Dressing the star-struck

BIBA, the Rs 18-crore (Rs 180 million) women's ethnic wear brand, is getting into the film merchandising business in a big way.

After securing the rights to reproduce the wardrobe (saris, kurtis, bags and artificial jewellery) of the lead female stars in Bollywood films like Na Tum Jaano Na Hum, Devdas, Baghban and The Hero, the company is now developing a full range of merchandise for Halchal, the Kareena Kapoor and Akshaye Khanna blockbuster expected to be released in October this year.

For Halchal, however, BIBA is developing more than just its range of dresses. A coffee-table book dedicated to the making of the film and stationery is in the pipeline.

Citibank is said to have reserved 50 per cent of the 10,000 copies that BIBA will bring out in a tie up with Mumbai's Crosswords book shop. It will also offer 10 different styles of dresses and bags that Kareena Kapoor sports in the film.

"Bollywood dictates fashion and our philosophy is to take Bollywood fashion to the masses. We are looking at taking on two to three film projects a year," says Siddhartha Bindra, director of BIBA Apparels (Pvt) Ltd.

To catch the customer in the theatre itself, last week, the company opened its first in-theatre gallery called BIBA Movie Line Merchandise at Fame in Mumbai. Located at the Inorbit mall, Biba Movie Line will stock music and books on films, other than film memorabilia like dresses and imitation jewellery.

"We hope the concept will create a strong demand and plan to open at least 10 Movie Line galleries by next year," adds Bindra.

The next gallery will open at Fame in Andheri, Mumbai next month. It is also negotiating with Inox in Mumbai and the Delhi-based DT Cinemas for its Movie Line.

Besides dresses reproduced from films, the company wants to promote and expand its range of trademark embroidered salwar-kameez outfits priced between Rs 2,000 and Rs 6,000.

For that, it will open 15 exclusive BIBA stores in Mumbai, Delhi, Hyderabad and Bangalore. Till recently, BIBA retailed its dresses from 80 stores like Shoppers' Stop, Pantaloons and CTC Plaza.

The company, which introduces at least 20 styles a month, was started by Bindra's mother in 1990 from her house in Mumbai. BIBA was launched in 1995.

Today, it sees a great potential in the merchandise business. It has not only improved its brand recall but contributed 15 per cent to its turnover last year. The company hopes to clock a turnover of Rs 26 to Rs 30 crore (Rs 260-300 million) by April 2005.

That BIBA's association with Bollywood has struck a chord with customers is evident from the brisk sale of its dresses from films. Nearly 15,000 pieces of a white chikan work salwar-kameez worn by Esha Deol in Na Tum Jaano Na Hum have been sold.

More than a year after the film was released, orders keep pouring in: a United Kingdom-based Indian wear clothing catalogue picked up at least 750 pieces of the dress priced at Rs 2,995, earlier this month.

BIBA enters into different deals with  film producers, including buying the merchandising rights for a fee. While fashion designer Neeta Lulla was roped in to create an affordable range inspired by Devdas, the company designed the outfits for The Perfect Husband. The film is yet to be released but the dresses are doing well.

Under the terms and arrangement with the film companies, BIBA is allowed to sell the merchandise three weeks before the film launch.

But how does merchandising clothes help films? Bhairav Shah of Venus Films that is making Halchal, says that BIBA has a huge brand presence in shops and malls and has the advantage of directly dealing with customers.

"Since our main idea is to create hype and not to make money per se, it works out well for us to promote the movie with the BIBA brand," says Shah.

Hasmukh Shah, co-producer of The Hero, which was released in April, says, "This kind of promotion works well for us as it creates awareness of the movie. For us, it's difficult to locate each store for promotion. BIBA can handle this with its wide presence in the retail market." BIBA, meanwhile, also plans to do promotions like organising events and contests based on the films.