Bollywood Retail: Now wear your star on your sleeve

Entertainment, media and communications company Percept has announced a 50-50 joint venture with the Future Group. The JV will be called Bollywood Retail.

Bollywood Retail will focus on providing the Bollywood experience and Bollywood merchandising within the Future Group’s retail network. The JV will independently source Bollywood IPR and software from Percept’s Bollywood Corp. and use retail infrastructure from the Future Group.

Earlier, Percept had set up Bollywood Corp. to create and own IPR assets in the Bollywood domain. It aimed to provide the complete Bollywood Experience, including Bollywood Cafes, walkthroughs, Hall of Fame, Bollywood museums, Bollywood theme parks, merchandising and a host of other experiential offerings.

Bollywood Retail will start with an initial capital outlay of Rs 50 crore. Plans are to open outlets in about nine locations in the first phase, in Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, Kolkata, Bangalore, Indore, Jaipur, Pune, Delhi and Mumbai.

Kishore Biyani, group chief executive officer, Future Group, says, “Bollywood is one of the biggest entertainment phenomena that rule India – it transcends age, gender and geographical and cultural barriers, and binds the entire populace together. For many, Bollywood is an experience in itself, which they aspire to get close to and we will give the audiences an opportunity to do so. Through this partnership with Percept, we hope to bring a unique touch and feel of the Bollywood experience to the consumer.”

Shailendra Singh, joint managing director, Percept Ltd, says, “Bollywood merchandise is just the first of many things to result from this partnership. The international market has been exposed to the concept of merchandising and is a much more mature market than India; the domestic market is still nascent, but I am sure that in due course, the concept of merchandising will be lapped up by consumers in a big way.”

Bollywood Retail will cater to both international and domestic markets. The merchandise will include apparel, accessories and stationery. The price range and product range haven’t been decided yet.

Bollywood Retail is part of the Bollywood experience that Percept intends to create through cafes, walkthroughs, museums and theme parks. The other parts of the Bollywood experience will be launched in due time when the strategic JVs or tie-ups come through.