Zee earmarks Rs 250 cr for films

<div class="section1"><div class="Normal">NEW DELHI: Corporatisation of Bollywood gathers steam with Subhash Chandra’s Zee Telefilms betting big on the tinsel town. Plans are afoot to invest up to Rs 250 crore over the next two years for production and acquisition of movies and put in place a distribution network for films in India and overseas. On the anvil are dozen-odd releases in a year, starting financial year 2004-05 onwards.<br /><br />Zee Telefilms on Monday announced the appointment of Nittin Keni as head of its film division.Keni was earlier associated with Zee when the company produced blockbuster <span style="" font-style:="" italic="">Gadar, Ek Prem Katha</span>, in 2000. <br /><br />At least two movies from the Zee stable are slated to hit the silver-screen by March 2004. The company is also looking at acquiring a big star-cast film for release in the January-February period. <br /><br />The projects in the pipeline include an Indo-French joint production, Vijay Singh-directed <span style="" font-style:="" italic="">One Dollar Curry</span>, slated for February release, and <span style="" font-style:="" italic="">Khosla Ka Ghosla</span>, a movie acquired by Padmalaya Telefilms. <br /><br />Keni said that the distribution and acquisition business would synergise its working with Padmalaya Telefilms, where the Zee group has a majority stake. The film division would be a separate profit-centre within Zee Telefilms. <br /><br />Plans are afoot to put in place a distribution network in the Mumbai territory and some leading overseas markets, such as USA, Canada and Middle East, by March 2004. The company has earmarked an investment of up to Rs 30 crore till March next year for its movie production and distribution business. <br /><br />“We would work a synergy between the movie production and distribution business and Essel group’s multiplex business,� Keni said.<br /><br />Apart from taking up movie projects on its own, the company would look at entering into joint venture projects with other production companies. The company would look at producing and distributing both mainstream commercial movies and small-budget “cross-over� films. <br /><br />Zee’s first movie venture, <span style="" font-style:="" italic="">Gadar</span>, is estimated to have grossed in excess of Rs 100 crore at the box office. The company’s decision to enter the film distribution business is directed at plugging the loss in revenue in the movie distribution business, Keni added.<br /><br />Keni,in his personal capacity, is currently involved with three movie ventures, including Manisha Koirala-starrer <span style="" font-style:="" italic="">Indira Gandhi</span>. However, the <span style="" font-style:="" italic="">Indira</span> project has been put off till the end of general elections next year, he added.</div> </div>