatory approvals for launching services, including brokering, corporate finance, investment banking and asset management.
Source: http://economictimes.indiatimes.com and http://www.reuters.com
Reliance Money ties up with Lagos firm to enter Nigeria
Reliance Money provides customers with access to equities, equity and commodities futures, mutual funds, life and general insurance products and off-shore investment. The company has aggressive plans to venture into the Africa, UAE, Saudi Arabia and Hong Kong. The company has already forayed into the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Hong Kong, and plans to expand its operations in over 15 countries spread across Europe, North Africa, the West Asia and South East Asia by next year.
As part of its plan to expand its global footprint, Reliance Money on Sunday announced its debut in Nigeria, in a tie-up with Lagos-based industrial house Chellarams Plc. The announcement was made by Sudip Bandyopadhyay, director & CEO of Reliance Money, and Suresh Chellaram, managing director of Chellarams Plc,. The presence of Reliance Money in Nigeria will definitely complement their efforts to have a larger role in this region. Reliance Money also plans to take membership of the Lagos Stock Exchange in future.
Nigeria is one of the largest financial markets in Africa, also having the largest population in the region. As per the company's claims, it is the first Indian company to have received an in-principal approval for setting up a branch and offering investment advice in the Sultanate of Oman.
Source: http://economictimes.indiatimes.com and http://www.dnaindia.com
As part of its plan to expand its global footprint, Reliance Money on Sunday announced its debut in Nigeria, in a tie-up with Lagos-based industrial house Chellarams Plc. The announcement was made by Sudip Bandyopadhyay, director & CEO of Reliance Money, and Suresh Chellaram, managing director of Chellarams Plc,. The presence of Reliance Money in Nigeria will definitely complement their efforts to have a larger role in this region. Reliance Money also plans to take membership of the Lagos Stock Exchange in future.
Nigeria is one of the largest financial markets in Africa, also having the largest population in the region. As per the company's claims, it is the first Indian company to have received an in-principal approval for setting up a branch and offering investment advice in the Sultanate of Oman.
Source: http://economictimes.indiatimes.com and http://www.dnaindia.com
Economics of Aarushi’s murder mystery
Background
Arushi’s body was found at her Noida residence on May 16, 2008. While police initially suspected missing domestic help Hemraj, but his body was found from the same house the next day. Arushi’s father Rajesh Talwar was arrested for the twin murder. The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has been investigating the case.
Economy
Aarushi’s murder mystery is one of the never ending NEWS opera which started on the 16th May 2008. The NOIDA police, CBI and media have different versions of the murder mystery. The very first version was that domestic servant is the killer; then came the story – Father is the killer. As per the latest version CBI claims that Krishna, the man who worked at Dr Talwar’s clinic, has confessed his involvement in the murders of Aarushi Talwar and her domestic help Hemraj …. then came Rajkumar - a new angle to the story …. Story is never ending. ..
Since 16 May, Indian media has made millions by printing and telecasting the story at various news formats. Be it print or television every one is making money. Aarushi’s murder mystery has not only attracted NEWS operas but also has attracted the TV soap opera queen Ekta Kapoor. She wants to feature Aarushi’s life and death in her popular soap opera “Kahani Ghar Ghar Ki”.
The Aarushi’s murder mystery is one of the many examples of creative impotency of the Indian media. The media which has no NEWS; the soap operas which has no good story line …
Arushi’s body was found at her Noida residence on May 16, 2008. While police initially suspected missing domestic help Hemraj, but his body was found from the same house the next day. Arushi’s father Rajesh Talwar was arrested for the twin murder. The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has been investigating the case.
Economy
Aarushi’s murder mystery is one of the never ending NEWS opera which started on the 16th May 2008. The NOIDA police, CBI and media have different versions of the murder mystery. The very first version was that domestic servant is the killer; then came the story – Father is the killer. As per the latest version CBI claims that Krishna, the man who worked at Dr Talwar’s clinic, has confessed his involvement in the murders of Aarushi Talwar and her domestic help Hemraj …. then came Rajkumar - a new angle to the story …. Story is never ending. ..
Since 16 May, Indian media has made millions by printing and telecasting the story at various news formats. Be it print or television every one is making money. Aarushi’s murder mystery has not only attracted NEWS operas but also has attracted the TV soap opera queen Ekta Kapoor. She wants to feature Aarushi’s life and death in her popular soap opera “Kahani Ghar Ghar Ki”.
The Aarushi’s murder mystery is one of the many examples of creative impotency of the Indian media. The media which has no NEWS; the soap operas which has no good story line …
Mobile Value Added Services
In the early years telecom revolution piggybacked on booming Indian economy, increased disposable income, proliferation of mobile devices, and reduction in call rates. The scenario has changed; Indian mobile users are very comfortable in using their phones and want to exercise option other than the basic voice applications. Today, the mobile phone has become a truly personal device and Mobile Value Added Services (MVAS) has become an extension of persona. Currently Mobile Value Added Services accounts for 10-12 percent of the operator’s revenue. Industry research on MVAS suggest that, in the next 10 years it will contribute around 60 percent of the telecom operator’s revenue. They believe innovative mobile content and applications are the only way to keep a subscriber glued to particular services. In India, the revenue from MVAS is expected to increase to USD 348.8 M in 2009, at a compound annual growth rate of more than 50 percent. The prominent players of the industry are ACL Wireless, Active Media, Air2Web, AOL Mobile, Cellebrum, Cellnext, Hungama Mobile, IMIMobile, Indiatimes Mobile, Jataayu, Mauj, Mobile365, One97, OnMobile, Phoneytunes, Roamware.
MVAS in India has grown from the early days of SMS to host of other services including wallpapers downloads, ring tones, caller ring back tones, SMS contests, and games. For better understanding of the MVAS, it can be divided into basic and advanced services.
Basic MVAS includes SMS and Mobile music. Growth of SMS traffic is a direct result of high voice traffic with SMS as it is priced substantially below call tariffs. This has led to extensive use of SMS based services by the operators, especially the reality shows. Indian Film Industry, electoral campaign, and Sports sponsors. The other prominent basic MVAS is Mobile music. It comprises ring tones, caller ring-back tones, and music clips.
Advanced MVAS include mobile TV/video, full-motion videos, wireless teleconferencing, multi-player online games, and m-commerce. These services typically require high bandwidth and a superior level of support technology. The introduction of 3G will help operatrs enhance features of SMS based IM’s, Stock Alerts, Chat Applications, Examination results, Movie Ticketing.
VALUE CHAIN
There are multiple stakeholders playing across the MVAS value chain many with overlapping roles and functions. A well demarcated value chain of MVAS is yet to evolve. The main stakeholders involved in the vas value chain are:
Content owners: At the first level of the MVAS value chain are the content owners, which develop original copyright content. There are different forms of content providers. First in the list is the original copyright content developer like music production houses – Tseries, BIG Music, SaReGaMa, Sony; bollywood production houses – Adlabs, Yash Raj and other media houses – Star, NDTV, Zee, and TV18. There are other set of players who are customized content creators for the mobile value added services. They are the companies who generate customized content for users through their own portals like Mauj, One 97, and Hungama Mobile.
Mobile operators: They provide transport and support mechanisms for delivery of mobile content. Most operators are now trying to innovate their Value Added Services offerings and create sharper differentiation for their offerings. Most of the basic content available to the end users revolves ringtones of popular bollywood songs, wallpapers of movie, and games developed around movie themes.
Technology enablers: They provide technology platforms that enable access to MVAS. They are content portals or content aggregators. These are organizations that gather web content and distribute content to suit customer needs like hungama Mobile, Indiatimes , OnMobile, Bharti Telesoft, Webaroo, etc.
Handset manufacturers: Mobile handset manufacturers also play an important role by including embedding software links in their handsets, allowing direct access to content portals, creating services customized to the need of certain regions, etc
BARRIERS TO GROWTH OF MVAS IN INDIA
In India, the VAS industry is still don’t have a proper process or common benchmark. Furthermore, the revenue sharing is a major issue. It stems from the fact that the operators charge low revenue from the end user leading to lower revenue share with MVAS. The industry has attracted many players, leading to the competition which is driving down the revenue share. Few other challenges are to show the customer value beyond mobile entertainment, establish MVAS standards, copyright protection initiatives. The challenges that need the immediate attention of key stakeholders are:
Copyright protection: In India, the regulatory framework for copyright protection continues to remain weak despite the extension of existing copyright laws to content. The MVAS industry requires a stringent regulatory framework in place, to encourage the flow of branded content to consumers. The protected MVAS content will lead to increased revenues from data services, stop customer churn and motivate MVAS provider to investment in innovative.
Low feature handsets: In India, the mobile subscriber base is growing, a large chunk of the market is opting for basic low feature handsets in spite of the fact that handset prices are coming down. According to the India Mobile Handset Usage Satisfaction Study 2006, an integrated digital camera, FM Radio, and speaker phone features remain the most likely upgrade drivers. The poor penetration of feature-rich mobile handsets is a barrier to the growth of MVAS in India.
Transparency in revenue sharing arrangements: In Indian market the biggest area of concern is the skewed revenue sharing models where the content providers have to share revenue with content aggregator and service provider. The Indian MVAS industry needs to take a close look at best practices in developed markets like China, Japan, and other European nations to design a fair revenue distribution system. There is a need to create a transparent framework with a fair system of payouts to different stakeholders across the value chain.
Focus on youth and entertainment: The MVAS market in India continues to be focused on entertainment – movies, music and sports which cater to the needs of the younger consumer segment. There is a need to focus on information VAS and transactional VAS (M-commerce), which will ensure uniform growth among all consumer segments. MVAS should create applications for niche segments, which will create real value for the subscribers.
Absence of utility services: The cost of Entertainment VAS, which has a high perceived value, is high but over a period of time as customers get used to it, the willingness to pay high amounts may come down and then MVAS will have to shift focus from Entertainment VAS to other utility services. These are the services which have a high practical value. They services mainly fall in the category of mCommerce and to some extent Infotainment. The future belongs to services providing value to the customer exploiting the mobility factor.
Lack of Infrastructure: There are a lot of services which cannot be introduced in India because of lack of supporting infrastructure. The major roadblock in providing quality content to the end user has been the availability of bandwidth. Most of the applications are not able to provide the optimum user experience due to bandwidth issue, which makes streaming and downloading practically impossible.
THE FUTURE OF MVAS IN INDIA
In years to come MVAS will see a lot of structural changes, consolidation and emergence of cutting edge services. At present biggest pie of the MVAS revenue goes to the mobile operators but in years to come they will lose prominence in the value chain. The market for Content Aggregators will consolidate and with their better bargaining power, this will ensure a revenue shift from Operators to Aggregators in the value chain. In MVAS content there will be shift from entertainment MVAS to interactive MVAS. However mobile gaming will continue to grow and will contribute a higher share to the VAS pie. The other big change is emergence of regional content. The regional content is giving a significant boost to the content market especially in the entertainment category. With all these changes the MVAS industry is about to mature.
MVAS in India has grown from the early days of SMS to host of other services including wallpapers downloads, ring tones, caller ring back tones, SMS contests, and games. For better understanding of the MVAS, it can be divided into basic and advanced services.
Basic MVAS includes SMS and Mobile music. Growth of SMS traffic is a direct result of high voice traffic with SMS as it is priced substantially below call tariffs. This has led to extensive use of SMS based services by the operators, especially the reality shows. Indian Film Industry, electoral campaign, and Sports sponsors. The other prominent basic MVAS is Mobile music. It comprises ring tones, caller ring-back tones, and music clips.
Advanced MVAS include mobile TV/video, full-motion videos, wireless teleconferencing, multi-player online games, and m-commerce. These services typically require high bandwidth and a superior level of support technology. The introduction of 3G will help operatrs enhance features of SMS based IM’s, Stock Alerts, Chat Applications, Examination results, Movie Ticketing.
VALUE CHAIN
There are multiple stakeholders playing across the MVAS value chain many with overlapping roles and functions. A well demarcated value chain of MVAS is yet to evolve. The main stakeholders involved in the vas value chain are:
Content owners: At the first level of the MVAS value chain are the content owners, which develop original copyright content. There are different forms of content providers. First in the list is the original copyright content developer like music production houses – Tseries, BIG Music, SaReGaMa, Sony; bollywood production houses – Adlabs, Yash Raj and other media houses – Star, NDTV, Zee, and TV18. There are other set of players who are customized content creators for the mobile value added services. They are the companies who generate customized content for users through their own portals like Mauj, One 97, and Hungama Mobile.
Mobile operators: They provide transport and support mechanisms for delivery of mobile content. Most operators are now trying to innovate their Value Added Services offerings and create sharper differentiation for their offerings. Most of the basic content available to the end users revolves ringtones of popular bollywood songs, wallpapers of movie, and games developed around movie themes.
Technology enablers: They provide technology platforms that enable access to MVAS. They are content portals or content aggregators. These are organizations that gather web content and distribute content to suit customer needs like hungama Mobile, Indiatimes , OnMobile, Bharti Telesoft, Webaroo, etc.
Handset manufacturers: Mobile handset manufacturers also play an important role by including embedding software links in their handsets, allowing direct access to content portals, creating services customized to the need of certain regions, etc
BARRIERS TO GROWTH OF MVAS IN INDIA
In India, the VAS industry is still don’t have a proper process or common benchmark. Furthermore, the revenue sharing is a major issue. It stems from the fact that the operators charge low revenue from the end user leading to lower revenue share with MVAS. The industry has attracted many players, leading to the competition which is driving down the revenue share. Few other challenges are to show the customer value beyond mobile entertainment, establish MVAS standards, copyright protection initiatives. The challenges that need the immediate attention of key stakeholders are:
Copyright protection: In India, the regulatory framework for copyright protection continues to remain weak despite the extension of existing copyright laws to content. The MVAS industry requires a stringent regulatory framework in place, to encourage the flow of branded content to consumers. The protected MVAS content will lead to increased revenues from data services, stop customer churn and motivate MVAS provider to investment in innovative.
Low feature handsets: In India, the mobile subscriber base is growing, a large chunk of the market is opting for basic low feature handsets in spite of the fact that handset prices are coming down. According to the India Mobile Handset Usage Satisfaction Study 2006, an integrated digital camera, FM Radio, and speaker phone features remain the most likely upgrade drivers. The poor penetration of feature-rich mobile handsets is a barrier to the growth of MVAS in India.
Transparency in revenue sharing arrangements: In Indian market the biggest area of concern is the skewed revenue sharing models where the content providers have to share revenue with content aggregator and service provider. The Indian MVAS industry needs to take a close look at best practices in developed markets like China, Japan, and other European nations to design a fair revenue distribution system. There is a need to create a transparent framework with a fair system of payouts to different stakeholders across the value chain.
Focus on youth and entertainment: The MVAS market in India continues to be focused on entertainment – movies, music and sports which cater to the needs of the younger consumer segment. There is a need to focus on information VAS and transactional VAS (M-commerce), which will ensure uniform growth among all consumer segments. MVAS should create applications for niche segments, which will create real value for the subscribers.
Absence of utility services: The cost of Entertainment VAS, which has a high perceived value, is high but over a period of time as customers get used to it, the willingness to pay high amounts may come down and then MVAS will have to shift focus from Entertainment VAS to other utility services. These are the services which have a high practical value. They services mainly fall in the category of mCommerce and to some extent Infotainment. The future belongs to services providing value to the customer exploiting the mobility factor.
Lack of Infrastructure: There are a lot of services which cannot be introduced in India because of lack of supporting infrastructure. The major roadblock in providing quality content to the end user has been the availability of bandwidth. Most of the applications are not able to provide the optimum user experience due to bandwidth issue, which makes streaming and downloading practically impossible.
THE FUTURE OF MVAS IN INDIA
In years to come MVAS will see a lot of structural changes, consolidation and emergence of cutting edge services. At present biggest pie of the MVAS revenue goes to the mobile operators but in years to come they will lose prominence in the value chain. The market for Content Aggregators will consolidate and with their better bargaining power, this will ensure a revenue shift from Operators to Aggregators in the value chain. In MVAS content there will be shift from entertainment MVAS to interactive MVAS. However mobile gaming will continue to grow and will contribute a higher share to the VAS pie. The other big change is emergence of regional content. The regional content is giving a significant boost to the content market especially in the entertainment category. With all these changes the MVAS industry is about to mature.
MVAS - KEY PLAYERS
This mobile value added services industry is about to mature and awaiting some consolidation and here is the list of active MVAS providers: ACL Wireless, Active Media, Air2Web, AOL Mobile, AstroYogi Mobile, Astute Systems , Bharti Telesoft, BUGZY, Cellebrum, Cellnext, Coruscant Tec, Digital Strait, EnableM, Hungama Mobile, IMIMobile, Indiatimes Mobile, Jataayu, Kirusa, Lifetree, Mauj, mChek, Mjoy, Mobile365, Motvik, mobiSolv, Mobile2Win, One97, OnMobile, OnyxMobile, ORG Telecom , Phoneytunes, Roamware, Rediff Mobile, Sarayu Telecom, Tech Mahindra, Telenity, ValueFirst, Yahoo Mobile India, Webdunia, Ziva Software. This section will introduce certain key players in the VAS industry. These players are actively involved in the VAS value chain.
ACL Wireless Limited
ACL established in 2000 is a privately owned company funded by IAVM, with strategic investments from Naspers/MIH. It employs over 240 people and is headquartered in Delhi.
ACL Wireless is a mobile VAS player in managed mobility and community messaging service across 21 countries. It works with Airtel in India, MTC-Vodafone in Middle East, Claro in Brazil and AIS in Thailand. ACL Wireless offers interactive SMS & voice response along with permission based SMS broadcasts & alerts. ACL wireless offerings also includes service creation and operation for enterprises and operator VAS, billing & content aggregation. Its community & messaging services suite includes: mobile chat, mobile social networking, mobile photo sharing and internet messengers on mobile available across GPRS & SMS mediums.
ACL has partnerships with Gemalto, Smart Trust, Eposs and Unified Communications which enable it to develop cutting edge products and distribute them globally.
Bharti Telesoft
Bharti Telesoft, established in 1999 is owned by Bharti Enterprises, venture capital investors Sequoia Capital and Cisco. Bharti Telesoft offers software products and services to wireless and wireline operators.
In 2002, Bharti Telesoft acquired CellCloud Technologies, a leader in the field of prepaid recharge solutions and in 2007, acquired Jataayu a leading player in the mobile Internet space, to bolster its portfolio of Internet and VAS applications for mobile operators and handset manufacturers. Bharti Telesoft has deployed solutions for over 100 mobile operator customers in more than 60 countries worldwide. Its solutions help power services to over 500 million mobile subscribers globally. It has a strong sales and marketing focus in the Asia Pacific region, Russia and the CIS, the Middle- East, Africa, Europe and Latin America. It has its R&D facilities at New Delhi, Banglore and Mumbai.
Bharti Telesoft is works on number of services including SMS router, voice SMS, SMS chat, and Live video services, P2P transactions including balance transfer, music sharing and videos sharing. mCommerce and Live TV to mobile are the key focus areas for future growth.
Indiagames
Indiagames Ltd is India’s benchmark mobile and online gaming company The Company is engaged in publishing and developing games across various platforms including Online through its portal www.indiagames.com, and Mobile. Majority of Indiagames revenues comes from international markets as in India industry is still in its nascent stage. The company plans to tap the growing mobile market in India and is investing heavily in generating awareness about games among mobile users. Indiagames is targeting 50% market share in mobile gaming business by 2010.
Indiagames has over 300 employees and offices in Mumbai, London, Los Angeles & Beijing. Indiagames’ distribute its product through partnerships with mobile operators in over 75 countries. The key investors of Indiagames include UTV, Adobe Inc. and Cisco Systems Inc.
Mauj
Mauj established in 2003, as a digital media entertainment company. It is the wireless division of the People group with interests across very well known internet businesses in India like (Shaadi.com, Fropper.com) and Film Production (People Pictures). MAUJ has developed partnerships with more than 25 operators and portals worldwide. The Company specializes in Mobile games both in the domestic as well as international markets. The company currently develops over 20 original titles every month and also has marketing rights for 800 international mobile games. The company has one of the strongest management teams as well as infrastructure in this industry and employs approximately 150 people in its offices in Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai, Dubai, London, and New York.
Mauj offers services in three areas: Mobile Content & Applications aggregation and repurposing which includes Games, Wallpapers, Ringtones, News, Matrimonial; Mobile Software & Services which provides Middleware Solutions, Roaming Applications, SMS Gateways; and Mobile Media Solutions which includes Advertising and Branding Opportunities.
OnMobile
OnMobile, Incubated at Infosys in 2000, is headquartered in Bangalore. It is the first Indian telecom VAS company to go public. OnMobile also has offices in Mumbai, Delhi, Singapore, Paris, Jakarta, London, Kuala Lumpur, Seattle and Sydney. OnMobile is India’s largest white labeled VAS company for Mobile, Landline and Media Service Providers. OnMobile offers integrated platform across various technology silos traditionally found in Telco’s infrastructure for up selling and improving user experience. On Mobile services include: Managed Services like infrastructure, operations, SLA management, fault management etc. for telcos; Marketing Support Services which include Mobile 1-to-1 marketing, Event based opportunity analysis, execution of marketing services, Content Aggregation and Management for their enterprises customers; and Mobile Media, and mCommerce.
The acquisition of French data products company Voxmobili has further strengthened the product portfolio with products like Phone Backup, Network Address Book & Mobile Paparazzi - deployed with many global carriers like Orange, AT&T, France Telecom, T-Mobile, Wanadoo, & Turkcell.
Phoneytunes
Phoneytunes offers mobile content services, content management solutions, premium billing platforms. Phoneytunes has a state-of-art technology development center in New Delhi. Phoneytunes is among the top and most respected players in the Telecom VAS domain with a series of highly innovative, high feature and revenue generating services and platforms helping carriers and operators globally with powerful technological solutions. The key values while designing solutions include helping operators with increase in revenues and reduction in costs. Phoneytunes focus on: Development Platforms which include BREW, SMS, Symbian MMS platforms, online charging platforms, portal frameworks; Content creation & aggregation which offer mobile content and interactive voice recognition systems, Customized polyphonic and monophonic ringtones creation, wallpapers, video downloads; Application Development that include Utility applications like SMS gateways & SMS applications. Fun Applications like SMS / WAP Games & Chat/ Dating engines; and Other services including mobile secrets, phone tricks, lost mobile reporting board and a discussion forum.
Webaroo
Webaroo established in June 2004 has developed several market leading products. Some have already achieved significant market attraction. Webaroo employs approximately 150 people in its offices in India and USA. Webaroo’s founders include Silicon Valley based experienced serial entrepreneurs Rakesh Mathur (founder of Armedia, Junglee, Stratify) and Beerud Sheth (founder of Elance). Webaroo’s management includes world-class, highly-experienced executives with decades of experience in building and managing high-growth companies. Webaroo has offices in Silicon Valley, Seattle, Mumbai and Delhi. Webaroo develops mobile software and services for consumers across the world. With a large and rapidly growing user-base, it offers advertisers — unprecedented mobile reach and targeting. Its core offering include SMS GupShup service that enables creation of groups of any size and allow communication with all group members at a cost of a single SMS sent by the group creator; Webaroo Software enables users to browse and search web content offline which is compressed for consumption on laptops, PDAs or smartphones. Since these features are built on an SMS platform, it can be used even on the most basic and low-end phones.
Spice Mobile VAS (formerly Cellebrum)
The spice group promoted company has recently gone through rebranding and is now called as ‘Spice Mobile VAS’. The company is headquartered in Parwanoo in HP. Spice Mobile VAS has presence in 10 countries and employs around 450 people. Its corporate office is in Noida and registered office is in New Delhi. It also has regional offices in Chandigarh, Mumbai, Kolkata, Lucknow and Bangalore. Spice Mobile VAS is a technology enabler in wireless application space. The company develops applications for three main segments - voice based services, messaging and roaming.
PayMate
PayMate established in 2006 is a Mumbai based wireless transactions platform provider. It spin-off from Coruscant Tec, to on wireless content. PayMate has created a viable ecosystem to enable wireless transactions connecting banks, switches, merchants and customers using a simple, secure and seamless technology.
PayMate portfolio includes products like GiftMate, FlyBuySms and many more value added services which go beyond just payments to stuff like mobile shopping and gifting. The primary offerings of PayMate are : one, Payment Services where consumers can use their credit card via mobile phones for in-person and remote purchases and transactions like shop online, buy movie & airline tickets, pay bills at restaurants and retail stores, etc. Two, Gift Mate, a mobile voucher, which enables one to gift money to anyone with a mobile phone which can then be spent at over 3,000 online and offline stores.
ACL Wireless Limited
ACL established in 2000 is a privately owned company funded by IAVM, with strategic investments from Naspers/MIH. It employs over 240 people and is headquartered in Delhi.
ACL Wireless is a mobile VAS player in managed mobility and community messaging service across 21 countries. It works with Airtel in India, MTC-Vodafone in Middle East, Claro in Brazil and AIS in Thailand. ACL Wireless offers interactive SMS & voice response along with permission based SMS broadcasts & alerts. ACL wireless offerings also includes service creation and operation for enterprises and operator VAS, billing & content aggregation. Its community & messaging services suite includes: mobile chat, mobile social networking, mobile photo sharing and internet messengers on mobile available across GPRS & SMS mediums.
ACL has partnerships with Gemalto, Smart Trust, Eposs and Unified Communications which enable it to develop cutting edge products and distribute them globally.
Bharti Telesoft
Bharti Telesoft, established in 1999 is owned by Bharti Enterprises, venture capital investors Sequoia Capital and Cisco. Bharti Telesoft offers software products and services to wireless and wireline operators.
In 2002, Bharti Telesoft acquired CellCloud Technologies, a leader in the field of prepaid recharge solutions and in 2007, acquired Jataayu a leading player in the mobile Internet space, to bolster its portfolio of Internet and VAS applications for mobile operators and handset manufacturers. Bharti Telesoft has deployed solutions for over 100 mobile operator customers in more than 60 countries worldwide. Its solutions help power services to over 500 million mobile subscribers globally. It has a strong sales and marketing focus in the Asia Pacific region, Russia and the CIS, the Middle- East, Africa, Europe and Latin America. It has its R&D facilities at New Delhi, Banglore and Mumbai.
Bharti Telesoft is works on number of services including SMS router, voice SMS, SMS chat, and Live video services, P2P transactions including balance transfer, music sharing and videos sharing. mCommerce and Live TV to mobile are the key focus areas for future growth.
Indiagames
Indiagames Ltd is India’s benchmark mobile and online gaming company The Company is engaged in publishing and developing games across various platforms including Online through its portal www.indiagames.com, and Mobile. Majority of Indiagames revenues comes from international markets as in India industry is still in its nascent stage. The company plans to tap the growing mobile market in India and is investing heavily in generating awareness about games among mobile users. Indiagames is targeting 50% market share in mobile gaming business by 2010.
Indiagames has over 300 employees and offices in Mumbai, London, Los Angeles & Beijing. Indiagames’ distribute its product through partnerships with mobile operators in over 75 countries. The key investors of Indiagames include UTV, Adobe Inc. and Cisco Systems Inc.
Mauj
Mauj established in 2003, as a digital media entertainment company. It is the wireless division of the People group with interests across very well known internet businesses in India like (Shaadi.com, Fropper.com) and Film Production (People Pictures). MAUJ has developed partnerships with more than 25 operators and portals worldwide. The Company specializes in Mobile games both in the domestic as well as international markets. The company currently develops over 20 original titles every month and also has marketing rights for 800 international mobile games. The company has one of the strongest management teams as well as infrastructure in this industry and employs approximately 150 people in its offices in Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai, Dubai, London, and New York.
Mauj offers services in three areas: Mobile Content & Applications aggregation and repurposing which includes Games, Wallpapers, Ringtones, News, Matrimonial; Mobile Software & Services which provides Middleware Solutions, Roaming Applications, SMS Gateways; and Mobile Media Solutions which includes Advertising and Branding Opportunities.
OnMobile
OnMobile, Incubated at Infosys in 2000, is headquartered in Bangalore. It is the first Indian telecom VAS company to go public. OnMobile also has offices in Mumbai, Delhi, Singapore, Paris, Jakarta, London, Kuala Lumpur, Seattle and Sydney. OnMobile is India’s largest white labeled VAS company for Mobile, Landline and Media Service Providers. OnMobile offers integrated platform across various technology silos traditionally found in Telco’s infrastructure for up selling and improving user experience. On Mobile services include: Managed Services like infrastructure, operations, SLA management, fault management etc. for telcos; Marketing Support Services which include Mobile 1-to-1 marketing, Event based opportunity analysis, execution of marketing services, Content Aggregation and Management for their enterprises customers; and Mobile Media, and mCommerce.
The acquisition of French data products company Voxmobili has further strengthened the product portfolio with products like Phone Backup, Network Address Book & Mobile Paparazzi - deployed with many global carriers like Orange, AT&T, France Telecom, T-Mobile, Wanadoo, & Turkcell.
Phoneytunes
Phoneytunes offers mobile content services, content management solutions, premium billing platforms. Phoneytunes has a state-of-art technology development center in New Delhi. Phoneytunes is among the top and most respected players in the Telecom VAS domain with a series of highly innovative, high feature and revenue generating services and platforms helping carriers and operators globally with powerful technological solutions. The key values while designing solutions include helping operators with increase in revenues and reduction in costs. Phoneytunes focus on: Development Platforms which include BREW, SMS, Symbian MMS platforms, online charging platforms, portal frameworks; Content creation & aggregation which offer mobile content and interactive voice recognition systems, Customized polyphonic and monophonic ringtones creation, wallpapers, video downloads; Application Development that include Utility applications like SMS gateways & SMS applications. Fun Applications like SMS / WAP Games & Chat/ Dating engines; and Other services including mobile secrets, phone tricks, lost mobile reporting board and a discussion forum.
Webaroo
Webaroo established in June 2004 has developed several market leading products. Some have already achieved significant market attraction. Webaroo employs approximately 150 people in its offices in India and USA. Webaroo’s founders include Silicon Valley based experienced serial entrepreneurs Rakesh Mathur (founder of Armedia, Junglee, Stratify) and Beerud Sheth (founder of Elance). Webaroo’s management includes world-class, highly-experienced executives with decades of experience in building and managing high-growth companies. Webaroo has offices in Silicon Valley, Seattle, Mumbai and Delhi. Webaroo develops mobile software and services for consumers across the world. With a large and rapidly growing user-base, it offers advertisers — unprecedented mobile reach and targeting. Its core offering include SMS GupShup service that enables creation of groups of any size and allow communication with all group members at a cost of a single SMS sent by the group creator; Webaroo Software enables users to browse and search web content offline which is compressed for consumption on laptops, PDAs or smartphones. Since these features are built on an SMS platform, it can be used even on the most basic and low-end phones.
Spice Mobile VAS (formerly Cellebrum)
The spice group promoted company has recently gone through rebranding and is now called as ‘Spice Mobile VAS’. The company is headquartered in Parwanoo in HP. Spice Mobile VAS has presence in 10 countries and employs around 450 people. Its corporate office is in Noida and registered office is in New Delhi. It also has regional offices in Chandigarh, Mumbai, Kolkata, Lucknow and Bangalore. Spice Mobile VAS is a technology enabler in wireless application space. The company develops applications for three main segments - voice based services, messaging and roaming.
PayMate
PayMate established in 2006 is a Mumbai based wireless transactions platform provider. It spin-off from Coruscant Tec, to on wireless content. PayMate has created a viable ecosystem to enable wireless transactions connecting banks, switches, merchants and customers using a simple, secure and seamless technology.
PayMate portfolio includes products like GiftMate, FlyBuySms and many more value added services which go beyond just payments to stuff like mobile shopping and gifting. The primary offerings of PayMate are : one, Payment Services where consumers can use their credit card via mobile phones for in-person and remote purchases and transactions like shop online, buy movie & airline tickets, pay bills at restaurants and retail stores, etc. Two, Gift Mate, a mobile voucher, which enables one to gift money to anyone with a mobile phone which can then be spent at over 3,000 online and offline stores.
Mobile Value Added Services demands Level playing field with Telecoms
The value added services industry has contributed significantly to the growth and adoption of mobile telephony in India. It has also helped telecom sector clock additional revenue. Hence, it is imperative to have a level playing field between large telecommunication and small Mobile Value Added Services companies. Based on the fact the Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) has sought a level playing field between the telecom operators and the value added services companies. They strongly believe that it is imperative for the growth and sustainability of mobile telephony in India.
IAMAI has asked for a faster process of obtaining shortcodes, standardisation of the terms and conditions of access and interconnection and a transparent revenue sharing model between operators and Mobile Value Added Services players. IAMAI has also said that there should be some additional obligations on the current licensees in terms of maintaining a level playing field, otherwise, the MVAS industry should be treated as the single largest users of telecom services and their rights should be protected.
Source: http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/
IAMAI has asked for a faster process of obtaining shortcodes, standardisation of the terms and conditions of access and interconnection and a transparent revenue sharing model between operators and Mobile Value Added Services players. IAMAI has also said that there should be some additional obligations on the current licensees in terms of maintaining a level playing field, otherwise, the MVAS industry should be treated as the single largest users of telecom services and their rights should be protected.
Source: http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/
Reliance Big Entertainment and Amitabh Bachchan
The $1 billion deal between Reliance Big Entertainment and the production firms of Hollywood
stars Nicolas Cage, Jim Carrey, George Clooney, Tom Hanks and Brad Pitt and film-makers Chris Columbus and Jay Roach to make films was the beginning of the Anil Ambani’s journey towards transforming his company into global filmmaker. It seems the hunger of Anil Ambani is getting bigger by the day.
Reliance Big Entertainment, just after negotiation with Hollywood bigwig Steven Spielberg’s DreamWorks where Anil has planned to infuse about $600 million he also convinced the legendary Amitabh Bachchan.
The deal could be worth $200m-$300m (final figure is not yet known) and would include film production, television series, reality shows, internet and mobile content besides live shows. Reliance Big Entertainment will look after managing marketing and the distribution of projects, and the Bachchans - Amitabh, Jaya, Abhishek and Aishwarya would come up with the creative inputs and would be handling the entertainment aspect of the project.
The joint venture will use brand Bachchans in films, production, TV series, internet, reality shows and mobile content. The other directors who have been signed up to direct films for the joint venture are Balakrishnan, Sujoy Ghosh, Rohan Sippy and Dr Chandraprakash Dwivedi. No wonder the deal is in line with Reliance Big Entertainment strategy to tie up with the leading Indian and international creative talent, to build a new-age, future-ready global media and Entertainment Company.
The creative genius – Bachchans and the business genius – Anil will create magic and take entertainment to a different level. The joint venture and our strategy to tie up with Indian and international creative talent will help the company build a new-age global entertainment conglomerate.
stars Nicolas Cage, Jim Carrey, George Clooney, Tom Hanks and Brad Pitt and film-makers Chris Columbus and Jay Roach to make films was the beginning of the Anil Ambani’s journey towards transforming his company into global filmmaker. It seems the hunger of Anil Ambani is getting bigger by the day.
Reliance Big Entertainment, just after negotiation with Hollywood bigwig Steven Spielberg’s DreamWorks where Anil has planned to infuse about $600 million he also convinced the legendary Amitabh Bachchan.
The deal could be worth $200m-$300m (final figure is not yet known) and would include film production, television series, reality shows, internet and mobile content besides live shows. Reliance Big Entertainment will look after managing marketing and the distribution of projects, and the Bachchans - Amitabh, Jaya, Abhishek and Aishwarya would come up with the creative inputs and would be handling the entertainment aspect of the project.
The joint venture will use brand Bachchans in films, production, TV series, internet, reality shows and mobile content. The other directors who have been signed up to direct films for the joint venture are Balakrishnan, Sujoy Ghosh, Rohan Sippy and Dr Chandraprakash Dwivedi. No wonder the deal is in line with Reliance Big Entertainment strategy to tie up with the leading Indian and international creative talent, to build a new-age, future-ready global media and Entertainment Company.
The creative genius – Bachchans and the business genius – Anil will create magic and take entertainment to a different level. The joint venture and our strategy to tie up with Indian and international creative talent will help the company build a new-age global entertainment conglomerate.
Akbar Birbal remixed: A new beginning
Rajshri Media
Rajshri Media is the digital entertainment arm of the 60-year old Rajshri group, one of India’s oldest, largest and most successful Film and TV Studios. It also has successful operations in TV production and music publishing. The group has produced over 50 films till date many of which have attained significant commercial and critical success.
Rajshri Media is one of the leading Internet and Mobile Studios of India. The company runs India’s leading broadband video streaming and download portal http://www.rajshri.com their Internet and Mobile videos are also available at their Youtube channel – http://www.youtube.com/rajshri.
Akbar Birbal remixed: A new beginning
Gone are the days of TV serials; its age of Internet and mobile serials. Rajshri Media, India’s leading Web and Mobile Studio, has launched Akbar Birbal remixed. The Akbar Birbal remixed is 3 minute a piece 90 episode series. The Akbar Birbal remixed, set in the by-lanes of Bhendi Bazar in Mumbai.
The show revolves around a loud and brazen don – Akbar Anna, and his intelligent , witty and ever-bankable sidekick – Birbal Bhaiya. Each day, to them, begins with it a new nut to crack. Doesn’t it sound like Akbar-Birbal, and Muna Bhai – Circuit combination? The first 10 episodes are live on http://www.rajshri.com and their Youtube channel which is http://www.youtube.com/rajshri. In addition, it will be launched soon on MMS and SMS via Idea Cellular.
Rajshri would reformat the content for audio and text and will be distributing it to Idea for 3 months, thereafter going live across other operators. The content will be released initially on Internet and mobile and subsequently formatted for TV, home video and Radio.
Rajshri Media is the digital entertainment arm of the 60-year old Rajshri group, one of India’s oldest, largest and most successful Film and TV Studios. It also has successful operations in TV production and music publishing. The group has produced over 50 films till date many of which have attained significant commercial and critical success.
Rajshri Media is one of the leading Internet and Mobile Studios of India. The company runs India’s leading broadband video streaming and download portal http://www.rajshri.com their Internet and Mobile videos are also available at their Youtube channel – http://www.youtube.com/rajshri.
Akbar Birbal remixed: A new beginning
Gone are the days of TV serials; its age of Internet and mobile serials. Rajshri Media, India’s leading Web and Mobile Studio, has launched Akbar Birbal remixed. The Akbar Birbal remixed is 3 minute a piece 90 episode series. The Akbar Birbal remixed, set in the by-lanes of Bhendi Bazar in Mumbai.
The show revolves around a loud and brazen don – Akbar Anna, and his intelligent , witty and ever-bankable sidekick – Birbal Bhaiya. Each day, to them, begins with it a new nut to crack. Doesn’t it sound like Akbar-Birbal, and Muna Bhai – Circuit combination? The first 10 episodes are live on http://www.rajshri.com and their Youtube channel which is http://www.youtube.com/rajshri. In addition, it will be launched soon on MMS and SMS via Idea Cellular.
Rajshri would reformat the content for audio and text and will be distributing it to Idea for 3 months, thereafter going live across other operators. The content will be released initially on Internet and mobile and subsequently formatted for TV, home video and Radio.
Colors of Viacom 18
Cable television market in India is at present dominated by foreign-owned operators, including Star TV, and Sony, and several large domestic broadcasters, such as Zee, Sun TV, and Sahara. The industry in the recent past has seen new players entering the market, or new partners embarking on the joint venture. The change will lead to a period of fierce competition and consolidation in the months to come.
The joint Venture
The United States based Viacom, which owns Hollywood studios such as Paramount and DreamWorks. And television channels such as MTV, VH1 and Nickleodeon and the Indian company TV-18 which runs Indian business channels such as CNBC-TV18 and has a stake in Global Broadcast News, which operates English news channel CNN-IBN on May 2007 entered into joint venture. The 50-50 joint venture – Viacom-18, would set up an entertainment company that will be involved in television, films, and digital media. To the joint venture Viacom has contributed its channels in India - MTV, Nickleodeon and VH1, along with some capital to the venture, while TV-18 is transferring Studio18, it’s production, distribution, home video and music co to the joint venture.
First Launch
The Viacom’s inherent creativity and Network18’s operational excellence make a potent combination that places Viacom18 in an enviable position in the Indian entertainment space. This is evident from the pre launch campaign of the general entertainment channel – Color. This will be the 10th Hindi general entertainment channel on Indian television.
Viacom 18 has announced the launch its first Hindi general entertainment channel – Colors in July this year. The launch is one of the 100 new TV channels which are scheduled for launch in India this year. The launch of COLORS will make Viacom18 one of the strongest entertainment Networks in India. Viacom18 already reaches out to millions of viewers through its TV and filmed entertainment offerings via MTV, Nick, VH1 and other news channel such as CNN-IBN, CNBC-TV18 which are industry leading brands in their respective spaces.
The cluttered TV channel market where the total number of channels on air set to hit 700 by 2009 will be forced to slash advertising rates and spend heavily on improving technology. The new launches would deliver the content to ever smaller audiences, nudging up their cost of distribution and marketing. The new channels need innovative program planning, strong nation wide distribution, great launch, and image differentiation. Commenting on the launch Rajesh Kamat, CEO, Colors, says, “We have worked on the 3Ds – distribution, differentiation and disruption. Distribution will be key for the channel for the initial sampling among viewers. We plan to have Differentiated scheduling of programmes, which will play an important role in its success.” To read the story please read: Viacom18 to Launch ‘COLORS’, GE Channel in Hindi
The joint Venture
The United States based Viacom, which owns Hollywood studios such as Paramount and DreamWorks. And television channels such as MTV, VH1 and Nickleodeon and the Indian company TV-18 which runs Indian business channels such as CNBC-TV18 and has a stake in Global Broadcast News, which operates English news channel CNN-IBN on May 2007 entered into joint venture. The 50-50 joint venture – Viacom-18, would set up an entertainment company that will be involved in television, films, and digital media. To the joint venture Viacom has contributed its channels in India - MTV, Nickleodeon and VH1, along with some capital to the venture, while TV-18 is transferring Studio18, it’s production, distribution, home video and music co to the joint venture.
First Launch
The Viacom’s inherent creativity and Network18’s operational excellence make a potent combination that places Viacom18 in an enviable position in the Indian entertainment space. This is evident from the pre launch campaign of the general entertainment channel – Color. This will be the 10th Hindi general entertainment channel on Indian television.
Viacom 18 has announced the launch its first Hindi general entertainment channel – Colors in July this year. The launch is one of the 100 new TV channels which are scheduled for launch in India this year. The launch of COLORS will make Viacom18 one of the strongest entertainment Networks in India. Viacom18 already reaches out to millions of viewers through its TV and filmed entertainment offerings via MTV, Nick, VH1 and other news channel such as CNN-IBN, CNBC-TV18 which are industry leading brands in their respective spaces.
The cluttered TV channel market where the total number of channels on air set to hit 700 by 2009 will be forced to slash advertising rates and spend heavily on improving technology. The new launches would deliver the content to ever smaller audiences, nudging up their cost of distribution and marketing. The new channels need innovative program planning, strong nation wide distribution, great launch, and image differentiation. Commenting on the launch Rajesh Kamat, CEO, Colors, says, “We have worked on the 3Ds – distribution, differentiation and disruption. Distribution will be key for the channel for the initial sampling among viewers. We plan to have Differentiated scheduling of programmes, which will play an important role in its success.” To read the story please read: Viacom18 to Launch ‘COLORS’, GE Channel in Hindi
Colours: New General Entertainment Channel from Viacom 18
Latest addition in the cluttered general entertainment channel space is Colors. It is the 50:50 joint venture between Viacom Inc and the Network 18 Group. With the launch of Colors, Viacom 18 will complete its bouquet in the Indian market after its slew of niche channels such as MTV, Vh1 and Nick. Colors will reach out to a wider audience which normally comes from the general entertainment channel genre.
Colors: Ensuring Success
The programming in the cluttered general entertainment channel space is the key to its success. There is stiff competition in the space and key to success is differentiated and disruptive in our battle for eyeballs.
Positioning the channel in the cluttered space is not an easy task. The Viacom 18 management knows positioning has to be different and disruptive to make its presence felt. No wonder Viacom 18 has an innovative positioning strategy – disruptive positioning. It has chosen Bangkok as the backdrop and roped in Akshay Kumar to launch its flagship show – definitely innovative and disruptive move.
The launch vehicle, Akshay Kumar is the anchor of its reality show Fear Factor – Khatron Ke Khiladi. Akshay Kumarhas been roped in to build excitement among viewers and capture the required eyeballs. Apart from Khatron Ke Khiladi, with Akshay Kumar and 13 Bollywood actresses, Colors has announced its initial flagship shows – Mohe Rang De, a love story set against the backdrop of the Quit India Movement Azaadi Ke Rang or Bollywood ke Range. These programming has been linked to the emotions of Indian people. These programs also depict the name of the channel Colors. The name Colors is also reflective of the country’s myriad emotions.
Impact on the general entertainment channel
The stalwarts in the general entertainment channel space, like Zee, Sony and Star, remain unruffled by the entry of new players. The new entrants in the general entertainment channel space viz. 9X, NDTV Imagine, will be able to survive purely on the merit of their content. The success of any general entertainment channel channel will depend on how well it differentiates itself from the rest. In the current market scenario when soaps and reality shows are dominating the general entertainment channel channels, differentiation will be tough.
Currently, general entertainment channel advertising revenues are estimated at Rs 2,000 crore with Star and Zee bagging the maximum share in this space. Color, piggyback on strong brand equity of Viacom 18 and patronage of its other channels would ensure faster penetration for a general entertainment channel space.
Colors: Ensuring Success
The programming in the cluttered general entertainment channel space is the key to its success. There is stiff competition in the space and key to success is differentiated and disruptive in our battle for eyeballs.
Positioning the channel in the cluttered space is not an easy task. The Viacom 18 management knows positioning has to be different and disruptive to make its presence felt. No wonder Viacom 18 has an innovative positioning strategy – disruptive positioning. It has chosen Bangkok as the backdrop and roped in Akshay Kumar to launch its flagship show – definitely innovative and disruptive move.
The launch vehicle, Akshay Kumar is the anchor of its reality show Fear Factor – Khatron Ke Khiladi. Akshay Kumarhas been roped in to build excitement among viewers and capture the required eyeballs. Apart from Khatron Ke Khiladi, with Akshay Kumar and 13 Bollywood actresses, Colors has announced its initial flagship shows – Mohe Rang De, a love story set against the backdrop of the Quit India Movement Azaadi Ke Rang or Bollywood ke Range. These programming has been linked to the emotions of Indian people. These programs also depict the name of the channel Colors. The name Colors is also reflective of the country’s myriad emotions.
Impact on the general entertainment channel
The stalwarts in the general entertainment channel space, like Zee, Sony and Star, remain unruffled by the entry of new players. The new entrants in the general entertainment channel space viz. 9X, NDTV Imagine, will be able to survive purely on the merit of their content. The success of any general entertainment channel channel will depend on how well it differentiates itself from the rest. In the current market scenario when soaps and reality shows are dominating the general entertainment channel channels, differentiation will be tough.
Currently, general entertainment channel advertising revenues are estimated at Rs 2,000 crore with Star and Zee bagging the maximum share in this space. Color, piggyback on strong brand equity of Viacom 18 and patronage of its other channels would ensure faster penetration for a general entertainment channel space.
The Indian Premier League (IPL)
The Indian Premier League is cricket competition created by the BCCI (Board of Control for Cricket in India). According to the IPL format each teams play two times in a round robin system – equal number of home and away matches. The top four ranking team of the league matches will progress to the semi-finals and the winner of the semifinals will play the final match. 18 April 2008, was the starting date of the first season of the Indian Premier League. It lasted for forty-five days and ended on 1 June 2008 with the victory of the Rajasthan Royals in the final at the DY Patil Stadium, Navi Mumbai.
The eight teams which participated in the first season of The Indian Premier League are Kolkata Knight Riders, Chennai Super Kings, Mumbai Indians, Hyderabad Deccan Chargers, Rajasthan Royals, Royal Challengers Bangalore, Delhi Daredevils, and Kings XI Punjab. The Indian Premier League. after the success of the first season, has proposed to add two new franchises based in Ahmedabad and Kanpur. The new franchisee will join the IPL in 2010, increasing the total number of teams to 10.
Television and Sponsorship Rights
BCCI is known as the richest board in world cricket. The IPL has brought the BCCI a sum of US $1 billion, which makes it more powerful and lucrative. The sponsorship revenue is part of the Central Pool. The sponsorship revenue will be divided among IPL, franchisee, and prize money in the ratio of 40:54:6 till 2017.
A consortium of Sony Entertainment Television Network and Singapore based World Sport Group bagged the global broadcasting rights of the Indian Premier League for the period of ten years at a cost of US $1.026 billion. As part of the deal, the consortium will pay the BCCI US $918 million for the television broadcast rights and US $108 million for the promotion of the tournament. The Sony Entertainment Television Network and World Sport Groupthen re-sold parts of the broadcasting rights geographically to other companies. Apart from this deal The IPL negotiated a contract with the Canadian company Live Current Media Inc. to run and operate its portals. The minimum guarantee has been negotiated at US $50 million over the next 10 years. The IPL has different revenue sharing formula for the money it earns from the media rights.
Team Rules
The IPL has defined team rule, and the rules of competition, which offers equal playing field for all the teams. Some of the Team composition rules are:
The IPL teams is constitute of 16 players plus one physiotherapist and a coach. The team can have foreign players, at most four players from the playing XI, minimum of four local players must be part of the team, and not less than four players from the BCCI under-22 pool in each team. Moreover, team can have maximum of eight foreign players. The IPL board has also accorded icon status to five indian players, they are – Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, Sourav Ganguly, Yuvraj Singh and Virender Sehwag. Icon players are to be paid 15% more than the highest paid player in their respective teams. The IPL apart from the team structure the franchisee have assigned budget to spend on buying players. The total spending cap for a franchisee in the first player auction was US $5m. Under-22 players are to be remunerated with a minimum annual salary of US $20,000 while for others it is US $50,000.
To know more about the rules please visit http://www.iplt20.com/rules-of-the-competition.htmla
There were a few instances when the teams had difference of opinions; otherwise the IPL was a huge success. All teams played the game well within the defined IPL rules.
Franchises
24th January 2005 The IPL announced the winning bidders for the eight franchises. The official list of franchise owners announced and the winning bids were as follows.
Mumbai Indians:Reliance Industries - $111.9 million
Royal Challengers Bangalore : UB group - $111.6 million
Hyderabad Deccan Chargers : Deccan Chronicle - $107 million
Chennai Super Kings : India Cements and N Srinivasan - $91 million
Delhi Daredevils : GMR Holdings - $84 million
Kings XI Punjab : Preity Zinta, Ness Wadia, Karan Paul, and Mohit Burman - $76 million
Kolkata Knight Riders : Shahrukh Khan, Juhi Chawla Mehta and Jai Mehta - $75.09 million
Rajasthan Royals: Emerging Media(A.R Jha, Lachlan Murdoch, Suresh Chellaram) - $67 million
Franchise Earnings
The first season that concluded on June 1 2008 was a huge success for the IPL. It should be noted that during the first season no one had expected the franchises to break even since most of them had invested huge amounts, but even then the table below shows that some of them are already profitable from Season one. Commenting on the financial performance and success of The Indian Premier League, Lalit Modi, Chairman & League Commissioner says: “I’m no financial analyst, but given the huge success of the league, and its future potential, I would venture to say that franchisees bought assets that were heavily under priced.”
All Figures are in crores
Mumbai Indians - Net Loss - 16 Crores(To be profitable in season 2)
Revenues
a. Broadcasting Rights - 35
b. Team Sponsors - 20
c. Gate Receipts - 14
Total Revenues(a+b+c) - 69
Expenses
a. Franchise Fees - 45
b. Team - 20
c. Advertising & Admin - 20
Total Expenses(a+b+c) – 85
Royal Challengers Bangalore - Net Loss - 43(To be profitable in season 4)
Revenues
a. Broadcasting Rights - 35
b. Team Sponsors - 0
c. Gate Receipts - 10
Total Revenues(a+b+c) - 45
Expenses
a. Franchise Fees - 48
b. Team Expenses - 22
c. Advertising/Admin - 18
Total Expenses(a+b+c) – 88
Hyderabad Deccan Chargers - Net Loss - 18 Crores (To be profitable in season 3)
Revenues
a. Broadcasting Rights - 35
b. Team Sponsors - 17 ;
c. Gate Receipts - 12
Total Revenues(a+b+c) – 64
Expenses
a. Franchise Fees - 45
b. Team Expenses - 24
c. Advertising/Admin - 13
Total Expenses(a+b+c) – 82
Chennai Super Kings
Revenues
a. Broadcasting Rights - 35
b. Team Sponsors - 25
c. Gate Receipts - 12.8
Total Revenues(a+b+c) - 72.8
Expenses
a. Franchise Fees - 36
b. Team Expenses - 24
c. Advertising/Admin - 13
Total Expenses(a+b+c) – 73
Delhi Daredevils - Net Loss - 6.6 Crores (To be profitable in season 2)
Revenues
a. Broadcasting Rights - 35
b. Team Sponsors - 20
c. Gate Receipts - 15.4
Total Revenues(a+b+c) - 70.4
Expenses
a. Franchise Fees - 34
b. Team Expenses - 23
c. Advertising/Admin - 20
Total Expenses(a+b+c) – 77
Kings XI Punjab - Net Loss – 2.4 Crores (To be profitable in season 2)
Revenues
a. Broadcasting Rights - 35
b. Team Sponsors - 22
c. Gate Receipts - 9
Total Revenues(a+b+c) – 66
Expenses
a. Franchise Fees - 30.4
b. Team Expenses - 25
c. Advertising/Admin - 13
Total Expenses(a+b+c) - 68.4
Kolkata Knight Riders - - Net Profit INR 13 Crores
Revenues
a. Broadcasting Rights - 35
b. Team Sponsors - 34
c. Gate Receipts - 20
Total Revenues(a+b+c) - 89
Expenses
a. Franchise Fees - 31
b. Team Expenses - 25
c. Advertising/Admin - 20
Total Expenses(a+b+c) – 76
Rajasthan Royals - Net Profit INR 6 Crores
Revenues
a. Broadcasting Rights – 35
b. Team Sponsors – 16
c. Gate Receipts - 8
Total Revenues(a+b+c) - 59
Expenses
a. Franchise Fees - 27
b. Team Expenses - 13
c. Advertising/Admin - 13
Total Expenses(a+b+c) – 53
This is how the franchises made money in IPL season one, to discover it better please refer to Business Today May 14 -July 03, 2008 Issue. < Will cricket’s new czars make money?, May 14 2008 >
End of Season One
Modeled on English Premier League, The Indian Premier League season one was great success. The over all success of the concept in long run is dependent on the creation of club culture. Creating club culture is not a one day exercise. It will take some time. The Indian Premier League organizers and franchisee are looking forward for the similar success of The Indian Premier League in season two. Lalit Modi, Chairman & League Commissioner, Indian Premier League, with high expectation announced that the tentative dates for the second season of the DLF Indian Premier League. The second season will start from April 10th, 2009. The format of the tournament would remain unchanged from the 2008 season format. The eight franchisees will first play against one another in a league on home-and-away basis. The top four teams will then figure in the two semi-finals and a final.
The eight teams which participated in the first season of The Indian Premier League are Kolkata Knight Riders, Chennai Super Kings, Mumbai Indians, Hyderabad Deccan Chargers, Rajasthan Royals, Royal Challengers Bangalore, Delhi Daredevils, and Kings XI Punjab. The Indian Premier League. after the success of the first season, has proposed to add two new franchises based in Ahmedabad and Kanpur. The new franchisee will join the IPL in 2010, increasing the total number of teams to 10.
Television and Sponsorship Rights
BCCI is known as the richest board in world cricket. The IPL has brought the BCCI a sum of US $1 billion, which makes it more powerful and lucrative. The sponsorship revenue is part of the Central Pool. The sponsorship revenue will be divided among IPL, franchisee, and prize money in the ratio of 40:54:6 till 2017.
A consortium of Sony Entertainment Television Network and Singapore based World Sport Group bagged the global broadcasting rights of the Indian Premier League for the period of ten years at a cost of US $1.026 billion. As part of the deal, the consortium will pay the BCCI US $918 million for the television broadcast rights and US $108 million for the promotion of the tournament. The Sony Entertainment Television Network and World Sport Groupthen re-sold parts of the broadcasting rights geographically to other companies. Apart from this deal The IPL negotiated a contract with the Canadian company Live Current Media Inc. to run and operate its portals. The minimum guarantee has been negotiated at US $50 million over the next 10 years. The IPL has different revenue sharing formula for the money it earns from the media rights.
Team Rules
The IPL has defined team rule, and the rules of competition, which offers equal playing field for all the teams. Some of the Team composition rules are:
The IPL teams is constitute of 16 players plus one physiotherapist and a coach. The team can have foreign players, at most four players from the playing XI, minimum of four local players must be part of the team, and not less than four players from the BCCI under-22 pool in each team. Moreover, team can have maximum of eight foreign players. The IPL board has also accorded icon status to five indian players, they are – Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, Sourav Ganguly, Yuvraj Singh and Virender Sehwag. Icon players are to be paid 15% more than the highest paid player in their respective teams. The IPL apart from the team structure the franchisee have assigned budget to spend on buying players. The total spending cap for a franchisee in the first player auction was US $5m. Under-22 players are to be remunerated with a minimum annual salary of US $20,000 while for others it is US $50,000.
To know more about the rules please visit http://www.iplt20.com/rules-of-the-competition.htmla
There were a few instances when the teams had difference of opinions; otherwise the IPL was a huge success. All teams played the game well within the defined IPL rules.
Franchises
24th January 2005 The IPL announced the winning bidders for the eight franchises. The official list of franchise owners announced and the winning bids were as follows.
Mumbai Indians:Reliance Industries - $111.9 million
Royal Challengers Bangalore : UB group - $111.6 million
Hyderabad Deccan Chargers : Deccan Chronicle - $107 million
Chennai Super Kings : India Cements and N Srinivasan - $91 million
Delhi Daredevils : GMR Holdings - $84 million
Kings XI Punjab : Preity Zinta, Ness Wadia, Karan Paul, and Mohit Burman - $76 million
Kolkata Knight Riders : Shahrukh Khan, Juhi Chawla Mehta and Jai Mehta - $75.09 million
Rajasthan Royals: Emerging Media(A.R Jha, Lachlan Murdoch, Suresh Chellaram) - $67 million
Franchise Earnings
The first season that concluded on June 1 2008 was a huge success for the IPL. It should be noted that during the first season no one had expected the franchises to break even since most of them had invested huge amounts, but even then the table below shows that some of them are already profitable from Season one. Commenting on the financial performance and success of The Indian Premier League, Lalit Modi, Chairman & League Commissioner says: “I’m no financial analyst, but given the huge success of the league, and its future potential, I would venture to say that franchisees bought assets that were heavily under priced.”
All Figures are in crores
Mumbai Indians - Net Loss - 16 Crores(To be profitable in season 2)
Revenues
a. Broadcasting Rights - 35
b. Team Sponsors - 20
c. Gate Receipts - 14
Total Revenues(a+b+c) - 69
Expenses
a. Franchise Fees - 45
b. Team - 20
c. Advertising & Admin - 20
Total Expenses(a+b+c) – 85
Royal Challengers Bangalore - Net Loss - 43(To be profitable in season 4)
Revenues
a. Broadcasting Rights - 35
b. Team Sponsors - 0
c. Gate Receipts - 10
Total Revenues(a+b+c) - 45
Expenses
a. Franchise Fees - 48
b. Team Expenses - 22
c. Advertising/Admin - 18
Total Expenses(a+b+c) – 88
Hyderabad Deccan Chargers - Net Loss - 18 Crores (To be profitable in season 3)
Revenues
a. Broadcasting Rights - 35
b. Team Sponsors - 17 ;
c. Gate Receipts - 12
Total Revenues(a+b+c) – 64
Expenses
a. Franchise Fees - 45
b. Team Expenses - 24
c. Advertising/Admin - 13
Total Expenses(a+b+c) – 82
Chennai Super Kings
Revenues
a. Broadcasting Rights - 35
b. Team Sponsors - 25
c. Gate Receipts - 12.8
Total Revenues(a+b+c) - 72.8
Expenses
a. Franchise Fees - 36
b. Team Expenses - 24
c. Advertising/Admin - 13
Total Expenses(a+b+c) – 73
Delhi Daredevils - Net Loss - 6.6 Crores (To be profitable in season 2)
Revenues
a. Broadcasting Rights - 35
b. Team Sponsors - 20
c. Gate Receipts - 15.4
Total Revenues(a+b+c) - 70.4
Expenses
a. Franchise Fees - 34
b. Team Expenses - 23
c. Advertising/Admin - 20
Total Expenses(a+b+c) – 77
Kings XI Punjab - Net Loss – 2.4 Crores (To be profitable in season 2)
Revenues
a. Broadcasting Rights - 35
b. Team Sponsors - 22
c. Gate Receipts - 9
Total Revenues(a+b+c) – 66
Expenses
a. Franchise Fees - 30.4
b. Team Expenses - 25
c. Advertising/Admin - 13
Total Expenses(a+b+c) - 68.4
Kolkata Knight Riders - - Net Profit INR 13 Crores
Revenues
a. Broadcasting Rights - 35
b. Team Sponsors - 34
c. Gate Receipts - 20
Total Revenues(a+b+c) - 89
Expenses
a. Franchise Fees - 31
b. Team Expenses - 25
c. Advertising/Admin - 20
Total Expenses(a+b+c) – 76
Rajasthan Royals - Net Profit INR 6 Crores
Revenues
a. Broadcasting Rights – 35
b. Team Sponsors – 16
c. Gate Receipts - 8
Total Revenues(a+b+c) - 59
Expenses
a. Franchise Fees - 27
b. Team Expenses - 13
c. Advertising/Admin - 13
Total Expenses(a+b+c) – 53
This is how the franchises made money in IPL season one, to discover it better please refer to Business Today May 14 -July 03, 2008 Issue. < Will cricket’s new czars make money?, May 14 2008 >
End of Season One
Modeled on English Premier League, The Indian Premier League season one was great success. The over all success of the concept in long run is dependent on the creation of club culture. Creating club culture is not a one day exercise. It will take some time. The Indian Premier League organizers and franchisee are looking forward for the similar success of The Indian Premier League in season two. Lalit Modi, Chairman & League Commissioner, Indian Premier League, with high expectation announced that the tentative dates for the second season of the DLF Indian Premier League. The second season will start from April 10th, 2009. The format of the tournament would remain unchanged from the 2008 season format. The eight franchisees will first play against one another in a league on home-and-away basis. The top four teams will then figure in the two semi-finals and a final.
Reliance BIG Pictures ties up with Puja Films.
The deal hungry Anil Ambani has signed yet another deal. This time the BIG Pictures, a division of Reliance Entertainment, and Vashu Bhagnani owned Puja films have inked a deal to co-produce five Hindi feature films over the next two years. These films will be financed, marketed and distributed worldwide by Reliance BIG Entertainment.
The first two of the five films which will get release in 2009 are ‘Do Knot Disturb’ and ‘Kal Kissney Dekha’. Vashu Bhagnani on signing the deal says “We are extremely happy to partner with Reliance Big Entertainment. This deal will bring about a synergy of the creative and production expertise of my company with the vast business knowledge of Reliance,”. The joint venture have already started work on the strategic marketing and distribution plan for these films.
This is one of the many deals signed by the Reliance BIG Entertainment, the flagship Media and Entertainment Company of Reliance - Anil Dhirubhai Ambani group. The Reliance BIG Entertainment is investing over $1 billion in its Filmed Entertainment business.
The first two of the five films which will get release in 2009 are ‘Do Knot Disturb’ and ‘Kal Kissney Dekha’. Vashu Bhagnani on signing the deal says “We are extremely happy to partner with Reliance Big Entertainment. This deal will bring about a synergy of the creative and production expertise of my company with the vast business knowledge of Reliance,”. The joint venture have already started work on the strategic marketing and distribution plan for these films.
This is one of the many deals signed by the Reliance BIG Entertainment, the flagship Media and Entertainment Company of Reliance - Anil Dhirubhai Ambani group. The Reliance BIG Entertainment is investing over $1 billion in its Filmed Entertainment business.
Saregama to produce films
The film industry is growing and undoubtedly is the sunrise industry of India. The corporates are venturing into the film industry in various verticals viz. multiplex, film production, film distributions and those who already have presence is expanding their horizon like PVR are venturing into film production, film distribution a migration from film exhibition Reliance Big Entertainment is consolidating its position not only in Bollywood but also in Hollywood.
Latest in the offering is the music distribution company Saregama venturing again into film production. Saregama India Ltd, the entertainment arm of the Rs 13500 crore RPG Group, would invest up to Rs.150 crore in film production and other businesses over the next two years in producing seven movies. RPG has plans to pick up a minority stake in one of the event management companies in India. The event management vertical will help Saregama popularize its movies and the characters in the movies post release.
Saregama India for its film production venture has tied up with Rituparno Ghosh to direct Bengali movies. Apart from theatrical releases the company will also bring out CDs and DVDs of the movies.
Hoping that this is yet another new beginning of the Indian corporates venturing into film industry. The other corporate houses evaluating the option of either venturing or expanding the horizon in industry are Reliance Industries, A V Birla Group, and Tata’s.
Latest in the offering is the music distribution company Saregama venturing again into film production. Saregama India Ltd, the entertainment arm of the Rs 13500 crore RPG Group, would invest up to Rs.150 crore in film production and other businesses over the next two years in producing seven movies. RPG has plans to pick up a minority stake in one of the event management companies in India. The event management vertical will help Saregama popularize its movies and the characters in the movies post release.
Saregama India for its film production venture has tied up with Rituparno Ghosh to direct Bengali movies. Apart from theatrical releases the company will also bring out CDs and DVDs of the movies.
Hoping that this is yet another new beginning of the Indian corporates venturing into film industry. The other corporate houses evaluating the option of either venturing or expanding the horizon in industry are Reliance Industries, A V Birla Group, and Tata’s.
Amitabh Bachchan
Amitabh Bachchan (Amitabh Harivansh Srivastav), born on October 11, 1942 in Allahabad, Uttar Pradesh is one of the most prominent Indian film actors of Bollywood. Amitabh Bachchan is known for his deep, baritone voice. He before entering the film industry applied for a job with All India Radio for the post of a news announcer, for which he was rejected – probably a destiny’s call. The actor also did Playback Singing for The Great Gambler, Mr. Natwarlal, Lawaaris, Naseeb, Silsila, Mahaan, Pukar, Sharaabi, Toofan, Jaadugar, Khuda Gawah, Major Saab, Sooryavansham, Aks, Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham, Aankhen, Armaan, Baghban, Dev, Aetbaar, Baabul, Nishabd, Cheeni Kum, Bhoothnath.
Amitabh Bachchan has been a narrator, a playback singer film producer, presenter for numerous programmes, and Television anchor. He was also elected member of the Indian Parliament from 1984 to 1987. The actor Amitabh Bachchan holds the record for the most number of Best Actor nominations at the Filmfare Awards and has won three National Film Awards and twelve Filmfare Awards to date.
Mile stone 1 – Saat Hindustani and Anand
Bachchan made his film debut in 1969 in Saat Hindustani, a film directed by Khwaja Ahmad Abbas. Though the film was not a financial success but Bachchan won his first National Film Award for Best Newcomer. In 1971 was awarded Filmfare Best Supporting Actor Award for his performance in Anand. In 1973 director Prakash Mehra cast him in the leading role for the film Zanjeer as Inspector Vijay Khanna which established Amitabh as the angry young man of Bollywood. Later Bachchan played the role of Vikram in the film Namak Haraam, a social drama directed by Hrishikesh Mukherjee and scripted by Biresh Chatterjee addressing themes of friendship. In 1975 he acted in a variety of film genres from the comedy Chupke Chupke, the crime drama Faraar to the romantic drama Mili. However 1975 was the year when he appeared in two landmark films of Hindi cinematic history – Deewar and Sholay.
Mile stone 2 – Sholay and Amar Akbar Anthony
After the phenomenal success of Sholay, Bachchan had consilidated his position in the industry. In between 1976 and 1984 he receive an unprecedented number of Filmfare Best Actor Award Awards and nominations. Sholay cemented Amitabh status as Bollywood’s pre-eminent action hero but he was flexible with roles. He played the romantic lead in Kabhie Kabhie and comic in Amar Akbar Anthony and Chupke Chupke. In 1977 he won the Filmfare Best Actor Award for his performance in Amar Akbar Anthony. 1978 was possibly the most remarkable year of his career and he starred in all four of the highest grossing films of India in that year. In 1979 for the first time, Amitabh was required to use his singing voice for the film Mr. Natwarlal. His performance in the film saw him nominated for both the Filmfare Best Actor Award and the Filmfare Best Male Playback Awards.
Mile stone 3 – Injury during filming Coolie
The fatal injury of 1982 while filming Coolie was the turning point in Amitabh’s film career. Amitabh while shooting for the film had taken the liberty to perform his own stunts. In one of the scene he was required to fall onto a table and then on the ground. However as he jumped towards the table, the corner of the table struck his abdomen. He was operated and remained critically ill in hospital for many months, and at times was close to death. This was the time when world realized Amitabh’s star power.
The film was released in 1983 and partly due to the huge publicity of Amitabh’s accident the film was a great boxoffice success. Amitabh’s illness made him feel weak both mentally and physically and he decided to quit films and venture into politics.
Mile stone 4 – Politics and Retirement
In 1984, Amitabh took a break from acting and briefly entered politics in support of long-time family friend Rajiv Gandhi. He contested Allahabad’s Lok Sabha seat against H. N. Bahuguna, former Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh and won by highest victory margin in general election history (68.2% of the vote). However, in 1987 he resigned after three years, leaving his term incomplete.
In 1988, Bachchan returned to films after a three year stint in politics and played the title role in Shahenshah, which was a box office success but his subsequent films failed. In 1990 he won his second National Film Award for Agneepath. In 1991 Hum looked like it might reverse this trend, but it did not happened and after the release of Khuda Gawah in 1992, Bachchan went into semi-retirement for five years.
Mile stone 5 – Producer and Actor
Amitabh Bachchan turned producer during his temporary retirement period and setup Amitabh Bachchan Corporation, Ltd. (A.B.C.L.) in 1996 with the vision of becoming a 10 billion rupees premier entertainment company by the year 2000. ABCL’s operations included film production, film distribution, production and marketing of television software, celebrity management, and event management. The first film produced by the company was Tere Mere Sapne which failed to do well at the boxoffice. ABCL produced a few other films viz. Ullasam, Mrityudaata, Major Saab, Aks, Viruddh none of which worked at boxoffice. ABCL was the main sponsor of the 1996 Miss World beauty pageant, Bangalore and lost millions due to the poor management of the event. Bachchan later attempted to revive his acting career and had average success with Bade Miyan Chote Miyan and received positive reviews for Sooryavansham.
Mile Stone 6 – Television career and Return to prominence
In 2000, Amitabh stepped up to host, Kaun Banega Crorepati. The program piggyback on Amitabh’s charisma gained intense success. It strengthened Amitabh and his family financially and morally after the ABCL’s collapse. In 2000, Amitabh regained his prominence when he appeared in Yash Chopra’s box-office super hit, Mohabbatein directed by Aditya Chopra. The films like Ek Rishtaa, Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham,Aks, Aankhen, Khakee, Dev, Black, Bunty Aur Babli, Sarkar, Kabhi Alvida Na Kehna, Baabul, Eklavya, Nishabd, Cheeni Kum and Shootout at Lokhandwala were few of he film which established him again. As an actor, he continued to exploit a range of characters suiting with his profile, receiving critical acclaim for his performances. His first English language film Rituparno Ghosh’s The Last Lear premiered at the 2007 Toronto International Film Festival on September 9, 2007 for which he received positive reviews from critics.
Family and Friends
Bachchan is married to Jaya Bhaduri also an actress. They have two children, Shweta Nanda,and Abhishek Bachchan, who is also an actor in Bollywood and is married to Aishwarya Rai. He sees great friends in Anil Ambani and Amar Singh.
Amar Singh helped him during a financial crisis due to the failure of his company ABCL. Anil Ambani’s Reliance Big Entertainment and Amitabh Bachchan got into the deal which could be worth $200m-$300m (final figure is not yet known). The new venture would look after film production, television series, reality shows, internet and mobile content besides live shows.
Reliance Big Entertainment and Amitabh Bachchan
The $1 billion deal between Reliance Big Entertainment and the production firms of Hollywood
stars Nicolas Cage, Jim Carrey, George Clooney, Tom Hanks and Brad Pitt and film-makers Chris Columbus and Jay Roach to make films was the beginning of the Anil Ambani’s journey towards transforming his company into global filmmaker. It seems the hunger of Anil Ambani is getting bigger by the day.
Reliance Big Entertainment, just after negotiation with Hollywood bigwig Steven Spielberg’s DreamWorks where Anil has planned to infuse about $600 million he also convinced the legendary Amitabh Bachchan.
The deal could be worth $200m-$300m (final figure is not yet known) and would include film production, television series, reality shows, internet and mobile content besides live shows. Reliance Big Entertainment will look after managing marketing and the distribution of projects, and the Bachchans - Amitabh, Jaya, Abhishek and Aishwarya would come up with the creative inputs and would be handling the entertainment aspect of the project.
The joint venture will use brand Bachchans in films, production, TV series, internet, reality shows and mobile content. The other directors who have been signed up to direct films for the joint venture are Balakrishnan, Sujoy Ghosh, Rohan Sippy and Dr Chandraprakash Dwivedi. No wonder the deal is in line with Reliance Big Entertainment strategy to tie up with the leading Indian and international creative talent, to build a new-age, future-ready global media and Entertainment Company.
The creative genius – Bachchans and the business genius – Anil will create magic and take entertainment to a different level. The joint venture and our strategy to tie up with Indian and international creative talent will help the company build a new-age global entertainment conglomerate.
Amitabh Bachchan has been a narrator, a playback singer film producer, presenter for numerous programmes, and Television anchor. He was also elected member of the Indian Parliament from 1984 to 1987. The actor Amitabh Bachchan holds the record for the most number of Best Actor nominations at the Filmfare Awards and has won three National Film Awards and twelve Filmfare Awards to date.
Mile stone 1 – Saat Hindustani and Anand
Bachchan made his film debut in 1969 in Saat Hindustani, a film directed by Khwaja Ahmad Abbas. Though the film was not a financial success but Bachchan won his first National Film Award for Best Newcomer. In 1971 was awarded Filmfare Best Supporting Actor Award for his performance in Anand. In 1973 director Prakash Mehra cast him in the leading role for the film Zanjeer as Inspector Vijay Khanna which established Amitabh as the angry young man of Bollywood. Later Bachchan played the role of Vikram in the film Namak Haraam, a social drama directed by Hrishikesh Mukherjee and scripted by Biresh Chatterjee addressing themes of friendship. In 1975 he acted in a variety of film genres from the comedy Chupke Chupke, the crime drama Faraar to the romantic drama Mili. However 1975 was the year when he appeared in two landmark films of Hindi cinematic history – Deewar and Sholay.
Mile stone 2 – Sholay and Amar Akbar Anthony
After the phenomenal success of Sholay, Bachchan had consilidated his position in the industry. In between 1976 and 1984 he receive an unprecedented number of Filmfare Best Actor Award Awards and nominations. Sholay cemented Amitabh status as Bollywood’s pre-eminent action hero but he was flexible with roles. He played the romantic lead in Kabhie Kabhie and comic in Amar Akbar Anthony and Chupke Chupke. In 1977 he won the Filmfare Best Actor Award for his performance in Amar Akbar Anthony. 1978 was possibly the most remarkable year of his career and he starred in all four of the highest grossing films of India in that year. In 1979 for the first time, Amitabh was required to use his singing voice for the film Mr. Natwarlal. His performance in the film saw him nominated for both the Filmfare Best Actor Award and the Filmfare Best Male Playback Awards.
Mile stone 3 – Injury during filming Coolie
The fatal injury of 1982 while filming Coolie was the turning point in Amitabh’s film career. Amitabh while shooting for the film had taken the liberty to perform his own stunts. In one of the scene he was required to fall onto a table and then on the ground. However as he jumped towards the table, the corner of the table struck his abdomen. He was operated and remained critically ill in hospital for many months, and at times was close to death. This was the time when world realized Amitabh’s star power.
The film was released in 1983 and partly due to the huge publicity of Amitabh’s accident the film was a great boxoffice success. Amitabh’s illness made him feel weak both mentally and physically and he decided to quit films and venture into politics.
Mile stone 4 – Politics and Retirement
In 1984, Amitabh took a break from acting and briefly entered politics in support of long-time family friend Rajiv Gandhi. He contested Allahabad’s Lok Sabha seat against H. N. Bahuguna, former Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh and won by highest victory margin in general election history (68.2% of the vote). However, in 1987 he resigned after three years, leaving his term incomplete.
In 1988, Bachchan returned to films after a three year stint in politics and played the title role in Shahenshah, which was a box office success but his subsequent films failed. In 1990 he won his second National Film Award for Agneepath. In 1991 Hum looked like it might reverse this trend, but it did not happened and after the release of Khuda Gawah in 1992, Bachchan went into semi-retirement for five years.
Mile stone 5 – Producer and Actor
Amitabh Bachchan turned producer during his temporary retirement period and setup Amitabh Bachchan Corporation, Ltd. (A.B.C.L.) in 1996 with the vision of becoming a 10 billion rupees premier entertainment company by the year 2000. ABCL’s operations included film production, film distribution, production and marketing of television software, celebrity management, and event management. The first film produced by the company was Tere Mere Sapne which failed to do well at the boxoffice. ABCL produced a few other films viz. Ullasam, Mrityudaata, Major Saab, Aks, Viruddh none of which worked at boxoffice. ABCL was the main sponsor of the 1996 Miss World beauty pageant, Bangalore and lost millions due to the poor management of the event. Bachchan later attempted to revive his acting career and had average success with Bade Miyan Chote Miyan and received positive reviews for Sooryavansham.
Mile Stone 6 – Television career and Return to prominence
In 2000, Amitabh stepped up to host, Kaun Banega Crorepati. The program piggyback on Amitabh’s charisma gained intense success. It strengthened Amitabh and his family financially and morally after the ABCL’s collapse. In 2000, Amitabh regained his prominence when he appeared in Yash Chopra’s box-office super hit, Mohabbatein directed by Aditya Chopra. The films like Ek Rishtaa, Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham,Aks, Aankhen, Khakee, Dev, Black, Bunty Aur Babli, Sarkar, Kabhi Alvida Na Kehna, Baabul, Eklavya, Nishabd, Cheeni Kum and Shootout at Lokhandwala were few of he film which established him again. As an actor, he continued to exploit a range of characters suiting with his profile, receiving critical acclaim for his performances. His first English language film Rituparno Ghosh’s The Last Lear premiered at the 2007 Toronto International Film Festival on September 9, 2007 for which he received positive reviews from critics.
Family and Friends
Bachchan is married to Jaya Bhaduri also an actress. They have two children, Shweta Nanda,and Abhishek Bachchan, who is also an actor in Bollywood and is married to Aishwarya Rai. He sees great friends in Anil Ambani and Amar Singh.
Amar Singh helped him during a financial crisis due to the failure of his company ABCL. Anil Ambani’s Reliance Big Entertainment and Amitabh Bachchan got into the deal which could be worth $200m-$300m (final figure is not yet known). The new venture would look after film production, television series, reality shows, internet and mobile content besides live shows.
Reliance Big Entertainment and Amitabh Bachchan
The $1 billion deal between Reliance Big Entertainment and the production firms of Hollywood
stars Nicolas Cage, Jim Carrey, George Clooney, Tom Hanks and Brad Pitt and film-makers Chris Columbus and Jay Roach to make films was the beginning of the Anil Ambani’s journey towards transforming his company into global filmmaker. It seems the hunger of Anil Ambani is getting bigger by the day.
Reliance Big Entertainment, just after negotiation with Hollywood bigwig Steven Spielberg’s DreamWorks where Anil has planned to infuse about $600 million he also convinced the legendary Amitabh Bachchan.
The deal could be worth $200m-$300m (final figure is not yet known) and would include film production, television series, reality shows, internet and mobile content besides live shows. Reliance Big Entertainment will look after managing marketing and the distribution of projects, and the Bachchans - Amitabh, Jaya, Abhishek and Aishwarya would come up with the creative inputs and would be handling the entertainment aspect of the project.
The joint venture will use brand Bachchans in films, production, TV series, internet, reality shows and mobile content. The other directors who have been signed up to direct films for the joint venture are Balakrishnan, Sujoy Ghosh, Rohan Sippy and Dr Chandraprakash Dwivedi. No wonder the deal is in line with Reliance Big Entertainment strategy to tie up with the leading Indian and international creative talent, to build a new-age, future-ready global media and Entertainment Company.
The creative genius – Bachchans and the business genius – Anil will create magic and take entertainment to a different level. The joint venture and our strategy to tie up with Indian and international creative talent will help the company build a new-age global entertainment conglomerate.
Ethics in Bollywood – Shameless Plagiarism
A few writers and musicians in bollywood have been known for plagiarism. They copy ideas, plot, tunes from sources close at hand from other Indian films or Hollywood or other Western movies. This has lead to constant criticism towards the film industry. The Indian classic like The Burning Train released in 1980 was inspired by Shinkansen Daibakuha; 1988 release Khoon Bhari Maang was inspired by Return to Eden. The movie which made Shahrukh Khan the Hero, Baazigar was inspired by A Kiss Before Dying. There are many more such movies here I present a list of movies produced post 2000 which are inspired by the Hollywood or other Western movies or we can say a list of movies alleged to contain plagiarism:
2000
Har Dil Jo Pyar Karega was inspired by While You Were Sleeping
Dhaai Akshar Prem Ke was inspired by A Walk in the Clouds
Kahin Pyaar Na Ho Jaaye was inspired by The Wedding Singer
2001
Ajnabee was inspired by Consenting Adults
Kyo Kii… Main Jhuth Nahin Bolta was inspired by Liar Liar
2002
Humraaz was inspired by A Perfect Murder
Kaante was inspired by Reservoir Dogs
Hum Kisi Se Kum Nahin was I nspired by Analyze This
Chor Machaaye Shor was inspired by Blue Streak
Deewangee was inspired by Primal Fear
Mere Yaar Ki Shaadi Hai was inspired by My Best Friend’s Wedding
Raaz was inspired by What Lies Beneath
2003
Ek Chhoti Si Love Story was inspired by A Short Film About Love
Footpath was inspired by State of Grace
Inteha was inspired by Fear
Jism was inspired by Body Heat
Qayamat was inspired by City Under Threat and The Rock
Saaya was inspired by Dragonfly
2004
Aitraaz was inspired by Disclosure
Hum Tum was inspired by When Harry Met Sally
Mujhse Shaadi Karogi was inspired by Anger Management
Phir Milenge was inspired byPhiladelphia
Paap was inspired by Witness
2005
Black was inspired by The Miracle Worker
Sarkar was inspired by The Godfather
Ek Ajnabee was inspired by Man on Fire
Zeher was inspired by Out of Time
Main Aisa Hi Hoon was inspired by I am Sam
Maine Pyar Kyun Kiya? was inspired by Cactus Flower
Ek Khiladi Ek Haseena was inspired by Confidence
Garam Masala was inspired by Boeing Boeing
Bunty Aur Babli was inspired by Bonnie & Clyde
Chocolate: Deep Dark Secrets was inspired by The Usual Suspects
Deewane Huye Pagal was inspired by There’s Something About Mary
2006
Naksha was inspired by The Rundown
Zinda was inspired by Oldboy
Phir Hera Pheri was inspired by Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels
I See You was inspired by Just Like Heaven
Tathastu was inspired by John Q
Malamaal Weekly was inspired by Waking Ned
Aap Ki Khatir was inspired by The Wedding Date
Taxi No. 9211 was inspired by Changing Lanes
The Killer was inspired by Collateral
2007
Awarapan was inspired by A Bittersweet Life
Bheja Fry was inspired by Diner de cons
Naqaab was inspired by Dot the I
Fool n Final was inspired by Snatch
Partner was inspired by Hitch
The Train was inspired by Derailed
Welcome was inspired by Mickey Blue Eyes
Dhan Dhana Dhan Goal was inspired by Green Street
2000
Har Dil Jo Pyar Karega was inspired by While You Were Sleeping
Dhaai Akshar Prem Ke was inspired by A Walk in the Clouds
Kahin Pyaar Na Ho Jaaye was inspired by The Wedding Singer
2001
Ajnabee was inspired by Consenting Adults
Kyo Kii… Main Jhuth Nahin Bolta was inspired by Liar Liar
2002
Humraaz was inspired by A Perfect Murder
Kaante was inspired by Reservoir Dogs
Hum Kisi Se Kum Nahin was I nspired by Analyze This
Chor Machaaye Shor was inspired by Blue Streak
Deewangee was inspired by Primal Fear
Mere Yaar Ki Shaadi Hai was inspired by My Best Friend’s Wedding
Raaz was inspired by What Lies Beneath
2003
Ek Chhoti Si Love Story was inspired by A Short Film About Love
Footpath was inspired by State of Grace
Inteha was inspired by Fear
Jism was inspired by Body Heat
Qayamat was inspired by City Under Threat and The Rock
Saaya was inspired by Dragonfly
2004
Aitraaz was inspired by Disclosure
Hum Tum was inspired by When Harry Met Sally
Mujhse Shaadi Karogi was inspired by Anger Management
Phir Milenge was inspired byPhiladelphia
Paap was inspired by Witness
2005
Black was inspired by The Miracle Worker
Sarkar was inspired by The Godfather
Ek Ajnabee was inspired by Man on Fire
Zeher was inspired by Out of Time
Main Aisa Hi Hoon was inspired by I am Sam
Maine Pyar Kyun Kiya? was inspired by Cactus Flower
Ek Khiladi Ek Haseena was inspired by Confidence
Garam Masala was inspired by Boeing Boeing
Bunty Aur Babli was inspired by Bonnie & Clyde
Chocolate: Deep Dark Secrets was inspired by The Usual Suspects
Deewane Huye Pagal was inspired by There’s Something About Mary
2006
Naksha was inspired by The Rundown
Zinda was inspired by Oldboy
Phir Hera Pheri was inspired by Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels
I See You was inspired by Just Like Heaven
Tathastu was inspired by John Q
Malamaal Weekly was inspired by Waking Ned
Aap Ki Khatir was inspired by The Wedding Date
Taxi No. 9211 was inspired by Changing Lanes
The Killer was inspired by Collateral
2007
Awarapan was inspired by A Bittersweet Life
Bheja Fry was inspired by Diner de cons
Naqaab was inspired by Dot the I
Fool n Final was inspired by Snatch
Partner was inspired by Hitch
The Train was inspired by Derailed
Welcome was inspired by Mickey Blue Eyes
Dhan Dhana Dhan Goal was inspired by Green Street
Bollywood - Journey till date
The beginning of journey
July 7 1896, the Lumiere Brothers’ Chinematographe unveiled six soundless short films at Watson Hotel, Esplanade Mansion, Bombay. This was the first rendezvou of celluloid in camera with the Indian audience. It was followed by Harishchandra Bhatvadekar two short films exhibition in 1899. The other vetran film makers of the time were – Hiralal Sen, F.B. Thanawalla, J.F. Madan, Abdullah Esoofally, N.G. Chitre and R.G. Torney. May 18, 1912 the film maker N.G. Chitre and R.G. Torney released a silent feature film Pundalik which was half British in its make.
Dhundiraj Govind Phalke (Dada Saheb Phalke) produced India’s first fully indigenous silent feature film Raja Harishchandra with titles in Hindi and English. The film was realeased on May 3 1913 at the Coronation Cinema, Bombay. The twenties witnessed emergence of many new companies and film makers viz. Dhiren Ganguly, Baburao Painter, Suchet Singh, Chandulal Shah, Ardershir Israni, and V. Santharam.
Bollywood got the voice
The first Indian talkie Alam Ara produced by the Imperial film company and directed by Ardershir Irani. Alam Ara was released on March 14, 1931 at the Majestic Cinema in Bombay. The year 1931 also marked the beginning of the talking ear in Bengali (Jumai Shasthi), Telugu (Bhakta Prahlad) and Tamil (Kalidass). The thirties also witnessed the release of the first talkie films in Marathi (Ayodhiyecha Raja) in 1932, Gujarathi (Narasinh Mehta) in 1932, Kannada (Dhurvkumar) in 1934, Oriya (Sita Bibaha) in 1934, Assamese (Joymati) in 1935, Punjabi (Sheila) in 1935, and Malayalam (Balan) in 1938. in 1937 Ardeshir Irani attempted colour picture Kisan Kanya bur color picture became reality only in sixties.
In the 30’s three major film centres developed which were based in Bombay (Mumbai), Calcutta (Kolkata) and Madras (Chennai). Of these centres, Bombay became the centre of the Hindi-Urdu film, while the other cinemas began to be regarded as local or regional films. The thirties also witnessed emergence of three big banners – Prabhat, Bombay Talkies, and New Theatres. These theaters took the lead in making serious but entertaining films. The studio system thrived in Bombay until the late 40s. The independent producer, identified potential of the star as the critical box-office factor, and began to chase them for their movies. The stars also realized their value and hiked their prices to unheard of levels. The changed trend continued to the present Indian film industry.
The fourties saw the emergence of the ‘playback singing’. With emergence of playback singing music became an important ingredient in Indian cinema. The playback singers like Lata Mangeshkar, Asha Bhonsle, Muhammed Rafi, Kishore Kumar dominated the Hindi film industry for decades. This was the historic decade for cinematography all over India. Some memorable films were produced during the forties such as Shantharam’s Dr. Kotnis Ki Amar Kahani, Mehboob’s Roti, Chetan Anand’s Neecha Nagar, Uday Shanker’s Kalpana, Abbas’s Dharti Ke Lal, Sohrab Modi’s Sikander, Pukar and Prithvi Vallabh, J.B.H. Wadia’s Court Dancer, S.S. Vasan’s Chandralekha, Vijay Bhatt’s Bharat Milap and Ram Rajya, Rajkapoor’s Barsaat and Aag.
Shaheed (1948), Barsaat (1949), Mahal (1949), Andaz (1949), Kismet (1943), Sikander (1941), Pukar (1939), Achut Kanya ( 1936), Devdas (1935), Toofan Mail (1934), Alam Ara (1931).
Golden Age of Bollywood
The fifties was the era of neorealism, which was evident in some distinguished films like Bimal Roy’s Do Bigha Zamin, Devadas and Madhumati, Rajkapoor’s Boot Polish, Shri-420 and Jagte Raho, V. Shantharam’s Do Aankhen Barah Haath and Jhanak Jhanak Payal Baaje, Mehbood’s Mother India. The importance of 1950s in history of bollywood can’t be ignored. This was the dacade of growth and recognition. The first International Film Festival of India held in early 1952 at Bombay which was followed by the Satyajit Ray’s classic Pather Panchali in 1955. The Pather Panchali bagged the Cannes award for best human document followed by an unprecedented crop of foreign and national awards. The decade also witnessed transition to colour and the consequent preference for escapist entertainment and greater reliance on stars brought about a complete change in the film industry. In 1959, Guru Dutt makes India’s first cinemascope film, Kaagaz Ke Phool. The transition to colour and the consequent preference for escapist entertainment and greater reliance on stars brought about a complete change in the film industry.
The sixties began with a bang with the release of K. Asif’s Mughal-E-Azam which set a record at the box-office. It was followed by notable productions which include romantic musical and melodramas of a better quality. But over all the sixties was a decade of mediocre films made mostly to please the distributors and to some extent, meet the demands of the box office. The 50s and 60s are regarded as the “Golden Age” of Indian cinema, in terms of films, stars, music and lyrics. This era saw the emergence of director/producers such as Raj Kapoor, Guru Dutt, Mehboob Khan, BR Chopra and Bimal Roy; great actors like Dilip Kumar, Raj Kapoor and Dev Anand – the holy trinity; and film musicians like Shanker-Jaikishen, Naushad, S D Burman. During the same time a new group of film makers emerged on the Hindi cinema. Notable amongst them are Basu Chatterji, Rajinder Singh Bedi, Mani Kaul, Kumar Shahani, Avtar Kaul, Basu Bhattacharya, M.S. Sathyu, Shyam Benegal, and Kanthilal Rathod. In Calcutta, following the trend set by Ray, Ghatak and Sen, Tapan Sinha and Tarun Majumdar also made some note worthy films. Among actors Rajesh Khanna becomes new boxoffice god with Aradhana.
Aradhana (1969), Do Raaste (1969), Khamoshi (1969), Padosan (1968), Ram Aur Shyam (1967), An Evening in Paris (1967), Jewel Thief (1967), Farz (1967), Upkar (1967), Teesri Manzil (1966), Mera Saaya (1966), Waqt (1965), Guide (1965), Jab Jab Phool Khile (1965), Sangam (1964), Haqeeqat (1964), Bandini (1963), Sahib Bibi Aur Ghulam (1962), Ganga Jamuna (1961), Junglee (1961), Kanoon (1960), Mughal-e-Azam (1960), Sujata (1959), Kaagaz Ke Phool (1959), Madhumati (1958), Chalti Ka Naam Gaadi (1958), Pyaasa (1957), Do Aankhen Barah Haath (1957), Mother India (1957), Chori Chori (1956), Jagte Raho (1956), Kabuliwalla (1956), C.I.D. (1956), Devdas (1955, Jhanak Jhanak Payal Baaje (1955), Shree 420 (1955), Aar Paar (1954), Do Bigha Zameen (1953) Aan (1952), Baazi (1951), Awaara (1951)
Next three Decades
The seventies started with Pakeezah – a cult classic. Indian film industry, during the decade, got sponsorship from government which allowed Indian parallel cinema to gain strenghth. This gifted Indian film industry a few finest actors of all time viz. Shabana Azmi, Smita Patil, Om Puri, Naseerudin Shah. The new wave cinema seems to have reached its peak towards the end of the seventies with film makers like Govind Nihalani, Saeed Mirza, Rabindra Dharmaraj, Sai Paranjpe, Muzafar Ali, and Biplab Roy. The decade also saw the rise of India’s greatest superstar, Amitabh Bachchan – the angry young man. The majority of the films of the decade were action oriented with revenge as the dominating theme.
The eighties belong to working-class audiences, mostly to male audiences. The decade saw largely action movie, disco dancing, and rape-revenge movies. The increasing availability of the audiocassette during this decade led to a revival in film music and the return to popularity of the teen romance. The 80s and 90s also belongs to new generation of younger stars – Madhuri Dixit, Juhi Chawla, Aamir Khan, Salman Khan and Shahrukh Khan – who dominated the bollywood.
The emergence of colour television, videocassettes, and penetration of audiocassette in the 1980s changed the landscape of the bollywood. The audience during this decade mostly preferred watching movies at home. The trend changed once again in the ninties, which saw return of threaters, despite popularity of satellite and cable television. The family audience was coaxed back into the cinemas by a policy of video-holdback and the refurbishment of the cinema halls.
A new wave of film makers from South Indian studios began to release dubbed versions of their films. These films were major commercial successes in the north. At the forefront of these was Mani Ratnam’s Bombay. By the end of the 1990s it was clear that the only films which could compete with Hollywood at home and abroad will survive.
The decade saw emergence of the Shah Rukh Khan who revolutionises negative hero in Baazigar and Darr. He once again sets the trend of urbane, feelsmart movies with Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge. The decade also discovered a new teenage heart-throb – Hrithik Roshan.
Sargam (1979), Gol Maal (1979), Don (1978), Trishul (1978), Muqaddar Ka Sikandar (1978), Satyam Shivam Sundaram (1978), Dharam Veer (1977), Hum Kisi Se Kum Nahin (1977), Amar Akbar Anthony (1977), Shatranj Ke Khiladi (1977), Kabhi Kabhi (1976), Chitchor (1976), Julie (1975), Chupke Chupke (1975), Aandhi (1975), Sholay (1975), Jai Santoshi Maa (1975), Deewaar (1975), Roti Kapda Aur Makaan (1974), Garam Hawa (1973), Yaadon Ki Baraat (1973), Abhimaan (1973), Zanjeer (1973), Bobby (1973), Jugnu (1973), Shor (1972), Seeta Aur Geeta (1972), Pakeezah (1972), Caravan (1972), Hare Rama Hare Krishna (1971), Kati Patang (1971), Anand (1971), Guddi (1971), Mera Gaon Mera Desh (1971), Purab Aur Paschim (1971), Sachaa Jhutha (1970), Mera Naam Joker (1970), Maine Pyar Kiya (1989), Chandni (1989), Parinda (1989), Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak (1988), Salaam Bombay (1988), Mr. India (1987), Naam (1986), Ram Teri Ganga Maili (1985), Saagar (1985), Betaab (1983), Hero (1983), Masoom (1983), Jaane Bhi Do Yaaron (1983), Woh Saat Din (1983), Nikaah (1982), Prem Rog (1982), Satte Pe Satta (1982), Arth (1982), Ek Duuje Ke Liye (1981), Kalyug (1980 film) (1981), Kranti (1981), Naseeb (1981), Umrao Jaan (1981), Qurbani (1980), Biwi No.1 (1999), Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam (1999), Kuch Kuch Hota Hai (1998), Soldier (1998), Border (1997), Dil To Pagal Hai (1997), Gupt (1997), Pardes (1997), Raja Hindustani (1996), Khiladiyon Ka Khiladi (1996), Rangeela (1995), Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge (1995), Karan Arjun (1995), Coolie No. 1 (1995), Mohra (1994), Hum Aapke Hain Koun (1994), Hum Hain Rahi Pyar Ke (1993), Aankhen (1993), Jo Jeeta Wohi Sikander (1991), Aaj Ka Arjun (1990), Aashiqui (1990), Dil (1990), Ghayal (1990). Taal (1999), Sarfarosh (1999), Dil Se (1998), Hyderabad Blues (1998), Virasat (1997), Maachis (1996), Khamoshi: The Musical (1996), Bombay (1995), 1942 A Love Story (1994), Roja (1992), Prahaar (1991).
The Indian film Industry
The unorganized Indian film industry got industry status in 2001, which helped it grow faster. The growth in this decade is fueled by the more professionally approach in financing, production and other allied activities. It helped the new age film makers produce films like Dil Chahta Hai, Dhoom, Black, Bunty aur Babli, Rang De Basanti. Some of the largest production houses like Adlabs, UTV Movies, Yash Raj Films, Dharma Productions were the producers of these new modern films which touched new heights in terms of quality cinematography, innovative story lines, and technical quality advances. Moreover the hunger for cinema amongst the expatriate Indians encouraged film producers and distributors to produce and distribute films for them. Consequently, there have been a series of films like Mississippi Masala, Salaam Bombay, Monsoon Wedding, and The Guru. Few of these films did very well internationally and helped Indian cinema connect globally. It not only attracted global audiences but also global film makers, distributors, exhibitors.
The current practice of movie making in India viz. contractual relation, industry regulations, piracy and copy right laws is distinctly different from the global norms. In current scenario it becomes important for the Indian film industry to upgrade their regulations matching the global norms.
Race (2008), Jodhaa Akbar (2008), Om Shanti Om(2007), Welcome (2007), Chak De India(2007), Partner (2007), Bhool Bhulaiyaa(2007), Heyy Babyy (2007), Taare Zameen Par (2007), Guru(2007), Life In A… Metro (2007), Gandhi, My Father(2007), Johnny Gaddaar (2007), Eklavya (2007), Dhoom 2(2006), Lage Raho Munna Bhai(2006), Krrish (2006),Fanaa (2006), Rang De Basanti (2006), Don (2006), Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna (2006), Vivah(2006), Dor (2006), Corporate (2006),Omkara (2006), Khosla Ka Ghosla (2006), Bunty Aur Babli(2005), Salaam Namaste (2005), Black (2005), Iqbal (2005), Parineeta(2005), Sarkar (2005), Veer-Zaara(2004), Main Hoon Na(2004), Mujhse Shaadi Karogi(2004), Dhoom(2004), Murder(2004), Yuva(2004), Lakshya(2004), Dev (2004), Swades (2004), Phir Milenge (2004),Koi… Mil Gaya(2003), Kal Ho Naa Ho(2003), Baghban(2003),Munnabhai M.B.B.S. (2003), Andaaz(2003), Pinjar(2003), Devdas(2002), Raaz(2002), Kaante (2002), Aankhen(2002), Saathiya(2002), Company (2002), Gadar(2001), Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham(2001), Lagaan(2001), Chandni Bar(2001), Dil Chahta Hai (2001), Kaho Naa… Pyaar Hai(2000), Mohabbatein(2000), Mission Kashmir(2000), Kya Kehna(2000), Hera Pheri (2000), Astitva (2000), Fiza(2000),
July 7 1896, the Lumiere Brothers’ Chinematographe unveiled six soundless short films at Watson Hotel, Esplanade Mansion, Bombay. This was the first rendezvou of celluloid in camera with the Indian audience. It was followed by Harishchandra Bhatvadekar two short films exhibition in 1899. The other vetran film makers of the time were – Hiralal Sen, F.B. Thanawalla, J.F. Madan, Abdullah Esoofally, N.G. Chitre and R.G. Torney. May 18, 1912 the film maker N.G. Chitre and R.G. Torney released a silent feature film Pundalik which was half British in its make.
Dhundiraj Govind Phalke (Dada Saheb Phalke) produced India’s first fully indigenous silent feature film Raja Harishchandra with titles in Hindi and English. The film was realeased on May 3 1913 at the Coronation Cinema, Bombay. The twenties witnessed emergence of many new companies and film makers viz. Dhiren Ganguly, Baburao Painter, Suchet Singh, Chandulal Shah, Ardershir Israni, and V. Santharam.
Bollywood got the voice
The first Indian talkie Alam Ara produced by the Imperial film company and directed by Ardershir Irani. Alam Ara was released on March 14, 1931 at the Majestic Cinema in Bombay. The year 1931 also marked the beginning of the talking ear in Bengali (Jumai Shasthi), Telugu (Bhakta Prahlad) and Tamil (Kalidass). The thirties also witnessed the release of the first talkie films in Marathi (Ayodhiyecha Raja) in 1932, Gujarathi (Narasinh Mehta) in 1932, Kannada (Dhurvkumar) in 1934, Oriya (Sita Bibaha) in 1934, Assamese (Joymati) in 1935, Punjabi (Sheila) in 1935, and Malayalam (Balan) in 1938. in 1937 Ardeshir Irani attempted colour picture Kisan Kanya bur color picture became reality only in sixties.
In the 30’s three major film centres developed which were based in Bombay (Mumbai), Calcutta (Kolkata) and Madras (Chennai). Of these centres, Bombay became the centre of the Hindi-Urdu film, while the other cinemas began to be regarded as local or regional films. The thirties also witnessed emergence of three big banners – Prabhat, Bombay Talkies, and New Theatres. These theaters took the lead in making serious but entertaining films. The studio system thrived in Bombay until the late 40s. The independent producer, identified potential of the star as the critical box-office factor, and began to chase them for their movies. The stars also realized their value and hiked their prices to unheard of levels. The changed trend continued to the present Indian film industry.
The fourties saw the emergence of the ‘playback singing’. With emergence of playback singing music became an important ingredient in Indian cinema. The playback singers like Lata Mangeshkar, Asha Bhonsle, Muhammed Rafi, Kishore Kumar dominated the Hindi film industry for decades. This was the historic decade for cinematography all over India. Some memorable films were produced during the forties such as Shantharam’s Dr. Kotnis Ki Amar Kahani, Mehboob’s Roti, Chetan Anand’s Neecha Nagar, Uday Shanker’s Kalpana, Abbas’s Dharti Ke Lal, Sohrab Modi’s Sikander, Pukar and Prithvi Vallabh, J.B.H. Wadia’s Court Dancer, S.S. Vasan’s Chandralekha, Vijay Bhatt’s Bharat Milap and Ram Rajya, Rajkapoor’s Barsaat and Aag.
Shaheed (1948), Barsaat (1949), Mahal (1949), Andaz (1949), Kismet (1943), Sikander (1941), Pukar (1939), Achut Kanya ( 1936), Devdas (1935), Toofan Mail (1934), Alam Ara (1931).
Golden Age of Bollywood
The fifties was the era of neorealism, which was evident in some distinguished films like Bimal Roy’s Do Bigha Zamin, Devadas and Madhumati, Rajkapoor’s Boot Polish, Shri-420 and Jagte Raho, V. Shantharam’s Do Aankhen Barah Haath and Jhanak Jhanak Payal Baaje, Mehbood’s Mother India. The importance of 1950s in history of bollywood can’t be ignored. This was the dacade of growth and recognition. The first International Film Festival of India held in early 1952 at Bombay which was followed by the Satyajit Ray’s classic Pather Panchali in 1955. The Pather Panchali bagged the Cannes award for best human document followed by an unprecedented crop of foreign and national awards. The decade also witnessed transition to colour and the consequent preference for escapist entertainment and greater reliance on stars brought about a complete change in the film industry. In 1959, Guru Dutt makes India’s first cinemascope film, Kaagaz Ke Phool. The transition to colour and the consequent preference for escapist entertainment and greater reliance on stars brought about a complete change in the film industry.
The sixties began with a bang with the release of K. Asif’s Mughal-E-Azam which set a record at the box-office. It was followed by notable productions which include romantic musical and melodramas of a better quality. But over all the sixties was a decade of mediocre films made mostly to please the distributors and to some extent, meet the demands of the box office. The 50s and 60s are regarded as the “Golden Age” of Indian cinema, in terms of films, stars, music and lyrics. This era saw the emergence of director/producers such as Raj Kapoor, Guru Dutt, Mehboob Khan, BR Chopra and Bimal Roy; great actors like Dilip Kumar, Raj Kapoor and Dev Anand – the holy trinity; and film musicians like Shanker-Jaikishen, Naushad, S D Burman. During the same time a new group of film makers emerged on the Hindi cinema. Notable amongst them are Basu Chatterji, Rajinder Singh Bedi, Mani Kaul, Kumar Shahani, Avtar Kaul, Basu Bhattacharya, M.S. Sathyu, Shyam Benegal, and Kanthilal Rathod. In Calcutta, following the trend set by Ray, Ghatak and Sen, Tapan Sinha and Tarun Majumdar also made some note worthy films. Among actors Rajesh Khanna becomes new boxoffice god with Aradhana.
Aradhana (1969), Do Raaste (1969), Khamoshi (1969), Padosan (1968), Ram Aur Shyam (1967), An Evening in Paris (1967), Jewel Thief (1967), Farz (1967), Upkar (1967), Teesri Manzil (1966), Mera Saaya (1966), Waqt (1965), Guide (1965), Jab Jab Phool Khile (1965), Sangam (1964), Haqeeqat (1964), Bandini (1963), Sahib Bibi Aur Ghulam (1962), Ganga Jamuna (1961), Junglee (1961), Kanoon (1960), Mughal-e-Azam (1960), Sujata (1959), Kaagaz Ke Phool (1959), Madhumati (1958), Chalti Ka Naam Gaadi (1958), Pyaasa (1957), Do Aankhen Barah Haath (1957), Mother India (1957), Chori Chori (1956), Jagte Raho (1956), Kabuliwalla (1956), C.I.D. (1956), Devdas (1955, Jhanak Jhanak Payal Baaje (1955), Shree 420 (1955), Aar Paar (1954), Do Bigha Zameen (1953) Aan (1952), Baazi (1951), Awaara (1951)
Next three Decades
The seventies started with Pakeezah – a cult classic. Indian film industry, during the decade, got sponsorship from government which allowed Indian parallel cinema to gain strenghth. This gifted Indian film industry a few finest actors of all time viz. Shabana Azmi, Smita Patil, Om Puri, Naseerudin Shah. The new wave cinema seems to have reached its peak towards the end of the seventies with film makers like Govind Nihalani, Saeed Mirza, Rabindra Dharmaraj, Sai Paranjpe, Muzafar Ali, and Biplab Roy. The decade also saw the rise of India’s greatest superstar, Amitabh Bachchan – the angry young man. The majority of the films of the decade were action oriented with revenge as the dominating theme.
The eighties belong to working-class audiences, mostly to male audiences. The decade saw largely action movie, disco dancing, and rape-revenge movies. The increasing availability of the audiocassette during this decade led to a revival in film music and the return to popularity of the teen romance. The 80s and 90s also belongs to new generation of younger stars – Madhuri Dixit, Juhi Chawla, Aamir Khan, Salman Khan and Shahrukh Khan – who dominated the bollywood.
The emergence of colour television, videocassettes, and penetration of audiocassette in the 1980s changed the landscape of the bollywood. The audience during this decade mostly preferred watching movies at home. The trend changed once again in the ninties, which saw return of threaters, despite popularity of satellite and cable television. The family audience was coaxed back into the cinemas by a policy of video-holdback and the refurbishment of the cinema halls.
A new wave of film makers from South Indian studios began to release dubbed versions of their films. These films were major commercial successes in the north. At the forefront of these was Mani Ratnam’s Bombay. By the end of the 1990s it was clear that the only films which could compete with Hollywood at home and abroad will survive.
The decade saw emergence of the Shah Rukh Khan who revolutionises negative hero in Baazigar and Darr. He once again sets the trend of urbane, feelsmart movies with Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge. The decade also discovered a new teenage heart-throb – Hrithik Roshan.
Sargam (1979), Gol Maal (1979), Don (1978), Trishul (1978), Muqaddar Ka Sikandar (1978), Satyam Shivam Sundaram (1978), Dharam Veer (1977), Hum Kisi Se Kum Nahin (1977), Amar Akbar Anthony (1977), Shatranj Ke Khiladi (1977), Kabhi Kabhi (1976), Chitchor (1976), Julie (1975), Chupke Chupke (1975), Aandhi (1975), Sholay (1975), Jai Santoshi Maa (1975), Deewaar (1975), Roti Kapda Aur Makaan (1974), Garam Hawa (1973), Yaadon Ki Baraat (1973), Abhimaan (1973), Zanjeer (1973), Bobby (1973), Jugnu (1973), Shor (1972), Seeta Aur Geeta (1972), Pakeezah (1972), Caravan (1972), Hare Rama Hare Krishna (1971), Kati Patang (1971), Anand (1971), Guddi (1971), Mera Gaon Mera Desh (1971), Purab Aur Paschim (1971), Sachaa Jhutha (1970), Mera Naam Joker (1970), Maine Pyar Kiya (1989), Chandni (1989), Parinda (1989), Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak (1988), Salaam Bombay (1988), Mr. India (1987), Naam (1986), Ram Teri Ganga Maili (1985), Saagar (1985), Betaab (1983), Hero (1983), Masoom (1983), Jaane Bhi Do Yaaron (1983), Woh Saat Din (1983), Nikaah (1982), Prem Rog (1982), Satte Pe Satta (1982), Arth (1982), Ek Duuje Ke Liye (1981), Kalyug (1980 film) (1981), Kranti (1981), Naseeb (1981), Umrao Jaan (1981), Qurbani (1980), Biwi No.1 (1999), Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam (1999), Kuch Kuch Hota Hai (1998), Soldier (1998), Border (1997), Dil To Pagal Hai (1997), Gupt (1997), Pardes (1997), Raja Hindustani (1996), Khiladiyon Ka Khiladi (1996), Rangeela (1995), Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge (1995), Karan Arjun (1995), Coolie No. 1 (1995), Mohra (1994), Hum Aapke Hain Koun (1994), Hum Hain Rahi Pyar Ke (1993), Aankhen (1993), Jo Jeeta Wohi Sikander (1991), Aaj Ka Arjun (1990), Aashiqui (1990), Dil (1990), Ghayal (1990). Taal (1999), Sarfarosh (1999), Dil Se (1998), Hyderabad Blues (1998), Virasat (1997), Maachis (1996), Khamoshi: The Musical (1996), Bombay (1995), 1942 A Love Story (1994), Roja (1992), Prahaar (1991).
The Indian film Industry
The unorganized Indian film industry got industry status in 2001, which helped it grow faster. The growth in this decade is fueled by the more professionally approach in financing, production and other allied activities. It helped the new age film makers produce films like Dil Chahta Hai, Dhoom, Black, Bunty aur Babli, Rang De Basanti. Some of the largest production houses like Adlabs, UTV Movies, Yash Raj Films, Dharma Productions were the producers of these new modern films which touched new heights in terms of quality cinematography, innovative story lines, and technical quality advances. Moreover the hunger for cinema amongst the expatriate Indians encouraged film producers and distributors to produce and distribute films for them. Consequently, there have been a series of films like Mississippi Masala, Salaam Bombay, Monsoon Wedding, and The Guru. Few of these films did very well internationally and helped Indian cinema connect globally. It not only attracted global audiences but also global film makers, distributors, exhibitors.
The current practice of movie making in India viz. contractual relation, industry regulations, piracy and copy right laws is distinctly different from the global norms. In current scenario it becomes important for the Indian film industry to upgrade their regulations matching the global norms.
Race (2008), Jodhaa Akbar (2008), Om Shanti Om(2007), Welcome (2007), Chak De India(2007), Partner (2007), Bhool Bhulaiyaa(2007), Heyy Babyy (2007), Taare Zameen Par (2007), Guru(2007), Life In A… Metro (2007), Gandhi, My Father(2007), Johnny Gaddaar (2007), Eklavya (2007), Dhoom 2(2006), Lage Raho Munna Bhai(2006), Krrish (2006),Fanaa (2006), Rang De Basanti (2006), Don (2006), Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna (2006), Vivah(2006), Dor (2006), Corporate (2006),Omkara (2006), Khosla Ka Ghosla (2006), Bunty Aur Babli(2005), Salaam Namaste (2005), Black (2005), Iqbal (2005), Parineeta(2005), Sarkar (2005), Veer-Zaara(2004), Main Hoon Na(2004), Mujhse Shaadi Karogi(2004), Dhoom(2004), Murder(2004), Yuva(2004), Lakshya(2004), Dev (2004), Swades (2004), Phir Milenge (2004),Koi… Mil Gaya(2003), Kal Ho Naa Ho(2003), Baghban(2003),Munnabhai M.B.B.S. (2003), Andaaz(2003), Pinjar(2003), Devdas(2002), Raaz(2002), Kaante (2002), Aankhen(2002), Saathiya(2002), Company (2002), Gadar(2001), Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham(2001), Lagaan(2001), Chandni Bar(2001), Dil Chahta Hai (2001), Kaho Naa… Pyaar Hai(2000), Mohabbatein(2000), Mission Kashmir(2000), Kya Kehna(2000), Hera Pheri (2000), Astitva (2000), Fiza(2000),
multiplexes: the latest craze
The journey of multiplex which was started in 1997 with inauguration of first multiplex Priya Village Roadshow (PVR) Saket in New Delhi is currently at crossroads roughly a dozen players have entered in the business in small or big way. New players are trying to enter this sector and the existing players are busy expanding their horizons. The multiplex has gone beyond the metros to redefine entertainment in Tier 1 and 2 cities like Lucknow, Indore, Nasik, Aurangabad, Kanpur, Amritsar. The good news is at present roughly 70 percent of the total box office collections in the country come from non metros.
Understanding Multiplex Business
In last few years, strong economic growth, fall in interest rates, increase in real estate price, and increase in consumption levels, are constantly fueling multiplex boom in India. Moreover, multiplex operators are attracting movie enthusiasts, by combining movie viewing with food courts, branded food and apparel outlets and gaming that provided high quality viewing experience.
The multiplexes are often characterized by a good ambience, comfortable seating, air-conditioning, modern infrastructure. The multiplex has various halls with different seating capacities ranging between 200 to 500. This allowed the Multiplex operator to choose a theater depending upon the movie’s potential which help them utilize higher capacity utilization. Multiplex also help utilize show timing based on the screening duration, the number of shows could be maximized. Moreover, depending on the movie’s performance, the exhibitors had the option of moving it to theatres with different seating capacities and show timing. The multiple movie options also offer moviegoers the opportunity to see the movie of their choice.
Multiplexes offer several economic like better occupancy ratio, greater number of shows. They make more revenues in the first week of release by showing movie on more screens and reduces the number of shows with decreasing demand. The other multiplex advantage comes out of sharing facilities such as the basic amenities, F&B and manpower.
The multiplex model was built around a primary anchor – movies, though the revenue flow also happens through several income-generating channels other than box-office collections. The other revenue generation channels are food and beverage, product launch rentals and various other promotions by companies. In the recent past luxury multiplexes have come up with new experiences like partying in the theaters while the movie is running.
Multiplex owners, try and increase their income and reduce the expenses to increase their profitability. On the one hand the primary sources of multiplex income are: Patron’s spending viz. ticket sale, F&B, and parking, Advertisement Income, Management fee and Revenue sharing. On the other hand the prominent components of expenses are: Cost incurred for the working of a multiplex are: Distributor Share, F&B Cost, Lease Rentals, Other Operating costs, and Entertainment Tax. The multiplex owners are working on different business models to increase their reach and profitability. Business models are:
Ownership Model: In the case of fully owned model the multiplex owner buys the land and constructs a multiplex or buys a part of a shopping mall and sets up the multiplex within. In the ownership model, capital cost is high but the multiplex operator benefits from escalating real-estate prices. This model works where lease rentals are very high and capital costs are low as the escalating realty prices could force higher rentals adding to fixed costs.
Leased property model: In Leased property model, an operator invests in only fit-outs and not in the whole property and pays a fixed rent to the mall owner. This model is more prominent in areas where mall development is slow but the property location is ideal for movie exhibition. In the lease model multiplex operator has mostly variable expenses but company shells out more money on rent, thus decrease profitability. Majority of the multiplexes are coming up in leased properties, they can expand at a faster rate with less capital requirement and break even faster.
Theater management model: In this model the multiplex operator provides management services to the third party operator. In this form of business both the parties work on revenues sharing or fixed fees for property management or a combination of both.
The Major Players
Multiplex, in India is witnessing unprecedented growth. A few big corporate house have already entered the business and others are planning to venture in the business through acquire existing players. However, industry experts rule out any consolidation in the industry. They believe market is still in the growth stage and there are enough opportunities for the existing players. In current scenario competition is heating up among the existing players. Adlabs, PVR, IOX, Fun, Fame , DT Cinema, Satyam Cineplexes have chalked out big expansion plans to increase the number of screens in the next few years to get better share of movie revenues.
PVR Limited is the oldest player in the multiplex business in India. Ajjay Bijli, Managing Director of PVR Limited, after bringing the multiplex concept to India, has created the largest multiplex chain in the country. The company currently operates 24 cinemas with 95 screens across 14 cities, and expects to have another 50 multiplexes operational by end of 2008. They are developing five multiplexes in association with Prestige Group at Bangalore, Kochi, Hyderabad and Mangalore.
PVR works across spectrum from PVR Premiere which is designed for the urban elite, with ticket prices ranging from Rs 150-750 to the PVR Talkies which is low-cost multiplex in towns such as Aurangabad and Latur, where tickets are priced at Rs 40. The various multiple formats that straddle across income segments enable them capitalise on increasing footfalls and revenue. What makes PVR special is that it has been profitable right since inception.
INOX (Indian Oxygen) Leisure Ltd was a diversification venture of the INOX Group, a 100% subsidiary of Gujarat Flurochemicals Ltd. INOX has 24 multiplexes with a total of 84 screens in 18 cities – Pune, Vadodara, Kolkata, Mumbai, Goa, Bangalore, Jaipur and others. They have plans to expand into other cities like Chennai, Hyderabad, etc. by the financial year 2008. Inox has one of the highest ticket prices per seat in the country and, yet, has one of the best occupancy rates in the industry. No wonder Inox is the most profitable player in multiplexes business.
Adlabs Films Limited is India’s leading motion picture processing laboratory, set up the country’s first IMAX Dome Theater in Mumbai. Adlabs has 163 screens spread over 61 cities in India besides an international network of 220 screens spread in the East, mid-West and some parts of the United States. They are actively looking at expanding its business in countries like the U.K, Australia Malaysia, Nepal, Mauritius, and Singapore.
Adlabs Cinemas has launched 6D cinema experience at Agra, which is designed to cutting-edge visual and audio effects allowing audience simultaneous experience of sight, smell, sound, touch and motion.
Fame a part of Shringar Group which runs single screens and multiplexes. Fame has 14 properties and 48 screens operational. It plans to take the total screen count to 75 by 2008. They have plans to have presence in 60 sites with 250 screens by financial year 2011.
Fun Multiplex has uniquely positioned their cinema properties as epicenters of new economy suburbs in each city. Fun Multiplex offers the finest entertainment experience provider, enabling superior cinema viewing and real time leisure experiences to its patrons by combining the best in technology, comfort, leisure and hospitality.
Fun Multiplex holds a leading position in the Indian multiplex market. It operates 53 cinema screens in 13 cities and sixteen locations – Ahmedabad, Mumbai, Chandigarh, Hyderabad, Guwahati, Delhi, Ghaziabad, Lucknow, Agra, Jaipur, Bangalore, Panipat and Gulbarga. The company was planning to construct 35 multiplexes with 140 screens and these were expected to begin operations by the financial year 2008. In addition, the company has planned to acquire additional screens and increase its screen count to 1500 by 2011.
Satyam Cineplexes, another popular chain, is part of the Superior Group. Satyam Cineplexes is planning to infuse around Rs 250 crore to set up 104 multiplexes across the country. The 104 screens planned by Satyam will be in cities like Indore, Ludhiana, Dehradun, Kolkata, Rohtak, among others. Satyam is targeting tier II cities in the country instead of having more screens in the metros. This is mainly because of the high real estate prices in the metros.
CineMax, the Kanakia Group theatre, is one of the largest exhibition theatre chains in India operating 19 multiplexes with 56 screens. CineMax has strong presence in Mumbai and they are planning to expand nationwide rapidly. CineMax offers premium services with recliner seats, massage chairs, any time tickets machines, luxurious and expensive interiors and the best of customer service. CineMax to enhance the customer experience started a call center hub at Mumbai called “Noline” to provide information about screenings at its theaters, enable telebookings, etc.
DT Cinemas, a wholly-owned subsidiary of the DLF Group, operates multiplexes in Delhi, Ludhiana and Jalandhar and Gurgaon. DLF planning to set up another 120 malls in different parts of the country, and DT Cinemas would be the chief attraction in most of these malls. Today DT Cinemas has seven operational multiplexes with 22 screen and they have plans to invest Rs 1,250 crore to open 500 screens in the next 4-5 five years. DT Cinemas has presence in NCR Ludhiana, Jalandhar and Chandigarh and apart from the north Indian cities, DT Cinemas also plans to set up multiplexes in Hyderabad, Chennai, Kochi, Bangalore, Mumbai, Pune, Ahmedabad, Goa and Kolkata.
Apart from the existing multiplex chain the industry veterans like Mukesh Ambani is also venturing in this sector. Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Retail and Yashraj Films may float a 74:26 JV to set up multiplexes, run entertainment channels and produce content for television channels. The will use the upcoming malls of Reliance Retail nationwide to set up multiplexes. Wave cinemas, yet another multiplex chain promoted by the Chadha group, had multiplexes in Lucknow, Noida and Kaushambi has aggressive expansion plans.
Sustainability
Technology improvements are likely to be at the forefront in driving the growth of the Indian Film Industry into the future. Going Digital would be the mantra for s industry over the next two-three years. It will help multiplex deliver quality content to consumers at a faster pace and at a more economical price. Though multiplex has favorable environment for growth but there are a few negatives working against the growth of the multiplex industry in the country.
Entertainment Tax withdrawal is one of the biggest concerns for the multiplex industry as success of a multiplex business model in terms of financial viability hinges to a great extent on the entertainment tax exemptions being received by them. The other serious concern is risk of timely execution of planned projects. PVR, Fame, INOX, Adlabs in past have faced problem of delay in handover of the completed civic shell by the developer and delays in getting the necessary clearances from the government. The other big concern is movie piracy, which has reduced the theatrical window period. The movie piracy eats film industry revenue by almost 14%. This has encouraged the industry to reduce the theatrical window period and release the film faster on other movie viewing platforms like satellite, DVD. Moreover, Multiplex revenues are seasonal in nature as the production houses prefer to generally release big-budget films during the summer holidays or during the festive season to attract maximum umber of patrons to the cinema halls.
Conclusion
Multiplex, in India, is the new business model for the film exhibition industry. It is transforming movie viewing habits in India. It is set to take over a significant slice of the entertainment market of India. Today multiplexes constitute just 1% of the total number of cinema halls, and 4-5% of the total screens in India. The industry experts believe that it is beginning of the end of single screens in India as the multiplexes with certain advantages such as multi-screen potential, flexibility in operations, scope for other commercial viability will rule movie exhibition business in Indian.
Understanding Multiplex Business
In last few years, strong economic growth, fall in interest rates, increase in real estate price, and increase in consumption levels, are constantly fueling multiplex boom in India. Moreover, multiplex operators are attracting movie enthusiasts, by combining movie viewing with food courts, branded food and apparel outlets and gaming that provided high quality viewing experience.
The multiplexes are often characterized by a good ambience, comfortable seating, air-conditioning, modern infrastructure. The multiplex has various halls with different seating capacities ranging between 200 to 500. This allowed the Multiplex operator to choose a theater depending upon the movie’s potential which help them utilize higher capacity utilization. Multiplex also help utilize show timing based on the screening duration, the number of shows could be maximized. Moreover, depending on the movie’s performance, the exhibitors had the option of moving it to theatres with different seating capacities and show timing. The multiple movie options also offer moviegoers the opportunity to see the movie of their choice.
Multiplexes offer several economic like better occupancy ratio, greater number of shows. They make more revenues in the first week of release by showing movie on more screens and reduces the number of shows with decreasing demand. The other multiplex advantage comes out of sharing facilities such as the basic amenities, F&B and manpower.
The multiplex model was built around a primary anchor – movies, though the revenue flow also happens through several income-generating channels other than box-office collections. The other revenue generation channels are food and beverage, product launch rentals and various other promotions by companies. In the recent past luxury multiplexes have come up with new experiences like partying in the theaters while the movie is running.
Multiplex owners, try and increase their income and reduce the expenses to increase their profitability. On the one hand the primary sources of multiplex income are: Patron’s spending viz. ticket sale, F&B, and parking, Advertisement Income, Management fee and Revenue sharing. On the other hand the prominent components of expenses are: Cost incurred for the working of a multiplex are: Distributor Share, F&B Cost, Lease Rentals, Other Operating costs, and Entertainment Tax. The multiplex owners are working on different business models to increase their reach and profitability. Business models are:
Ownership Model: In the case of fully owned model the multiplex owner buys the land and constructs a multiplex or buys a part of a shopping mall and sets up the multiplex within. In the ownership model, capital cost is high but the multiplex operator benefits from escalating real-estate prices. This model works where lease rentals are very high and capital costs are low as the escalating realty prices could force higher rentals adding to fixed costs.
Leased property model: In Leased property model, an operator invests in only fit-outs and not in the whole property and pays a fixed rent to the mall owner. This model is more prominent in areas where mall development is slow but the property location is ideal for movie exhibition. In the lease model multiplex operator has mostly variable expenses but company shells out more money on rent, thus decrease profitability. Majority of the multiplexes are coming up in leased properties, they can expand at a faster rate with less capital requirement and break even faster.
Theater management model: In this model the multiplex operator provides management services to the third party operator. In this form of business both the parties work on revenues sharing or fixed fees for property management or a combination of both.
The Major Players
Multiplex, in India is witnessing unprecedented growth. A few big corporate house have already entered the business and others are planning to venture in the business through acquire existing players. However, industry experts rule out any consolidation in the industry. They believe market is still in the growth stage and there are enough opportunities for the existing players. In current scenario competition is heating up among the existing players. Adlabs, PVR, IOX, Fun, Fame , DT Cinema, Satyam Cineplexes have chalked out big expansion plans to increase the number of screens in the next few years to get better share of movie revenues.
PVR Limited is the oldest player in the multiplex business in India. Ajjay Bijli, Managing Director of PVR Limited, after bringing the multiplex concept to India, has created the largest multiplex chain in the country. The company currently operates 24 cinemas with 95 screens across 14 cities, and expects to have another 50 multiplexes operational by end of 2008. They are developing five multiplexes in association with Prestige Group at Bangalore, Kochi, Hyderabad and Mangalore.
PVR works across spectrum from PVR Premiere which is designed for the urban elite, with ticket prices ranging from Rs 150-750 to the PVR Talkies which is low-cost multiplex in towns such as Aurangabad and Latur, where tickets are priced at Rs 40. The various multiple formats that straddle across income segments enable them capitalise on increasing footfalls and revenue. What makes PVR special is that it has been profitable right since inception.
INOX (Indian Oxygen) Leisure Ltd was a diversification venture of the INOX Group, a 100% subsidiary of Gujarat Flurochemicals Ltd. INOX has 24 multiplexes with a total of 84 screens in 18 cities – Pune, Vadodara, Kolkata, Mumbai, Goa, Bangalore, Jaipur and others. They have plans to expand into other cities like Chennai, Hyderabad, etc. by the financial year 2008. Inox has one of the highest ticket prices per seat in the country and, yet, has one of the best occupancy rates in the industry. No wonder Inox is the most profitable player in multiplexes business.
Adlabs Films Limited is India’s leading motion picture processing laboratory, set up the country’s first IMAX Dome Theater in Mumbai. Adlabs has 163 screens spread over 61 cities in India besides an international network of 220 screens spread in the East, mid-West and some parts of the United States. They are actively looking at expanding its business in countries like the U.K, Australia Malaysia, Nepal, Mauritius, and Singapore.
Adlabs Cinemas has launched 6D cinema experience at Agra, which is designed to cutting-edge visual and audio effects allowing audience simultaneous experience of sight, smell, sound, touch and motion.
Fame a part of Shringar Group which runs single screens and multiplexes. Fame has 14 properties and 48 screens operational. It plans to take the total screen count to 75 by 2008. They have plans to have presence in 60 sites with 250 screens by financial year 2011.
Fun Multiplex has uniquely positioned their cinema properties as epicenters of new economy suburbs in each city. Fun Multiplex offers the finest entertainment experience provider, enabling superior cinema viewing and real time leisure experiences to its patrons by combining the best in technology, comfort, leisure and hospitality.
Fun Multiplex holds a leading position in the Indian multiplex market. It operates 53 cinema screens in 13 cities and sixteen locations – Ahmedabad, Mumbai, Chandigarh, Hyderabad, Guwahati, Delhi, Ghaziabad, Lucknow, Agra, Jaipur, Bangalore, Panipat and Gulbarga. The company was planning to construct 35 multiplexes with 140 screens and these were expected to begin operations by the financial year 2008. In addition, the company has planned to acquire additional screens and increase its screen count to 1500 by 2011.
Satyam Cineplexes, another popular chain, is part of the Superior Group. Satyam Cineplexes is planning to infuse around Rs 250 crore to set up 104 multiplexes across the country. The 104 screens planned by Satyam will be in cities like Indore, Ludhiana, Dehradun, Kolkata, Rohtak, among others. Satyam is targeting tier II cities in the country instead of having more screens in the metros. This is mainly because of the high real estate prices in the metros.
CineMax, the Kanakia Group theatre, is one of the largest exhibition theatre chains in India operating 19 multiplexes with 56 screens. CineMax has strong presence in Mumbai and they are planning to expand nationwide rapidly. CineMax offers premium services with recliner seats, massage chairs, any time tickets machines, luxurious and expensive interiors and the best of customer service. CineMax to enhance the customer experience started a call center hub at Mumbai called “Noline” to provide information about screenings at its theaters, enable telebookings, etc.
DT Cinemas, a wholly-owned subsidiary of the DLF Group, operates multiplexes in Delhi, Ludhiana and Jalandhar and Gurgaon. DLF planning to set up another 120 malls in different parts of the country, and DT Cinemas would be the chief attraction in most of these malls. Today DT Cinemas has seven operational multiplexes with 22 screen and they have plans to invest Rs 1,250 crore to open 500 screens in the next 4-5 five years. DT Cinemas has presence in NCR Ludhiana, Jalandhar and Chandigarh and apart from the north Indian cities, DT Cinemas also plans to set up multiplexes in Hyderabad, Chennai, Kochi, Bangalore, Mumbai, Pune, Ahmedabad, Goa and Kolkata.
Apart from the existing multiplex chain the industry veterans like Mukesh Ambani is also venturing in this sector. Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Retail and Yashraj Films may float a 74:26 JV to set up multiplexes, run entertainment channels and produce content for television channels. The will use the upcoming malls of Reliance Retail nationwide to set up multiplexes. Wave cinemas, yet another multiplex chain promoted by the Chadha group, had multiplexes in Lucknow, Noida and Kaushambi has aggressive expansion plans.
Sustainability
Technology improvements are likely to be at the forefront in driving the growth of the Indian Film Industry into the future. Going Digital would be the mantra for s industry over the next two-three years. It will help multiplex deliver quality content to consumers at a faster pace and at a more economical price. Though multiplex has favorable environment for growth but there are a few negatives working against the growth of the multiplex industry in the country.
Entertainment Tax withdrawal is one of the biggest concerns for the multiplex industry as success of a multiplex business model in terms of financial viability hinges to a great extent on the entertainment tax exemptions being received by them. The other serious concern is risk of timely execution of planned projects. PVR, Fame, INOX, Adlabs in past have faced problem of delay in handover of the completed civic shell by the developer and delays in getting the necessary clearances from the government. The other big concern is movie piracy, which has reduced the theatrical window period. The movie piracy eats film industry revenue by almost 14%. This has encouraged the industry to reduce the theatrical window period and release the film faster on other movie viewing platforms like satellite, DVD. Moreover, Multiplex revenues are seasonal in nature as the production houses prefer to generally release big-budget films during the summer holidays or during the festive season to attract maximum umber of patrons to the cinema halls.
Conclusion
Multiplex, in India, is the new business model for the film exhibition industry. It is transforming movie viewing habits in India. It is set to take over a significant slice of the entertainment market of India. Today multiplexes constitute just 1% of the total number of cinema halls, and 4-5% of the total screens in India. The industry experts believe that it is beginning of the end of single screens in India as the multiplexes with certain advantages such as multi-screen potential, flexibility in operations, scope for other commercial viability will rule movie exhibition business in Indian.
Indian media and entertainment industry - at an inflection point
As the Media and Entertainment Industry continues to evolve due to shifting consumer preferences, evolving technology and convergence of traditional and new media, finding a concrete definition of the industry is challenging task. The entertainment industry is now at an inflection point as it is ready to enter a second stage of growth powered by the twin engines of technology and regulatory environment. Lets understand what is happening in the growing industry and how building blocks of media and entertainment industry are reacting:
Films: Film entertainment industry is projected to grow size at a CAGR of 18% and by 2010 is expected to emerge as $3.4 billion. The film industry earns 85% of its revenue from box office collections. The Hindi film industry popularly known as Bollywood, shares 40% of the Indian film market and rest is distributed among the regional film industry. The industry seems to have come full circle after more than 35 years and the corporatisation of the industry, that has just begun, is set to lead it back to the studio culture that it avoided till recently. The Indian Film Industry is now moving towards corporatisation and has lead to the emergence of organized production houses like: Adlabs, Yashraj, Mukta Arts. The other big change is advancements in technology. It is helping the Indian film industry in all the spheres – film production, film exhibition and marketing. More theatres across the country are getting upgraded to multiplexes. There is an increase in the number of multiplexes in the metro cities, and it has changed the entire scenario of Indian films.
Animation: Backed by India’s strong foothold in the global IT arena, the Indian media and entertainment industry has the opportunity to emerge as a global hub for digital entertainment. The prowess in IT is helping the industry to offer a whole range of services for the world in digital entertainment – from content and animation to distribution. Hollywood has already begun sourcing creativity from India in a big way. One of the boosting developments in the sector has been the $40 million deal between Italy’s Mondo TV (Europe’s No.1 cartoon producer and distributor) and India’s Padmalaya Telefilms, which is a subsidiary of Zee Network. Many global media players are ready to enter India in a big way and some of the animation companies have already established their base in India. According to NASSCOM, the animation industry is growing with a CAGR of 25% and is expected to reach $869 million by 2010.
Music: In India, the pattern of music consumption and distribution has shifted radically in recent times. Music buying has reduced and, despite the popularity of the new Hindi films, which make up for 40 percent of total music sales, the number of units being sold is falling. On the other hand, piracy has ensured that the average retail price of music cassettes remains stagnant over the years, while that of CDs fall. Music industry is projected to grow at CAGR of 1% and emerge as $164 million industry by 2010. The saving grace is mobile music. India has emerged as the largest market for mobile music. It is growing at a pace of 50% and this segment is expected to exceed the sales of physical music CDs and cassettes. Mobile music is projected to fuel the growth of the music industry.
Television: Television in India has undergone a major transformation from being a single public service sector broadcaster market, to more than 350 channels. With the launch of new channels, this segment is expected to grow at a CAGR of 24% and will achieve $9.5 billion by 2010. Advertisement spending in Indian television has been growing at the rate of 21% per year and has a significant influence on the growth of this segment. Moreover, the new distribution platforms such as DTH and IPTV will increase the subscriber base and the revenue of the industry. In fact, the television industry is posing a threat to the country’s film industry.
Radio: The radio has always been the monopoly of the state broadcaster ‘All India Radio’ and was regulated by the ‘Prasar Bharti’. But with the de-regulation of the industry, the fortunes of radio have significantly improved. It has made a tremendous comeback with its Frequency Modulation (FM). Nowadays, the FM Radio craze has spread like wildfire throughout the country. In 2005, the government announced three key policy initiatives which will drive growth in this sector - migration to a revenue share regime, allowing foreign investment into the segment and opening of licenses to private players. As many as 338 licenses are being given out by the Indian government for FM radio channels in 91 big and small towns and cities. Moreover, the introduction of satellite radio has also increased the revenue and popularity of this segment. Radio is projected to grow at 32% CAGR and emerge as $267 million industry by 2010.
Live entertainment industry: Live entertainment industry is expected to grow at CAGR of 18% and estimated to increase the market size to $400 million by 2010. While this industry is evolving, Indian event managers have clearly demonstrated their capabilities in successfully managing several mega national and international events over the past few years. However, issues like high entertainment taxes in certain states, lack of world-class infrastructure and the unorganised nature of most event management companies continue to hinder growth of this industry.
Print: Print media is projected to grow size at CAGR of 12% and by 2010 is expected to emerge as $4.3 billion industry. A booming Indian economy, growing need for content and government initiatives that have opened up the sector to foreign investment are driving growth in the print media. With the literate population on the rise, more people in rural and urban areas are reading newspapers and magazines today.
Out-of-home advertising: Out-of-home advertising is expected to grow at CAGR of 14% and estimated to increase the market size to $389 million by 2010. Outdoor media sites in India are predominantly owned or operated by small, local players and are typically, directly marketed by them to advertisers and advertising agencies. However, this segment too is witnessing a sea-change with technological innovations. Growing billboard advertising is fuelled by technologies such as light-emitting diode (LED) video billboard. This is a segment that is seeing interesting technological innovations across the world and is likely to evolve in India too in the short-term.
Internet: Internet advertising is projected to grow at CAGR of 50% and estimated to emerge as $167 million by 2010. An estimated 28 million Indians are currently hooked on to the Internet. And this rising number is leading to the growth of Internet advertising. The Internet is being used for a variety of reasons, besides work, such as chatting, leisure, doing transactions, writing blogs etc. This offers a huge opportunity to marketers to sell their products. And with broadband becoming increasingly popular, this segment is expected to grow by leaps and bounds.
Conclusion
The Indian entertainment and media industry industry has been a lucrative industry of the Indian economy that has been contributing its share of Gross Domestic Product (GDP), in a major way. With a host of factors contributing to the double-digit growth of the media and entertainment industry and an added easing of the foreign investment norms, the Industry in India is a definitely a sunrise opportunity for investment. No wonder, the entertainment and media industry has out-performed the Indian economy and has emerged as one of the fastest growing sectors. This is evident from the fact that large number of television channels and private radio stations has come up to start their operation, Indian films like ‘Devdas’ and ‘Laggan’ have come up for Oscar nominee. The Indian entertainment and media industry of India is now at the threshold of new developments with lot of growth and opportunity waiting to embrace all its segments.
Films: Film entertainment industry is projected to grow size at a CAGR of 18% and by 2010 is expected to emerge as $3.4 billion. The film industry earns 85% of its revenue from box office collections. The Hindi film industry popularly known as Bollywood, shares 40% of the Indian film market and rest is distributed among the regional film industry. The industry seems to have come full circle after more than 35 years and the corporatisation of the industry, that has just begun, is set to lead it back to the studio culture that it avoided till recently. The Indian Film Industry is now moving towards corporatisation and has lead to the emergence of organized production houses like: Adlabs, Yashraj, Mukta Arts. The other big change is advancements in technology. It is helping the Indian film industry in all the spheres – film production, film exhibition and marketing. More theatres across the country are getting upgraded to multiplexes. There is an increase in the number of multiplexes in the metro cities, and it has changed the entire scenario of Indian films.
Animation: Backed by India’s strong foothold in the global IT arena, the Indian media and entertainment industry has the opportunity to emerge as a global hub for digital entertainment. The prowess in IT is helping the industry to offer a whole range of services for the world in digital entertainment – from content and animation to distribution. Hollywood has already begun sourcing creativity from India in a big way. One of the boosting developments in the sector has been the $40 million deal between Italy’s Mondo TV (Europe’s No.1 cartoon producer and distributor) and India’s Padmalaya Telefilms, which is a subsidiary of Zee Network. Many global media players are ready to enter India in a big way and some of the animation companies have already established their base in India. According to NASSCOM, the animation industry is growing with a CAGR of 25% and is expected to reach $869 million by 2010.
Music: In India, the pattern of music consumption and distribution has shifted radically in recent times. Music buying has reduced and, despite the popularity of the new Hindi films, which make up for 40 percent of total music sales, the number of units being sold is falling. On the other hand, piracy has ensured that the average retail price of music cassettes remains stagnant over the years, while that of CDs fall. Music industry is projected to grow at CAGR of 1% and emerge as $164 million industry by 2010. The saving grace is mobile music. India has emerged as the largest market for mobile music. It is growing at a pace of 50% and this segment is expected to exceed the sales of physical music CDs and cassettes. Mobile music is projected to fuel the growth of the music industry.
Television: Television in India has undergone a major transformation from being a single public service sector broadcaster market, to more than 350 channels. With the launch of new channels, this segment is expected to grow at a CAGR of 24% and will achieve $9.5 billion by 2010. Advertisement spending in Indian television has been growing at the rate of 21% per year and has a significant influence on the growth of this segment. Moreover, the new distribution platforms such as DTH and IPTV will increase the subscriber base and the revenue of the industry. In fact, the television industry is posing a threat to the country’s film industry.
Radio: The radio has always been the monopoly of the state broadcaster ‘All India Radio’ and was regulated by the ‘Prasar Bharti’. But with the de-regulation of the industry, the fortunes of radio have significantly improved. It has made a tremendous comeback with its Frequency Modulation (FM). Nowadays, the FM Radio craze has spread like wildfire throughout the country. In 2005, the government announced three key policy initiatives which will drive growth in this sector - migration to a revenue share regime, allowing foreign investment into the segment and opening of licenses to private players. As many as 338 licenses are being given out by the Indian government for FM radio channels in 91 big and small towns and cities. Moreover, the introduction of satellite radio has also increased the revenue and popularity of this segment. Radio is projected to grow at 32% CAGR and emerge as $267 million industry by 2010.
Live entertainment industry: Live entertainment industry is expected to grow at CAGR of 18% and estimated to increase the market size to $400 million by 2010. While this industry is evolving, Indian event managers have clearly demonstrated their capabilities in successfully managing several mega national and international events over the past few years. However, issues like high entertainment taxes in certain states, lack of world-class infrastructure and the unorganised nature of most event management companies continue to hinder growth of this industry.
Print: Print media is projected to grow size at CAGR of 12% and by 2010 is expected to emerge as $4.3 billion industry. A booming Indian economy, growing need for content and government initiatives that have opened up the sector to foreign investment are driving growth in the print media. With the literate population on the rise, more people in rural and urban areas are reading newspapers and magazines today.
Out-of-home advertising: Out-of-home advertising is expected to grow at CAGR of 14% and estimated to increase the market size to $389 million by 2010. Outdoor media sites in India are predominantly owned or operated by small, local players and are typically, directly marketed by them to advertisers and advertising agencies. However, this segment too is witnessing a sea-change with technological innovations. Growing billboard advertising is fuelled by technologies such as light-emitting diode (LED) video billboard. This is a segment that is seeing interesting technological innovations across the world and is likely to evolve in India too in the short-term.
Internet: Internet advertising is projected to grow at CAGR of 50% and estimated to emerge as $167 million by 2010. An estimated 28 million Indians are currently hooked on to the Internet. And this rising number is leading to the growth of Internet advertising. The Internet is being used for a variety of reasons, besides work, such as chatting, leisure, doing transactions, writing blogs etc. This offers a huge opportunity to marketers to sell their products. And with broadband becoming increasingly popular, this segment is expected to grow by leaps and bounds.
Conclusion
The Indian entertainment and media industry industry has been a lucrative industry of the Indian economy that has been contributing its share of Gross Domestic Product (GDP), in a major way. With a host of factors contributing to the double-digit growth of the media and entertainment industry and an added easing of the foreign investment norms, the Industry in India is a definitely a sunrise opportunity for investment. No wonder, the entertainment and media industry has out-performed the Indian economy and has emerged as one of the fastest growing sectors. This is evident from the fact that large number of television channels and private radio stations has come up to start their operation, Indian films like ‘Devdas’ and ‘Laggan’ have come up for Oscar nominee. The Indian entertainment and media industry of India is now at the threshold of new developments with lot of growth and opportunity waiting to embrace all its segments.
media and entertainment
“Entertainment in its broadest sense has become a necessity rather than a luxury in the life …”
– Walt Disney
The fast changing lifestyle of consumers, high disposable income, IT boom and technological convergence, makes media and entertainment one of the best performing industries in India. The industry is poised to grow at 19% compound annual growth rate (CAGR) to reach $18.6 billion by 2010. thanks to the strong economic growth, rising income level, consumerism, coupled with technological advancements and policy initiatives taken by the Indian government that are encouraging the inflow of investment, will prove to be the key drivers for the media and entertainment industry. The key drivers of the media and entertainment industry:
Young India: India is considered as one of the youngest nations in the world as 54 percent of the population is below 25 years. The changes in life styles and higher disposable incomes are also toting up the demand. Moreover over 20 million Indians are residing across the globe which fuels the demand for Indian entertainment.
Evolving Distribution System: Distribution is gaining importance in the changed business environment and companies are focusing on more transparency, accountability and better revenue sharing across the value chain. This shift is result of emergence of new distribution channels such as broadband, Internet access and wireless communications. For example the digital cinema facilitates faster access of film industry in rural and semi-urban areas in a cost-effective way. The television distribution industry is witnessing new deliver mechanisms in form of DTH, Internet TV. Music distribution is also witnessing change in form of digital music delivery, online music, downloads on mobile phone. Moreover, FM radio has transformed distribution system in the music industry.
Value Chain Integration: The value chain integrating within each segment of the media and entertainment industry has build scale, increase revenue streams, to mitigate risk, and leverage on opportunities and skill sets. In recent past we have seen film producers venturing into television and television broadcasters foraying into film producing. The value chain integration is fueled by the corporatization of the film industry, the booming television sector, the fast growing radio sector and a growing market for printing and publications.
Advertising Spend: Indian advertising spends as percentage of GDP, at 0.5%, is abysmally low, as opposed to other developed and developing countries, where the average is around 0.98%. Advertising revenues are vital for the growth of this industry.
Government initiatives: The Government policy initiatives that have encouraged the inflow of investment, initiatives by private media companies and technological advancements are some of the key drivers of rapid growth of this industry. The industry has got a lot of support from the government through policies and fiscal measures. Still, the media and entertainment sector needs improvement in the government policies.
Technology: Technology has played a key role in influencing the entertainment industry, by redefining its products, cost structure and distribution. New technologies, such as satellite radio, DTH typically require high initial capital expenditure, but it also offers incremental volume gains through increased reach. It is this trade off that needs to be evaluated before an investment is made in any new technology.
Pricing: large population base makes India an attractive destination for regional, national, and international broadcasters and production houses. However, while prices are significantly lower in India than in other parts of the world, access to volumes makes the market attractive.
CRITICAL ISSUES
From the outside it looks like there is nothing that can stop the Indian entertainment industry from reaching new heights. But there are some trivial issues that still need to be addressed.
Piracy: Piracy is the major challenge. It is cannibalizing 60% revenue of the film industry and 40% of the music industry. Though positive changes in the distribution scenario are taking place, the increasing threat of piracy is offsetting the change. Unless strong penal actions are taken to curtail the revenue loss, the industry will loose out a lot of its creative products.
Entertainment tax: The entertainment tax in India is amongst the highest in the world. To attract new players into the industry and provide assistance to the existing players, the reduction in the entertainment tax is a must. The film industry is subject to varying tax levels, which are as high as 60% since government considers films as luxury, whereas it is not the case in reality.
Financing: The institutional funding for film production forms only 5% of the total industry size, which is very abysmally low. For the industry to flourish and strengthen the business model for film making, more organized funding has to be brought in. The media policies for FDI are not uniform due to which the growth of the industry is hampered.
Coverage: The media and entertainment industry has not yet been able to cover most parts of rural India, which is another factor hindering its growth. The industry must try to increase its penetration level in rural areas to contribute a larger amount to the country’s GDP and economic development
Infrastructure bottlenecks: India’s progress in terms of digital infrastructure presents a wonderful opportunity to regain its past glory in the entertainment sector. The country is facing the challenge of building a broadband digital network to reach every city, every village, every home and every office. Another challenge is that of human resources to build, operate and maintain such an infrastructure, which requires millions of trained engineers, operators and technicians.
THE ROAD AHEAD
Commenting on the future of the industry, Deepak Kapoor (Managing Director, PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, India) said, “Convergence will play a crucial role in the development of the Indian entertainment and media industry where consumers will increasingly be calling the shots in a converged media world. Broadband access and Internet Protocol (IP) will be the technology enablers that will evolve this new breed of consumers, as opportunities for them to access and manipulate content and services will be overflowing, while their time and attention will be limited. Established approaches of pushing exclusive content through non-linear-channels or networks to mass or segmented audiences will no longer guarantee competitive advantage.” So, what lies ahead of the Indian entertainment industry is a bundle of opportunities and changing trends in all the segments. There exists immense potential in sectors like animation, gaming, mobile entertainment and other blue chip emerging sectors and given India’s excellent international standing in information technology, it appears that entertainment will be the next big wave in the Indian economy.
– Walt Disney
The fast changing lifestyle of consumers, high disposable income, IT boom and technological convergence, makes media and entertainment one of the best performing industries in India. The industry is poised to grow at 19% compound annual growth rate (CAGR) to reach $18.6 billion by 2010. thanks to the strong economic growth, rising income level, consumerism, coupled with technological advancements and policy initiatives taken by the Indian government that are encouraging the inflow of investment, will prove to be the key drivers for the media and entertainment industry. The key drivers of the media and entertainment industry:
Young India: India is considered as one of the youngest nations in the world as 54 percent of the population is below 25 years. The changes in life styles and higher disposable incomes are also toting up the demand. Moreover over 20 million Indians are residing across the globe which fuels the demand for Indian entertainment.
Evolving Distribution System: Distribution is gaining importance in the changed business environment and companies are focusing on more transparency, accountability and better revenue sharing across the value chain. This shift is result of emergence of new distribution channels such as broadband, Internet access and wireless communications. For example the digital cinema facilitates faster access of film industry in rural and semi-urban areas in a cost-effective way. The television distribution industry is witnessing new deliver mechanisms in form of DTH, Internet TV. Music distribution is also witnessing change in form of digital music delivery, online music, downloads on mobile phone. Moreover, FM radio has transformed distribution system in the music industry.
Value Chain Integration: The value chain integrating within each segment of the media and entertainment industry has build scale, increase revenue streams, to mitigate risk, and leverage on opportunities and skill sets. In recent past we have seen film producers venturing into television and television broadcasters foraying into film producing. The value chain integration is fueled by the corporatization of the film industry, the booming television sector, the fast growing radio sector and a growing market for printing and publications.
Advertising Spend: Indian advertising spends as percentage of GDP, at 0.5%, is abysmally low, as opposed to other developed and developing countries, where the average is around 0.98%. Advertising revenues are vital for the growth of this industry.
Government initiatives: The Government policy initiatives that have encouraged the inflow of investment, initiatives by private media companies and technological advancements are some of the key drivers of rapid growth of this industry. The industry has got a lot of support from the government through policies and fiscal measures. Still, the media and entertainment sector needs improvement in the government policies.
Technology: Technology has played a key role in influencing the entertainment industry, by redefining its products, cost structure and distribution. New technologies, such as satellite radio, DTH typically require high initial capital expenditure, but it also offers incremental volume gains through increased reach. It is this trade off that needs to be evaluated before an investment is made in any new technology.
Pricing: large population base makes India an attractive destination for regional, national, and international broadcasters and production houses. However, while prices are significantly lower in India than in other parts of the world, access to volumes makes the market attractive.
CRITICAL ISSUES
From the outside it looks like there is nothing that can stop the Indian entertainment industry from reaching new heights. But there are some trivial issues that still need to be addressed.
Piracy: Piracy is the major challenge. It is cannibalizing 60% revenue of the film industry and 40% of the music industry. Though positive changes in the distribution scenario are taking place, the increasing threat of piracy is offsetting the change. Unless strong penal actions are taken to curtail the revenue loss, the industry will loose out a lot of its creative products.
Entertainment tax: The entertainment tax in India is amongst the highest in the world. To attract new players into the industry and provide assistance to the existing players, the reduction in the entertainment tax is a must. The film industry is subject to varying tax levels, which are as high as 60% since government considers films as luxury, whereas it is not the case in reality.
Financing: The institutional funding for film production forms only 5% of the total industry size, which is very abysmally low. For the industry to flourish and strengthen the business model for film making, more organized funding has to be brought in. The media policies for FDI are not uniform due to which the growth of the industry is hampered.
Coverage: The media and entertainment industry has not yet been able to cover most parts of rural India, which is another factor hindering its growth. The industry must try to increase its penetration level in rural areas to contribute a larger amount to the country’s GDP and economic development
Infrastructure bottlenecks: India’s progress in terms of digital infrastructure presents a wonderful opportunity to regain its past glory in the entertainment sector. The country is facing the challenge of building a broadband digital network to reach every city, every village, every home and every office. Another challenge is that of human resources to build, operate and maintain such an infrastructure, which requires millions of trained engineers, operators and technicians.
THE ROAD AHEAD
Commenting on the future of the industry, Deepak Kapoor (Managing Director, PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, India) said, “Convergence will play a crucial role in the development of the Indian entertainment and media industry where consumers will increasingly be calling the shots in a converged media world. Broadband access and Internet Protocol (IP) will be the technology enablers that will evolve this new breed of consumers, as opportunities for them to access and manipulate content and services will be overflowing, while their time and attention will be limited. Established approaches of pushing exclusive content through non-linear-channels or networks to mass or segmented audiences will no longer guarantee competitive advantage.” So, what lies ahead of the Indian entertainment industry is a bundle of opportunities and changing trends in all the segments. There exists immense potential in sectors like animation, gaming, mobile entertainment and other blue chip emerging sectors and given India’s excellent international standing in information technology, it appears that entertainment will be the next big wave in the Indian economy.
Making of Big Brand Yahoo!
Yahoo! Has positioned itself as the common man’s home on Internet.
– Phill Carpenter
January 1994, Stanford graduate students Jerry Yang and David Filo created a website named “Jerry’s Guide to the World Wide Web. Jerry’s Guide to the World Wide Web was a directory of other web sites, organized in a hierchary, as opposed to a searchable index of pages. In April 1994, “Jerry’s Guide to the World Wide Web” was renamed “Yahoo!”. By the end of 1994, Yahoo! had already received one million hits. Yang and Filo realized their website had massive business potential, and on 2 March 1995, Yahoo! was incorporated
California base Yahoo! has emerged as the world’s leading Internet portal. Yahoo! has been the first company to setup an online navigation guide on Internet. It offered media content, communication, personalized information and commerce service on the web site www.yahoo.com. Yahoo! generated revenue mainly through advertisements, promotions, sponsorships, direct advertising and merchandising.
Yahoo! has kept close tab on the evolution of the market and the interest of the customers, and has cultivated a reputation of excellence, from its convenient and logical display of information, and excellent customer service. moreover, convenience has been core of Yahoo!’s success. The user-friendly way of structured information has helped Yahoo! gain customer trust viz. feature My Yahoo! allows surfer to customize their view of Yahoo! by tailoring the information to users preferences. The special feature has increased customer comfort and convenience,
Branding
We’ve setout to make Yahoo! the only place anyone needs to go to get connected to anything. There’s nothing in the real world to compare to that.
– Timothy Koogle
Yahoo! had attempted to build a strong brand on the net. As Yahoo! believed in the fact which is also advocated by Reid in Architect of the web “if you are the brand name people know, (your site) is where they are going to go first .” Yahoo! acted early and quickly to get to know the customers specific need and responded very fast to their requirement in form of high quality service at no cost to the end user.
Yahoo! projected an image of a brand which can speak of anybody. It has also avoided characterizing itself as a technology oriented company. Since beginning it portrayed the image of human face, conveying the brand personality that is accessible, helpful, and fun-loving.
An important aspect of Yahoo!’s brand building effort was advertising and public relation. Since inception, firm has invested substantially in public relation. It helped Yahoo! boost awareness at very low cost. Venture capitalist, Mike Mortz, pointed out the value of public relatin to Yahoo!, which is followed religiously. The PR agency Niehaus Ryan Wong (NRW) helped it become a household name. NRW used the cofounder celebrity status to personify Yahoo! as a really youthful, interesting and user-friendly in service. The strategy worked well and it was regularly covered in Smart Money, Rolling Stone, Advertising Week, Advertising Age, brand Week to name a few.
In 1996 the company hired ad agency the Black Rocket to create an ad campaign that would build an awareness created by company’s IPO. The campaign projected Yahoo! as a consumer brand. In comparison with the brick and mortar companies like P&G, which had taken 25 years Yahoo! created equally strong brand in less than five years. Yahoo! was the first to major web player to tune to television. In late 1996, Yahoo!’s “gone finish” ad, aired on television became very popular. I January 1999 Yahoo! tied up with News Corp, to launch a marketing campaign in TV and the Internet. Yahoo! came out with TV ads before the start and end of the popular super Bowl tournament. Yahoo! also sponsored TV shows which were aired immediately after super Bowl.
As the first online navigational guide on the web, Yahoo! is a leading guide in terms of traffic, advertising, household and business user reach. Yahoo! invested in feature such as free e-mail, and Yahoo! messenger who encouraged he user come back to Yahoo! regularly.
Conclusion
Yahoo! is one of the most successful brands on Internet. It was first to market with a detailed search engine, first to go public, first to turnaround annual profit, first to go mainstream advertising. To maintain the lead Yahoo! focused on creation of a high quality end-to-end customer experience. In addition, their innovative promotional and guerrilla marketing techniques, have created a distinct brand identity that differentiate the brand and appeals to the target market.
– Phill Carpenter
January 1994, Stanford graduate students Jerry Yang and David Filo created a website named “Jerry’s Guide to the World Wide Web. Jerry’s Guide to the World Wide Web was a directory of other web sites, organized in a hierchary, as opposed to a searchable index of pages. In April 1994, “Jerry’s Guide to the World Wide Web” was renamed “Yahoo!”. By the end of 1994, Yahoo! had already received one million hits. Yang and Filo realized their website had massive business potential, and on 2 March 1995, Yahoo! was incorporated
California base Yahoo! has emerged as the world’s leading Internet portal. Yahoo! has been the first company to setup an online navigation guide on Internet. It offered media content, communication, personalized information and commerce service on the web site www.yahoo.com. Yahoo! generated revenue mainly through advertisements, promotions, sponsorships, direct advertising and merchandising.
Yahoo! has kept close tab on the evolution of the market and the interest of the customers, and has cultivated a reputation of excellence, from its convenient and logical display of information, and excellent customer service. moreover, convenience has been core of Yahoo!’s success. The user-friendly way of structured information has helped Yahoo! gain customer trust viz. feature My Yahoo! allows surfer to customize their view of Yahoo! by tailoring the information to users preferences. The special feature has increased customer comfort and convenience,
Branding
We’ve setout to make Yahoo! the only place anyone needs to go to get connected to anything. There’s nothing in the real world to compare to that.
– Timothy Koogle
Yahoo! had attempted to build a strong brand on the net. As Yahoo! believed in the fact which is also advocated by Reid in Architect of the web “if you are the brand name people know, (your site) is where they are going to go first .” Yahoo! acted early and quickly to get to know the customers specific need and responded very fast to their requirement in form of high quality service at no cost to the end user.
Yahoo! projected an image of a brand which can speak of anybody. It has also avoided characterizing itself as a technology oriented company. Since beginning it portrayed the image of human face, conveying the brand personality that is accessible, helpful, and fun-loving.
An important aspect of Yahoo!’s brand building effort was advertising and public relation. Since inception, firm has invested substantially in public relation. It helped Yahoo! boost awareness at very low cost. Venture capitalist, Mike Mortz, pointed out the value of public relatin to Yahoo!, which is followed religiously. The PR agency Niehaus Ryan Wong (NRW) helped it become a household name. NRW used the cofounder celebrity status to personify Yahoo! as a really youthful, interesting and user-friendly in service. The strategy worked well and it was regularly covered in Smart Money, Rolling Stone, Advertising Week, Advertising Age, brand Week to name a few.
In 1996 the company hired ad agency the Black Rocket to create an ad campaign that would build an awareness created by company’s IPO. The campaign projected Yahoo! as a consumer brand. In comparison with the brick and mortar companies like P&G, which had taken 25 years Yahoo! created equally strong brand in less than five years. Yahoo! was the first to major web player to tune to television. In late 1996, Yahoo!’s “gone finish” ad, aired on television became very popular. I January 1999 Yahoo! tied up with News Corp, to launch a marketing campaign in TV and the Internet. Yahoo! came out with TV ads before the start and end of the popular super Bowl tournament. Yahoo! also sponsored TV shows which were aired immediately after super Bowl.
As the first online navigational guide on the web, Yahoo! is a leading guide in terms of traffic, advertising, household and business user reach. Yahoo! invested in feature such as free e-mail, and Yahoo! messenger who encouraged he user come back to Yahoo! regularly.
Conclusion
Yahoo! is one of the most successful brands on Internet. It was first to market with a detailed search engine, first to go public, first to turnaround annual profit, first to go mainstream advertising. To maintain the lead Yahoo! focused on creation of a high quality end-to-end customer experience. In addition, their innovative promotional and guerrilla marketing techniques, have created a distinct brand identity that differentiate the brand and appeals to the target market.
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