Netflix’s Scoop was a one-off case, Baweja Studios IPO tops Harman Baweja's priorities

Harman Baweja, the actor who started his career close to two decades back, may not have tasted much success in acting but found his calling in the corporate world with Baweja Studios, the firm which is geared up to go public on January 29.

After years of break from acting, Baweja made a comeback with a web series titled Scoop on Netflix in which the audience that had written him off said he had redeemed himself.

For Baweja, however, acting is no longer the priority and all his focus is now on the public issue and scaling up of Baweja Studios. "Scoop was a one-off case. After the success of Scoop, I haven't really locked on anything. I was working very closely with Hansal (Mehta, who is the director of Scoop) on a project. He convinced me to do the part in the web series. Hansal was like, 'do this for your father'. But I am more focused on the company. I have worked for several years to come here (at this stage). The company has been the priority and will continue to be," Baweja, MD of Baweja Studios, told Moneycontrol.

Producing films for theatres since 1992, Baweja Studios has expanded its operations to digital content and animation in the last couple of years.

"We have diversified our verticals. We made theatrical films and then in the past few years we diversified into digital - web series and direct-to-digital films. We are also strongly present in animation which is an under-exposed vertical. While 75 percent of revenue contribution to overall business is from films and remaining 25 percent from animation, we plan to increase the latter's revenue share. There is more space to grow in these segments," the MD said.

The company is working on a large animation super hero project and a live animation project is also in the pipeline. "We have multiple web series lined up for this year. We are pushing hard on those two verticals. However, in the near future, films will continue to have larger share of pie," he said.

The studio has to its name titles like web series Bhaukaal, films including Diljale, Dilwale, among others and animated content such as Chaar Sahibzaade and Super V, a title for which the company has partnered with cricketer Virat Kohli.

"We have seven productions lined up in this year across films, series and animation content. We have finished two shows. We have another production pipeline for titles that will go on floor this year. There are six projects in the pre-production stage," he added.

The company plans to use the proceeds from the IPO for content development.

"The large part of the capital will be used to build out these projects. There is a substantial repository of scripts, book rights, life rights, remake rights, which are all at different stages of development."

Baweja said that the company which was started by his parents has been in the filmmaking world for over 20 years. "It was in the last two-three years that we expanded. We have grown our team, management has changed. We are ready to take this to a new level. The IPO was always on the back of our minds."

Due to the Covid-19 impact, the company had seen a significant dip in net profit to Rs 2.8 crore in FY22 from Rs 7.64 crore in FY21. In the last financial year, the company exceeded pre-Covid level and recorded net profit of Rs 7.96 crore.

Its revenue grew from Rs 19.4 crore in FY22 to Rs 41 crore and Rs 74 crore in the last two financial years.