Filmy takeover

ENTERTAINMENT: Negotiations are on to buy into the success of a Delhi-based film production company.

Delhi-based film production company Tandav Film Entertainment, which made its Bollywood debut with the Anupam Kher-Boman Irani starrer Khosla Ka Ghosla, is in talks with Television Eighteen (TV 18) for a joint venture.

The buzz is that TV 18 is planning to pick up a substantial stake in the company. Entertainment industry sources say that after the success of Khosla Ka Ghosla (it won the Filmfare Award for best screenplay recently), Tandav Film is being wooed by a number of corporate houses with interests in the entertainment sector. However, it is learnt that TV 18 is close to signing a deal with the film company.

Speaking to Business Standard, TV 18 CEO Haresh Chawla said that the media house is constantly in negotiations with companies to grow its business.

"We will talk when there's something concrete," he added. Tandav Film Entertainment founder and CEO Savita Raj Hiremath admitted that the film company had got offers for an equity tie-up from corporate biggies. "But we are still evaluating them," she said.

Tandav Film, a venture of the capital-based advertising agency Ushak Kaal, was set up four years ago. "When we set up the film unit, we had major problems getting funding for our project. We are barely one film old but the success of the film has changed the way the industry is looking at us," said Hiremath.

Ushak Kaal ventured into the entertainment space as margins in the advertising business started thinning out.

"Advertising is becoming a very tough business to be in," said Hiremath. However, the agency launched an in-film branding division called UK007 in January.

For now though, Hiremath's focus is on making films. Tandav Film is also in talks with a major international studio that is interested in funding, distributing and marketing all films coming out of the company's stable.

The company is already working on two new projects with one of the films dealing with relationships within a family. For the time being, Tandav is not looking at high-cost projects.

"We are in the space of making small-budget films which are commercially viable," she said.