Film Production
InHouse promoters launch film company Metalight
MUMBAI: At a time when the Hindi movie industry is going through probably its worst ever slump, a new vertically integrated company announced today that it was making the plunge into the film business. Metalight Productions is being positioned as a “strategic motion picture venture” cutting across genres that will churn out 12 films a year once it is fully onstream.
Making the announcement at a media briefing today, executive director Ajay Shanghavi said Rs 200 million has already been spent on the venture and over the next three years a total of Rs 820 million would be pumped in to get the business going fully.
Sanghavi said Metalight at present has three films ready for release – Dil Vil Pyaar Vyaar, 3 Deewanein and Satta. The total “landed cost” (includes production, marketing distribution) for Dil Vil was Rs 90 million, Sanghavi said, adding that Rs 40 million was the money dished out for each of the other two movies.
By the end of this fiscal six movies would be released, with two more under production by that time, Sanghavi said.
Queried as to what kind of returns the company was expecting, Sanghavi said between 35 and 45 per cent net profit was what he was looking at.
Voicing the corporate mantra, Sanghavi said Metalight has three operational divisions with separate heads handling production, distribution and exhibition. He stressed that what Metalight was looking to do was to have a regular output of films that would be made on time, within specified budgets and produced, distributed and exhibited by the company itself. The exhibition division will enable Metalight to directly reach the viewer by controlling and managing theatres under the brand name ‘Prime’.
Heading the production division is Wg. Cdr. Ramesh, the man who set up Ramoji Rao’s Film City on the outskirts of Hyderabad. The distribution team is led by Ravi Nallapa and the exhibition division by Richard R Miranda.
Metalight is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Singapore-based Production Facilities Pvt. Ltd, which also owns TV software company InHouse Productions. Production Facilities’ investors are the Indian stakeholders of Sony Entertainment Television India Pvt Ltd.
Film Production
Priyanka Kaur Dhillon joins SVF Entertainment as lead for music distribution
A seasoned content dealmaker with 16 years in digital and satellite media joins the Bengali entertainment powerhouse as it pushes into the pan-India music market
Mumbai: Priyanka Kaur Dhillon has made her move. The content acquisitions and commercials veteran, most recently commercial manager at Sony Pictures Networks India, has joined SVF Entertainment as lead for music distribution, stepping into one of the more interesting briefs in regional entertainment right now.
SVF is no ordinary regional label. Over 30 years it has built a formidable legacy in Bengali cinema and music, driven by culturally resonant storytelling and a catalogue that consistently punches above its weight. Its recent success with Chiraiya underlines the point. But the Kolkata-based powerhouse now has its sights firmly set beyond Bengal, most visibly through Legacy, a rap reality series produced in collaboration with hip-hop label Kalamkaar that signals a deliberate push into the pan-India music ecosystem.
Dhillon brings precisely the kind of muscle SVF needs for that expansion. At Sony Pictures Networks India, she led film acquisition and commercials and handled music licensing across the entire satellite network. Before that, she spent nearly 15 years at Hungama, rising to assistant general manager and leading strategic content licensing for the platform’s digital entertainment business, with a particular focus on international markets. Her label relationships span the full roster: Sony Music, Universal Music, Warner Music, Believe International, Tunecore, The Orchard and a clutch of smaller aggregators. She has negotiated and closed deals with Hollywood studios, Bollywood production houses and regional content players alike, building pricing models and deal structures off data analysis rather than instinct.
Announcing the appointment, Dhillon said she was “thrilled to begin this journey with an iconic Bengali music label and content powerhouse,” adding that SVF’s “constant drive to push boundaries” was what drew her to the role.
SVF has spent three decades proving that regional does not mean limited. With a sharp commercial operator now steering its music distribution, its bid to go national just got a good deal more serious.
