Shuchi Bansal: DVD dreams come true

BACKSTAGE

In six months a man can go to the moon 24 times and come back. That's what Harish Dayani, former chief executive of Saregama's films division, believes in and follows. Well, almost. Not surprisingly, within six months of joining as the CEO of Moser Baer's Entertainment Business, the 52-year-old has sewn up his team, set up a fully-automated unit to package and print DVDs and VCDs, created a distribution chain, and even canned an ad film to promote his home video brand.

So, when Moser Baer, the optical storage media company that manufactures floppy disks, compact disks and digital versatile disks, announced its foray into the home video segment last week, the film industry was shocked by the price points it promised. VCDs and DVDs of films would now cost between Rs 28 and Rs 34 compared to Rs 150 and Rs 400 today. Dayani explains that Moser Baer can hold the prices because of the sheer economy of scale of its core business. Besides, he claims to have already bagged rights, at very competitive rates, to over 5,000 film titles in different languages.

A former employee of RPG (that owns Saregama) says that Dayani is well networked within the film industry and has a grip on the film and music rights business. "He is sure to have interesting things up his sleeve," he adds. Dayani is credited for having established the Sa Re Ga Ma brand name for RPG's music company when its licence (from UK's EMI) to use the HMV brand name expired. "I did not create the brand name as it already existed as an RPG brand in the UK. But, yes, I was present when the transition took place," says Dayani.

Of the 10 years Dayani spent at Saregama, eight went into looking after the music business. In 2004, however, he spearheaded the company's entry into films. Saregama Films Ltd produced and released Tum Sa Nahi Dekha in collaboration with Mahesh Bhatt and launched Karma Confessions & Holy with Sushmita Sen and Naomi Campbell. The English film, co-produced with the American company Raptures, is in the post-production stage.

A chemistry graduate from St. Stephen's in Delhi, Dayani did not start out in the entertainment business. Soon after college, he sold ceiling fans for Usha Shriram. For the next 15 years, he sold soaps, detergents and tea for Hindustan Lever. "At HLL, you understand India as you travel from a remote village in Punjab to an unknown village in Tamil Nadu. Once you understand India, you know how to do business here," feels Dayani.

Dayani wants to push Moser Baer's entertainment products like HLL's consumer products. His target: a pan-India presence for the DVDs. "Our products will be for one billion people," he says. The company's rivals in the home video segment, however, argue that Moser Baer does not have rights to any of the new blockbusters. "Acquiring rights to new films is a different ball game. We first want to iron out our distribution system and achieve critical mass," says Dayani. He adds that the company has set aside $100 million for investment in the business in the next three years.

Given his experience in music, will Moser Baer also make music CDs and produce films? "No, not music. It is a shrinking business and the industry is predominantly cassettes-based. We are not into cassettes," Dayani points out. Low-budget films that are strong on content so that their cost can be recovered from the home video market alone, are a distinct possibility. For the home video labels, serious competition seems to be on the horizon.