We have delivered 4 hits in 8 months

Sahara-One Motion Pictures, the movie production and distribution wing of Sahara Group, claims to be India's biggest motion picture studio with an investment of Rs 300 crore across 40 films. Sahara-One Motion Pictures operates under the banner of Sahara India Entertainment, which is a 50:50 joint venture between Sahara India Pariwar and Percept.

In an interview with Sujata Dogra and Pallavi Goorha of agencyfaqs!, Sandeep Bhargava, COO, Sahara-One Motion Pictures, talks about the company's future plans. Bhargava comes with an experience of 14 years in advertising across agencies such as Lintas (now, Lowe), Mudra, and Bates. His first media assignment was with UTV. Excerpts of the interview.

Edited Excerpts

It's exciting, I would say. Sahara-One Motion Pictures, as you know, came into existence as a brand some eight months back. However, we have been in business for the past two years. These past eight months have been great. We have already released 12 movies out of which four have been major hits. Some of our recent releases include the critically acclaimed 'Ab Tak Chappan', 'Phir Milenge', 'Bewafaa' and national award winners 'Page 3' and 'Bose – The Forgotten Hero'. Our latest hit of the year has been 'Sarkaar' and 20 of our movies are already on the floor. It has been great going till now. It's good to see that corporates, banks and my peers are recognising the talent pool at Sahara-One Motion Pictures and the work that we are producing.

The business of making movies and earning revenues has changed drastically over the years. As far as making movies is concerned, a need has emerged for creating different kind of films as our movies are being accepted globally. Take 'Swades' for example. The film has been dubbed in French and has seen a theatrical release in France. In fact, Shah Rukh Khan is quite a celeb even there. 'Phir Milenge', which is based on AIDS, has also touched a chord world over. We even have a proposal from the Germans for dubbing 'Phir Milenge' in their language.

Even the local viewer is open to experimentation these days. With the advent of technology, revenue is not restricted to local theatrical collections only, which hardly generates 20-25%. Therefore, it has become absolutely important to exploit other rights such as overseas, home video, satellite, music and even cellular.

In fact, that's why we are already in the process of setting up an international distribution team. We also plan to launch a music division and home video business soon. The home video segment plays an important role in generating revenue in the overseas market as it contributes 10-15% of the overall revenue.

That's right. Some of the well-respected banners of Indian cinema are associated with us. These include Ram Gopal Varma's Varma Corp, K Sera Sera, Boney Kapoor, Nitin Manmohan's Fourth Wall Productions and Percept Picture Company.

Our main partner is Percept Picture Company. We have a 50:50 joint venture with Percept. When making a film with any of our partners, we appoint an executive producer for the film who ensures that no modifications are made without our approval. Whether it's the content or the finances, we exercise a tight control over the proceedings. And, irrespective of the type of change, we always approve it before it gets implemented. This applies to all aspects of the movie.

Where independent filmmakers are involved, we ensure that they are able to make the films without any hassles concerning financing, marketing and distribution. We give them full creative independence and do not interfere with the creative aspect of the movie. We also take care of in-film placements, in-film branding, marketing, advertising and distribution.

Producing any movie from scratch always has its risks, which may or may not pay off. At the end of the day, our primary objective is the ROI (return on investment).

With an investment of Rs 300 crore and about 40 movies in various stages of production, Sahara-One is definitely set against a larger canvas. We plan to work on a 360-degree plane, which covers everything from producing the content to getting involved with every aspect of film marketing. One factor which sets us apart from our peers is the kind of movies that we are making. Our films are not restricted to a particular language or a genre. Besides making movies in Hindi, Marathi, English and French, we also have two Bengali movies on the floor.

We get finance from our parent, the Sahara group. We also tend to plough in whatever revenues we make from our movies in upcoming projects. Actually, the whole method of movie financing has undergone a change. Earlier, producers used to sell a territory to distributors even while the movie was under production.

However, with multiplexes coming into the picture, things have changed. The traditional channel of receiving funds, which was essentially through financiers and distributors, has been replaced by corporates and banks.

As of now, we do not have any plans of having our own studio as it is a costly affair. Secondly, it is difficult to match the requirements of all the directors at the same time. Directors tend to have different requirements and it becomes difficult to keep up-to-date with the constantly changing technology.

The investment required for a Bengali movie is substantially lesser than a typical Bollywood product. To make a Bengali film, you would require Rs 1.5 crore at the most as compared to an average Bollywood film costing Rs 8-10 crore. What's more, the gestation period for a Bengali movie is quite short, which is usually not more than three to four months at the maximum. There is no dearth of creative people in the Bengali film industry. Did you know some 50% of the creative talent of Bollywood is from Bengal.

Do you plan to get into other regional markets as well?

We tried to make an entry into the South with 'Mumbai Express', which had actor Kamal Hassan in the lead role. We do see an opportunity in Bhojpuri movies. However, as of now, we are just evaluating that aspect.

The movie 'Yahaan' is going to be released shortly, followed by 'Pyar Mein Twist' that will hit the theatres sometime in August. This is a mature love story between yesteryear's heartthrobs Rishi Kapoor and Dimple Kapadia. We are hoping to recreate the magic of 'Sagar' and 'Bobby' with this movie. Then, there is also 'Mumbai to Paris', targeted at the age-group of 14-16 years. We will be launching two new faces. Alongside, there's also two comedy flicks, 'No Entry' and 'Home Delivery', which we hope will tickle the viewers.

As I said earlier, we are committed to making different genres of films, and we do have a few very interesting movies lined up. There's the animated movie 'Hanuman', which will be out in two languages – Hindi and English. We also have a film based on the encounters of self-proclaimed witch Ipsita Roy Chakraverti. The film, 'Sacred Evil', aims to capture the overseas audience, and has Sarika playing the protagonist. It has an international cast. The film is being simultaneously shot in French and English.

Besides movies, we are also in the process of releasing a wonderful documentary film, 'Truck of Dreams'. Directed by Claire Louis, the documentary showcases the dying tradition of trucks plying in the hinterlands of the country with film projectors in tow. That's how films used to be shown in villages in the early days. Alongside, the documentary also tracks the story of a young girl who aspires to be an actor.