Lights, camera and lots of action in media, entertainment

http://www.financialexpress.com/fe_full_story.php?content_id=150024

Lights, camera and lots of action in media, entertainment

PAYAL KHANDELWAL & ROUHAN SHARMA
Posted online: Wednesday, December 27, 2006 at 0259 hours IST

MUMBAI, DEC 26:  The year 2006 has been a year of celebration for the
Indian media and entertainment industry.
With as many as seven Bollywood releases qualifying as blockbusters –
Lage Raho ..., Krrish, Rang De Basanti, Dhoom 2, Don, Kabhi Alvida Naa
Kehna (KANK) and Phir Hera Pheri – the top 25 films grossed a whopping
Rs 650 crore till the November-end. It registered a 26% increase in
overall box office collections over the previous year.


A significant milestone was crossed as KANK became the highest grosser
in the international circuit and the all-time biggest Bollywood movie
abroad leaving behind Sholay (1975) and DDLJ (1995).

KANK became the topmost foreign exchange earner for India with Rs 68
crore and a net profit of Rs 108 crore abroad.

Moreover, the films this time were bigger and many of them earned far
better than even the biggest in 2005. We saw a new trend of action
movies, but in a completely revamped version. Bollywood seemed to have
learned from Hollywood as westernisation of the script,
post-production finishing touches, innovative merchandising and
mega-hype all culminated at the box office and raked in the mega
bucks. In a spinoff, Bollywood-based mobile games too, generated more
revenue and eyeballs than ever before as mobiles turned out to be
great for marketing. Several game developers entered into exclusive
arrangements with celebrities to create and market games around them.

If the year marked a change in the way we saw Bollywood transform
itself, Indian television followed it up with an encore of its own.
After Amitabh Bachchan changed the face of Indian television in 2000
with the hugely successful Kaun Banega Crorepati, the show is set to
create waves yet again as it returns to Star plus with Shah Rukh Khan
as the new host. This time, it is even bigger and more expensive.

With sponsors like Airtel, Hyundai, UTI MF and more such sponsors, the
show, KBC-SRK, is all set to rake in money like never before to the
tune of Rs 13 crore per sponsor.

There was some action among the BSE-listed media firms as we saw the
corporate restructuring of India's largest and diversified media house
Zee Telefilms into three new independently listed companies, Zee
Telefilms Ltd (to be renamed Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd (ZEEL),
Zee News Ltd (ZNL), WWIL and Dish TV India Ltd. Zee Network launched
several new channels and acquired a controlling stake in Dubai-based
Ten Sports.

However, it lost out to ESPN STAR Sports for the rights to the ICC
World Cup and ICC matches.

Another heavyweight firm, UTV Software Communications Ltd. acquired a
controlling stake in Ignition Entertainment Ltd. (Ignition) - a
console gaming company in the UK and in Indiagames Ltd (IG) - a mobile
and broadband gaming company in India. UTV is now the largest gaming
and animation entity in the country. Animation and gaming continued to
remain in the limelight throughout the year as new games were
launched, and even Reliance ADA Group announced its entry into the
online casual gaming space. Microsoft launched its Xbox 360 in the
pre-Diwali season and became the first player to launch console-based
games in the country. Sony Play Station 3 and Nintendo Wii are yet to
enter the Indian market.Animation studios too continued to ride the
outsourcing boom as firms like Crest Animation, Toonz, Maya and others
bagged contracts for television shows, movies and gaming content from
the West.

Global majors like Walt Disney, Imax, Warner Brothers and Sony signed
up contracts with Indian animation companies. Hanuman, the first ever
indigenously Indian animated movie set new standards in the animation
segment.

The year-end will be marked with a complete alteration in the way
people watch television, with CAS being mandated from December 31 in
the notified areas of Mumbai, Delhi and Kolkata. The consumer is
spoilt for choice as the market has begun to witness a fair bit of
aggressive marketing activities already.


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