Celluloid Bug Bites Sski, Floats Idream

SSKI Investment Banking is foraying into the business of film production. It has floated iDream Productions, a wholly owned venture to release 17 films over the next eight months.

iDream Production has tied up with Columbia TriStar for the distribution of all its films. It will distribute 121 prints of Mira Nair's 'Monsoon Wedding' throughout India shortly. The distribution will be done in collaboration with Columbia TriStar.

A top executive at SSKI said, "the venture into films is an extension of the already existing strong foothold that the firm has in media."

The 17 films that are already on the floor are not part of the "main frame films." These films essentially do not fall into the art cinema category, but are off beat parallel cinema subjects which lay strong emphasis on good content and high technology.

"We are looking at producing those films having a very strong content value with good technical inputs and special effects. We are also working on a 3-dimension film for children for which we are importing technology from Hollywood," the executive added.

Some of the films that the production is working on are '16th December,' a film based on cross-border terrorism.

'Mitra' is scheduled to be released on the Valentine's day and 'Jagantar Mamantar' is an Indianised version of 'Gulliver's Travels.'

The films being produced within a budget of Rs 2-3 crore per film. In the future, iDream Production is setting the stage for the multiplex boom that is likely to rock the country in the next one or two years. It is also looking at producing films that are called fillers and made for niche audiences.

...buys Kerry Packer firm

SSKI Investment Banking has bought the entire movie production business of Kerry Packer's joint venture company HFCL-Nine Broadcasting for an undisclosed sum.

As a part of this deal, iDream ventures has bagged four more films in addition to the 17 films that it is already producing.

The first film from the HFCL-Nine Broadcasting stable is 'Agnivarsha,' starring Jackie Shroff, Amitabh Bachchan, Nagarjuna and Raveena Tandon.

The film is based on Girish Karnad's play 'The Fire and the Rain'. A new director Arjun Sajanani will direct the medium-budget film. The film is expected to be released by the end of this year.

iDream Productions will be dubbing the film in four other Indian languages namely Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam and Kannada.

The production house is also looking at selling the film in the French-speaking markets as they feel that the theme is a universal subject and will appeal to all audiences. There are three other films that iDream has acquired from HFCL-Nine Broadcasting.