Shree Ashtavinayak sees 50% topline & bottomline growth

Q: Could you give us your sales figures?

A: As far as profits and sales are concerned, we have achieved sales of Rs 97 crore; around 60% increase in sales compared to last year. As far as PAT is concerned, we have achieved a 90% increase. Last year, the profit was at around Rs 7.5 crore and this year we have done at around Rs 14.15 crore.

Q: Walk us through this quarter in terms of revenues from the Mumbai circuit, the distribution and production?

A: The increase in sales and the profit, as far as this year is concerned, is due to the success of our distribution and production films mainly - Golmaal and Bhagambhag - and the success of Hera Pheri and other films, which we distributed.

As far as quarterly earnings are concerned, during Jan-March, it is a spillover of Bhagambhag, which was a successful movie out of the top 25 films in this current year.

As far as profits and margin are concerned, around 80% of the profits are from production, 19% from distributions and the rest are from exhibition and other incomes. So, production will be the key revenue driver for us in the upcoming years; production is where the actual money lies and we have core competency in it compared to distribution and exhibition.

Distribution and exhibition will form a very important segment for us, but from the market share and revenue point of view, production will be the key segment.

Q: What sort of growth in terms of margins you are looking at going forward in the FY08?

A: The productions cannot be declared as of now. But last year we declared, there will be at least 50% growth in topline as well as bottomline.

So, we will continue the same growth story in the next year also due to the pipeline of the projects and we are focusing on expansion also.

Q: You have a pipeline of about nine films, could you tell us what is the roll out looking like?

A: We have a pipeline of many films.

In this year, we have a pipeline of home productions and are planning to release around four-five films this year. We have successfully signed bankable and reputed directors like Sanjay Gadhvi. We are also working with Imtiyaz Ali, Rohit Jugraj and Neeraj Vora. We have signed actors like Sanjay Dutt, Akshay Kumar, Ajay Devgan and Govinda, etc. We are also entering into the Tamil industry in the coming months.

Q6: You have tied up with Studio 18 for four films, when is the roll out of the first film likely?