Date:09/11/2004 URL: http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/2004/11/09/stories/2004110902720300.htm

Back K Sera Sera plans to raise Rs 100 cr — International film project on cards

Latha Venkatraman
Shyam G. Menon

Mumbai , Nov. 8

K SERA Sera Productions Ltd, a listed entity, plans to raise roughly Rs 100 crore to scale up its film, television and content business over the next five years.

It has appointed consultant Ernst & Young to look into the exercise of raising funds from the domestic market, Ms Kacon Sethi, CEO, K Sera Sera, said. According to her, the company is currently studying an international film project that may or may not feature Indian talent.

As she put it, K Sera Sera does not produce the typical formula entertainer for families but services a niche audience segment in urban markets. Given this reputation, the company's planned foray into the international market will not be based on the emergent crossover genre of film-making, but would be a product for the global market.

With overseas offices in the US and Hong Kong (mainly for distribution), K Sera Sera's foray abroad already differs from the conventional Bollywood approach of tapping NRI markets such as the UK and South Africa. "We don't make the kind of films they want to see. On the other hand, the US office is because that is where Hollywood is, while Hong Kong is the film production centre for that part of Asia,'' Ms Sethi said. K Sera Sera is de-risking its film business by entering the market for television software and content for gaming, besides long-term production deals with satellite broadcasters (it has one with Sahara) that recover a bulk of film production cost through television rights.

Ms Sethi said the company will take up the international project only if it is adequately de-risked.

On the company's strategy, she said, "We want to be a content provider for every screen.'' Recently, it entered into a licence agreement with VSNL to offer content from its films (titles like Ek Hasina Thi, Darna Mana Hai, Main Madhuri Dixit Banna Chahti Hoon, Ab Tak Chappan, Gayab, Bhoot, Road, Vaastu Shastra and Naach) in electronic format.

Largely reliant on film revenues at present, K Sera Sera wants to graduate its income mix to a 50:50 ratio, one half coming from television, film distribution, broadband and wireless content. For the latter, it has tied up with Mauj.com, a gaming company that provides content for telecom service providers. The company's approach to television software shadows its strengths in film-making. Ms Sethi said K Sera Sera would capitalise on film genres with which it is identified to migrate them on to the small screen. Not surprisingly therefore, one plan revolves around fear, an emotion K Sera Sera has successfully exploited in the past on celluloid. "What we are talking of here is a Ram Gopal Varma-presents on the same lines as an Alfred Hitchcock-presents,'' she said.

However, the company would also try to create verticals around directors competent for each genre, unlike its track record so far when direct or indirect association across the board with Ram Gopal Varma was a key for success.

From a turnover of Rs 24 crore in 2003-04, K Sera Sera is expected to turn in revenues of Rs 60 crore this fiscal, Ms Sethi said. In fiscal 2005, five films will be released and eight held in inventory, rising next year to eight released and 11 in inventory.