The Hindu Business Line : All under one fold

Last year, UTV started its studio model, an umbrella organisation that guides and finances directors and stars, besides buying and distributing content.

What's common between a taciturn Mumbai gangster, and a love-lorn Kolkata nawaab? Both D, a film in the sparse Ram Gopal Varma gangster mould, and Parineeta, Vidhu Vinod Chopra's lavish colour-drenched romance set in the 1960s, are distributed by UTV, which looks as if it has finally found its groove in the movie business.

UTV's line-up for the rest of the year is as interestingly diverse. Deewane Hue Paagal, a sequel to an earlier hit and a typical masala fare, produced by Feroze Nadiadwala; Shaadi No 1, a David Dhawan comedy ; The Myth, the Jackie Chan movie which gave co-star Mallika Sherawat the opportunity to swan on the red carpet in Cannes and ensnare the paparazzi; The Blue Umbrella, Vishal Bharadwaj's next after the superb Maqbool; Mira Nair's The Namesake, starring Tabu, Irrfan and Kal Penn; Rakyesh Mehra's Rang De Basanti, in which Aamir Khan shaves off his period handle-bar moustache and dons student togs of the 1970s. Some of the movies are distributions, some are co-productions and productions, UTV's involvement depending on the way the content is acquired, sourced, or made.

"We can safely say that we will be the biggest studio model by the end of the financial year," says Sanjeev Mehta, Vice-President, UTV Motion Pictures Distribution. "By March 2006, we would have distributed x number of movies, and produced z number of movies, and the value of the total would be around Rs 150 crore."

That's serious money. And the only other production house that is capable of racking up that kind of cash is Yashraj Films. Mehta, however, is clear that UTV's strength lies in its `mixed bag' of content... its own as well as in partnership with other production houses, unlike Yashraj, which focuses solely on its own movies.

It's taken the media house, helmed by Ronnie Screwvala and Zarina Mehta, one of the oldest in the production of television content, over a decade to find its feet in the movie business. It got into distribution with the 1998 Hyderabad Blues, Nagesh Kukunoor's low-budget sleeper hit which unleashed the made-for-multiplex small film movement in India.

This was followed by a series of films, some hard-core commercial, some wildly experimental — Santosh Sivan's The Terrorist, Mahesh Manjrekar's Vaastav, John Mathhew Mathan's Sarfarosh, David Dhawan's Bade Miyan Chote Miyan (all in 1999); Vidhu Vinod Chopra's Mission Kashmir, Priyadarshan's Hera Pheri (2000); Ashutosh Gowarikar's Lagaan, Santosh Sivan's Asoka, and Rakesh Mehra's Aks (2001), followed by Sanjay Gupta's Kaante, J.P. Dutta's LOC, and Revathy's Phir Milenge. These were distributions in collaboration with other media houses.

Last year, UTV set up its distribution arm to be able to reach both national and international markets. "It was a natural progression," says Girish Johar, who heads UTV's distribution set-up in North India. "Whether it is our own production or it is content we have acquired, we should have control over it in order to exploit it to the hilt."

Hyderabad Blues 2 was the first venture of the new division in 2004. And now they are going bigger. Johar points out that Ekta Kapoor's Kya Kool Hain Hum, their distribution, is the first hit of the season. "With several huge films ready for release, we are very bullish on our movies, and our plans," he says.

In the current turbulence that Bollywood is experiencing, where getting that crucial hit has become an even more chancy business, media houses with clear-cut roadmaps are rare. Most just muddle along, lurching from one big idea to the next. Apart from Yashraj Films which has hired a trio of young directors to make movies of the sort that Yash Chopra is known for — the soft-focus romance; Karan Johar, who is now toying with the thriller genre; Ram Gopal Varma who does mafia and horror like no else; and perhaps Mukesh Bhatt, who clings on to skin and tawdry suspense, there are no studios cementing distinctive identities.

Last year, UTV started its studio model, signing on talente youngsters (Chandan Arora, Aatish Kapadia, Tigmanshu Dhulia and Vishal Bharadwaj) as well as old warhorses David Dhawan and Prakash Jha, who showed the will to get back to making the kind of movies that made them famous. That makes it an umbrella organisation in the old-style — mentoring and financing directors and stars, as well as the other add-ons of buying and distributing content.

"I don't agree we are spread too thin," says Sanjeev Mehta in response to a trade observation, when I ask him for a comment. "What we have done is to slowly get conversant with all areas of movie-making, so that we can build expertise, and go at it on our own."

Mehta, who has an FMCG background, was brought into UTV only a year ago, precisely because Ronnie Screwvala wanted someone with a `fresh outlook', as the movie map of India is like no other: it doesn't go by States, but territories which sound as if they have been stuck in a time-warp. "Having figured out all of that, the UTV USP lies in the way we can distribute nationally, and now internationally, in exclusion of each other," he says.

A bunch of interesting co-productions in the past few years (Fiza, Chalte Chalte, Lakshya, and the 2004 year-ender Swades, which provided an impressive profit for both director Ashutosh Gowariker as well as UTV) point to a time when UTV readies for its own productions, some of which are in the pipeline. Meanwhile, Parineeta, which releases today, is the first UTV global release.

Response can be sent to life@thehindu.co.in

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