Saregama ready with first Bangla movie

The spiralling costs of music rights coupled with the reduced life cycle of films due to multiplicity in numbers released has induced music companies like Saregama India Limited to replace older models of minimum guarantee with that of revenue sharing.

The music of films like Murder and Zeher has been distributed and been operative on the given model by Saregama India Limited.

Saregama India Limited is also the only Indian company which has its 25,000 odd music tracks available on more than 20 legal digital download sites in the United States of America.

"On the iPod powered iTunes website under the top 100 music track section all across the world, Saregama owns 16 tracks out of the global 100," said Dilip R Mehta, managing director, Saregama India Limited and president and chief executive officer (CEO), entertainment sector.

Saregama Films Limited, the wholly owned subsidiary of RPG group controlled Saregama India Limited, has just wrapped up its first Bengali feature film "" Mantra, which would be released by the end of the month. This film has a lot of firsts to its credit, said Sunil Bhandari, business head, Bengali films and software.

Mantra is the first Bengali film to be made with corporate financing. It has revived or rather initiated the pure horror genre after ages.

The film with its debutante director, Rabi Ranjan Maitra has been shot entirely with live or sync sound with the noiseless camera, which had been discontinued in the Bengali film industry after the 70s decade. In fact it is only the Indian and the Italian film industry which currently operates with dubbed sound post filming, informed the director.

It is an art which is being gradually revived by the Hindi film industry and to bring this genre to life, live sound shot at the location is what the audiences will get to hear for Mantra.

The marketing of this film will also receive the corporate finesse associated with only big budget Hindi films.

"A substantial part of our budget has been allocated for marketing which will include digital video discs (DVD) versions, not commonly associated with vernacular movies, comprising special promotion packages on the making of the film, professionally crafted teasers for television and hoarding, sms contests and the works," said Bhandari.

According to Mehta, DVD versions might also be dubbed in south Indian language if the film does well at the box office. The company has also recently launched Hindi versions of the James Bond and the Harry Potter line ups.

Speaking on the budget of the film, Mehta said a definitive amount could not be quoted as a lot of the equipment has been bought like filters, cameras, etc. to cater for future productions whose usage has been initiated with Mantra.

In April 5-6 of this year, Electrical & Musical Industries Limited (now, EMI) which had a portfolio investment in the company from which RPG had taken over in 1985 sold its 7.71 per cent stake in the open market.

Commenting on the status of 'His Master's Voice' picture together with the words "His Master's Voice' as a trademark, which was initially registered by the then Gramophone Company in 1910, Mehta said that the trademark, registered with the company although not used as part of the corporate logo appears as a branding on all its merchandise.

Mehta also stated that he was not exactly sure of the tenure, but the company has a timeframe of about 25 years during the period of which it can use the trademark which is yet to expire.