The Hindu Business Line : Pyramid to raise Rs 200 cr for film making

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Chennai Feb. 12 Pyramid Saimira Theatres Ltd intends to facilitate the making of 25 Tamil films in one year. This will cost Rs 200 crore, and the company will enable the funding of the movies, the Chairman, Mr V. Natarajan, told a press conference on Sunday.

The first 10 of the 25 films would be `launched' shortly, he said.

Pyramid Saimira is a film exhibitor company that owns 273 theatres across the country with a total seating capacity of 1.74 lakh.

Mr Natarajan and other officials of Pyramid Saimira told Business Line that while the company might contribute a small portion of the outlay for the production of the 25 films, it would primarily facilitate institutional funding for film making.

There are two essential aspects to the fund mobilising effort. The first is an undertaking by Pyramid to exhibit the films. The second is an arrangement to `guarantee' completion of each film.

This guarantee, in turn, is being made available to the film producer in association with a Mumbai-based company called Infinity Film Completion Services.

Infinity, after vetting the script and budget, provides the `film completion guarantee' for a fee, which could be around 5 per cent of the budget.

Infinity, in turn, insures the risk of the film not being completed with General Insurance Corporation, Mr Mehool Parekh, Managing Director of the company, said.