Game of hits

Anupam Mittal is venturing far beyond the Internet all the way to cinema.

If you straddle media as diverse as television, film, the Internet and telecom, you can count on one thing: you'd be pretty breathless just keeping pace.

Anupam Mittal, chairman and managing director, People Group, though, seems remarkably well at ease with all this.

The reason, perhaps, is that while he seems to be entangled in quite a bewildering mesh, he does have a focal point: content. Since the early days of his initial venture, Shaadi.com, Mittal has become even more sure of himself when he says, "Good content will rule."

At the technical level, of course, there's no respite from complexity. People Interactive, which claims an online user base of 30 million, must grapple with myriad changes online, even as telecom evolves into another razzle-dazzle medium, television proliferates and good old cinema witnesses new ways to make money.

The greater the chaos, the more effective a strategy driven by a common understanding of basic needs. "There is a demand for original content," says Mittal succinctly.

If People Group's growth is anything to go by, he knows what he's saying. Founded only in 2001, the company claims to be nearing a three-digit topline. "In calendar year 2007, we will be a Rs 100-crore company," declares Mittal. The ambition, though, "is to grow at 100 per cent for the next three years and reach the $200 million mark by 2010".

How? "Internet services, comprising Shaadi.com, the dating service Fropper.com, the wedding planning portal ShaadiTimes.com and the recently launched Astrolife.com, besides the offline matchmaking network Shaadi Point, will contribute $100 million," he elaborates, "and People Infocom which operates under the Mauj and 7007 brands, will contribute $100 million."

What's more, with two movies turned out by People Pictures and two television serials already aired over the last year, Mittal is in the midst of finalising the cast for a Bollywood potboiler.

"This is budgeted at Rs 10-15 crore and scheduled to launch in May 2007," discloses Mittal, claiming a passion for filmmaking. "Also, by November this year, we hope to see three of our television shows "" one reality-based and the others fiction "" hit the air."

It's showbiz, though, and there's no saying how successful these will be "" "a reason why venture capitalists shy away from these ventures", notes Mittal, who has got $18 million in venture capital funding for People Interactive and People Infocom and is investing his own money in the other projects.

Will his plans come good? It's a tough guess. Getting hits on the silver screen may prove rather different from getting hits for Shaadi.com.