The Hindu Business Line : Ultra Group eyes Rs 20 cr from DVD films segment

The Rs 40-crore entertainment company Ultra Group hopes to add Rs 15-20 crore to its turnover in 2006-2007 from its DVD films segment. Mr Sushilkumar Agarwal, Managing Director, Ultra Group, said the company plans to launch as many as 50 films in Hindi and other vernacular languages this year, which would be directly launched on DVDs.

The company recently launched its maiden DVD film Chor Mandali, which according to Mr Agarwal got a good response especially, from the northern markets. "We launched 30,000 VCDs and 5,000 DVDs and have already got repeat orders."

He said he expects this segment to grow especially in the regional markets, which don't have too many mainstream releases. "If you take Marathi films, for instance, there are hardly 20-30 releases per year. Keeping this in mind, we plan to release five Marathi films and also one film each in Bhojpuri and Gujarati by April this year on this platform. We are also planning films in Punjabi, Bengali and Oriya."

The company is also planning to kick off a series of print campaigns and on ground marketing activities to promote the segment.

As far as distribution is concerned, Mr Agarwal said these films would be available in almost 3,000 outlets across the country, through its existing distribution network. "To promote this category we have priced our language film DVDs at just Rs 100. I firmly believe that if we are able to win the confidence of the viewers through good content, it will definitely take off. In the international markets, especially in Hollywood, almost 30,000 films are made on this media."

The company is also all set to expand its retail venture of branded gift items, Ultra Mini Malls (500 sq.ft stores) and Ultra Galleries (800-1000 sq.ft stores), to as many as 35 cities this year. Also on the cards is foray into greeting cards and stationeries.

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