Sawhney’s growth plans are distinct from the film processing and exhibition business held under a listed entity, Adlabs Films Ltd. They also include Big FM, the largest network—currently 44— of FM radio stations. While Sawhney wouldn’t comment, some company insiders say the long- term Ambani vision is to bring all media and entertainment businesses under one umbrella.
In an interview with Mint conducted in person and over email, Sawhney discusses the opportunities and the challenges that await Reliance Big Entertainment. Edited excerpts:
Hollywood is an industry dominated by studios significantly bigger than Reliance Big Entertainment. Do you really see a meaningful opportunity for yourself in that market or is it simply a big announcement that needed to be made to justify your ambition to be a big media and entertainment player?
It’s a serious commitment we have made. It’s a determined and well thought out move. Indeed, we want to be a global player in the media and entertainment space. We see a huge opportunity in world cinema over the next 10 years. One way to exploit this opportunity was to tie up with some big Hollywood studio or enter into some kind of partnership with them. We didn’t want to do that for it wouldn’t give us the kind of presence we wanted to have in the space. We are serious about a significant presence in the global cinema business. So we chose to take an innovative route. This deal will help us create a virtual studio without having to take on the biggies in Hollywood. We will provide development funds to the production houses in question on various projects. We will seek India rights for their distribution and exhibition in India.
What’s the kind of revenue potential you see in such deals?
Currently, we have talked about some 30 projects. We hope that at least 8-10 of these will get into production stage over the next two years. We haven’t discussed the budgets as yet but typical Hollywood budgets range from $25 million to $150 million. We should be in that bracket as well. We see a revenue potential of at least $1billion from these 8-10 projects.
Will films be the route to the big media and entertainment presence the company is seeking?
Films will be an important route. We remain committed to the Indian cinema business as well and this includes both Hindi as well as regional cinema. We aim to produce 69 films over the next two-and-a-half years. Of these, 22 will be in the regional space. Regional markets are an area of focus for our broadcast venture as well.
Isn’t the broadcast venture taking too long to shape up? Other players, such as Network18, UTV Software, have moved pretty fast in the past two years and they may consolidate their position in the market by the time you come in?
Launching first is no measure of one’s success. The broadcast business today involves several challenges. Besides good content and aggressive marketing, a solid distribution strategy is a must to ensure a long-term successful play. Agreed many new channels have been launched in the past two years, but how many markets are they available in? How many people are watching them? We don’t want a scattered or a limited presence when we launch. We would want our distribution strategy to be in place before we enter the market.