E-City chalks out Rs 250cr plan for AP

Mumbai-based E-City Ventures, the cinema exhibition and retail real estate arm of Essel Group, is chalking out a major expansion plan for Andhra Pradesh.

The company has envisaged investments of more than Rs 250 crore for leasing out standalone theatres and putting up multiplex screens in the state within the next three years.

"Considering the fact that movie-going is the number one leisure activity in Andhra Pradesh and the flourishing Telugu film industry, which churns out around 200 films a year, we see immense potential in the state to grow in the exhibition business," Manish Dhoot, vice-president of E-City Ventures, told Business Standard.

Outlining the company's film exhibition plans, Dhoot said they wanted to have around 200 standalone theatres in the state on a lease-basis.

"We have already acquired eight theatres in the state, while talks for acquiring 100 more theatres are in various stages," he added.

Besides, the company plans to put up 100 multiplex screens across the state by the end of the financial year 2009. It has confirmed locations in Anantapur, Hyderabad, Eluru, Tirupati, Chittoor and Rajahmundry for 4-5 screens each, while it is in the process of signing up deals for the remaining.

"The first of these, a two-screen multiplex acquired on a 20-year lease at Miyapur in Hyderabad, would be up and running by August this year," he said. E-City Ventures currently runs 50 multiplex screens across 14 locations and controls 70 single screens across the country.

Meanwhile, the group's film distribution arm, E-City Films, had recently acquired the regional distribution rights of Shankar Dada Zindabad, the Telugu remake of the runaway Bollywood film Lage Raho Munnabhai. The company has acquired the distribution rights for three sub-territories "� Visakhapatnam, Krishna and Guntur "� which comprise 29 per cent of the Telugu film market.

With Chiranjeevi portraying the character of Shankar Prasad, his brother Pawan Kalyan in Abhishek Bachchan's role and upcoming model Karishma Kotak essaying the role played by Vidya Balan, the film is slated for a July 19 release with approximately 80 prints in the three sub-territories.

"We expect the theatrical box office of Shankar Dada Zindabad to gross Rs 20 crore across its run from the three sub-territories, 25 per cent more than its predecessor Shankar Dada MBBS, which grossed around Rs 9 crore," Dhoot said.

Till date, the Mahesh Babu and Trisha-starrer Pokiri, which was released last year, holds the record for the highest gross box office collections in the three sub-territories with approximately Rs 11 crore.

Stating that E-City Films is looking at further acquiring three to four big banner Telugu films this year, Dhoot said the company was currently negotiating with various production houses.

"After establishing our base here, we will look at entering the Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Karnataka markets next year," Dhoot said.