Zee to buy 60% in Venus Films

Zee Telefilms (ZTL) has agreed in principle to acquire 60 per cent stake each in Venus Films and Venus Records & Tapes.

Ashish Kaul, senior vice-president, Essel Group, which is the promoter of Zee Telefilms, said, "We look at this acquisition as an extension of our existing business, as we are a major consumer of film and music products. This will be in synergy with the business of Zee Cinema and Zee Music. The audio and film rights will strengthen the programming of these channels."

Venus Films promoters Ganesh Jain and Ratan Jain have produced several Hindi films such as Josh, Mela, Baadshah, Garam Masala, Kyunki and Hulchul.

Venus Records & Tapes has a repertoire of 2,500 titles. Venus Films has negative rights of 30 blockbuster films such as Baazigar, Yes Boss and Akele Hum Akele Tum.

Ganesh Jain of Venus said, "Our association will be mutually beneficial since Zee will have access to all films of Venus and Venus will have the support of India's largest television network. Being one of the leading music companies, we will be able to provide a strong support for Zee Cine Awards overseas and to the programming content of Zee Muzic."

"The acquisition is also in line with our plans to aggregate and digitalise content, starting with those of Zee Network," he said.

Earlier this week, Zee had announced its plans to spin off its news and cable businesses into separate entities. Its consumer service business also would be separated in future. All the new companies would also be listed on the stock exchanges. For Zee, the acquisition will add to its existing library of films.

Apart from audio and film rights, Venus has a state-of-the-art post-production facilities, which will help enhance the content value of Zee Network. However, there will be no change in the management of the company.

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