Network 18, the holding company of the TV 18 Group, announced on Thursday the launch of Studio 18, that will mark the group's entry in the motion picture business. The unit will look at acquisition, production, syndication and distribution of full-length feature films.
The company has already got into a co-production deal with BR Films for Bhoothnath, a Rs 25 crore (Rs 250 million) film starring Amitabh Bachchan and Juhi Chawla.
The film will go on floors by mid-October and will be ready for release in the summer of 2007. The company has also got into an agreement with Ravi Chopra for two more film ventures.
Studio 18 has also acquired all rights for the Rs 15 crore (Rs 150 million) '1971: prisoners of war,' a film to be directed by Amrit Sagar (the grandson of the legendary Ramanand Sagar) which marks the return of the Sagar family into filmdom. The unit has also signed on Sagar for his next directorial venture as well.
Raghav Bahl, Managing Director, TV18 Group, said: "Studio 18 is a key component in our strategy to transform Network 18 into a full-play media conglomerate, with a leadership position in motion pictures, news broadcasting and Internet portals." Based in Mumbai, Studio 18 will also have distribution offices in London and New York.
To hire talent for its latest foray, Studio 18 has tapped into the ranks of professionals from outfits like Sahara-One Motion Pictures. For instance, Studio 18 has roped in Sandeep Bhargava as its CEO, Priti Shahani, head marketing, syndication &
distribution, Deepti Chawla as creative head and Chitra Subramanian to head production. All of them have been associated with the success of Sahara-One Motion Pictures with movies such as Page 3, Hanuman, Company and Malaamal Weekly, among others.
Also former UTV executive, Ashoka Holla will head international distribution and acquisitions.
He has been responsible for acquiring and distributing films in several overseas territories at UTV. He will also be responsible for launching and driving the home video label for Studio 18.
Sibashish Sarkar, CFO, Studio 18 was with UTV & Percept Picture Company earlier and Vandana Malik and Sanjay Ray Chadhuri, both founding shareholder-directors of the TV18 Group, will act as creative advisors.
Speaking about plans, Bhargava said that Studio 18 is being modeled along the lines of international film studios offering end-to-end facilities. "Today the revenue stream for a film is no longer restricted to its box-office collections. We are also looking at ways in which rights to films are marketed well. We will look at syndication in a big way. We are also looking at entering the home video and music label segment," he said.
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