T-Series To Market Big B Cassettes

Cash-strapped Amitabh Bachchan Corporation Ltd (ABCL) has transferred its music cassette business to T-Series - the largest player in the Indian music cassette industry. The deal was clinched last week.

However, Gulshan Kumar, managing director, T-Series denied that it was an outright sale. ABCL could not be reached for comment. Industry observers maintained that this was an attempt by ABCL to tide over its financial problems.

Under the terms of the deal, the marketing and distribution functions of the audio cassette division of ABCL has been transferred to T-Series.

The manufacturing will also be done by T-Series. The cassettes will be marketed under the T-series-Big B brand name.

 

T-series will pay a minimum guarantee fee to ABCL. Besides, ABCL will also get a share of the royalty on the sale of cassettes. ABCL will get a share of the royalty only after the minimum guarantee fee has been recovered, said Kumar.

He felt that ABCL had probably decided to opt for the deal as it wanted to concentrate on the production of software. T-Series would gain substantially as it will get a share of the audio cassette pie for all films produced by ABCL.