MUMBAI: Mudra Communications will soon start a separate production set up called Tantr, which will produce ad films and corporate films. Later this year, the agency also plans to get into production of serials for the ad sales wing.

In June 2003, indiantelevision.com had reported that Mudra Videotec planned to expand its presence in the domain space of TV software and ad-film production.

Mudra Videotec has a team of 15 people spread across the country with offices in Mumbai, Delhi, Ahmedabad, Bangalore and Hyderabad. The division has two business unit heads: Mudra Videotec national marketing head (ad sales) Sunil Shetty and manager (audio-visual and films) Umang Pahwa.

According to Pahwa, "We have done quality work for clients such as McDonald's, Reliance Infocomm, Godrej Group, HP Lubricants among others. In fact, the McDonald's campaign has won seven awards last year - including three Abby awards and four AAAI awards. We are hoping to convert other large clients within the Mudra fold, such as Yamaha and Dainik Bhaskar."

Incidentally, Mudra Videotec had worked to create the Reliance Infocomm audio-visuals, which were aired at the Reliance Technology Centre in Navi Mumbai earlier this year. "We managed to deliver despite constraints of hectic schedules and almost impossible deadlines. We were creating three to four films every week," says Pahwa.

Pahwa adds, "We have recently done a series of three ad films for Hindustan Petroleum for one of their products called 'Cruise'. These are three simple films of 15-second duration. They are scheduled to be aired on TV channels starting 24 and 25 September."

As far as ad-films and audio-visual production is concerned, the agency executives are aggressively pitching for in-house business from within the Mudra network. They are hoping to leverage their expertise in software/content production and offer value-added services to existing and new clients.