TV 18 - Demerger Will Unlock Value

Studio 18, Ashtavinayak In Films Deal

Studio 18, the holding company of the TV 18 group, has announced a Rs 100-crore co-production deal with Shree Ashtavinayak Films for four of its forthcoming film projects. The four projects are going to include directors such as Rohit Shetty (Golmaal), Priyadarshan (Hungama, Malamaal Weekly, Bhagham Bhaag), Abbas Mastan (Aitraaz, Ajnabee) and Neeraj Vora (Phir Hera Pheri).

Confirming the news Sandeep Bhargava, CEO, Studio 18, informed Business Standard that each of these projects are worth around Rs 25 crore and will spread over the next two years. One project will go on floor in the first quarter of 2007 and will be ready by mid-next year. The second one will go on floor by around mid-2007 and will probably be ready by early 2008. And the others would be in 2008. The names and starcast of the four projects have not been finalised.

Bhargava said this agreement was only because the two saw many complementary aspects in each other. “For instance, Ashtavinayak has a good record and has recently given films like Golmaal. Besides, it also has good presence in domestic distribution. We, on the other hand, come with good syndication record, marketing and international distribution strength,” he added. But the fact remains that today most production houses and studios prefer to get into a fairly large deal to ensure a consistency in their project pipelines.

Recently, the Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group-promoted Adlabs is learnt to have entered into four film agreements with director Vipul Shah and actor Akshay Kumar.

Studio 18 that entered the fray in motion picture business just last month has already got into a co-production deal with BR Films for ‘Bhoothnath’ a medium-budget film starring Amitabh Bachchan and Juhi Chawla that will be ready for release in mid-May next year. It has also acquired ‘1971: prisoners of war,’ a film to be directed by Amrit Sagar (grandson of Ramanand Sagar). The unit has also signed on Sagar for his next directorial venture as well.