Mumbai : Puja Entertainment (India) Ltd, promoted by Vashu Bhagnani, the producer of recent Hindi film releases like Biwi No 1 and Tera Jadoo Chal Gayaa is all set to approach the market with a public issue in March this year. This was confirmed by Mr Bhagnani to eFE. Mr Bhagnani said that he was still in the process of finalising the size of his issue. "We should be coming out with the issue in March" he said while adding that this would depend on prevailing market conditions. Mr Bhagnani disclosed that Ask-Raymond James would be the lead managers to the issue. According to Mr Bhagnani, the public issue was to fund the expansion plans of Puja Entertainment.He was unwilling to disclose details at this stage. Industry sources have however indicated that the issue money will be used to expand the manufacturing capacity of his audio cassette company. Mr Bhagnani currently manufactures the outer plastic covering for audio cassettes which is supplied to Tips and a few other music companies. The company has been on the expansion path over the last couple of years. It recently signed a big music contract with Saregama India Ltd. While there was no official confirmation available on the amount, the value of this deal is estimated to be over Rs 25 crore for the next five films to be produced by Puja Entertainment.
The first among these is scheduled for release by the end of this year. Overall, all the five films are expected to be completed and released by the end of 2003. Puja Entertainment has made blockbusters like Coolie No. 1, Hero No. 1, Biwi No. 1, Bade Miyan Chhote Miyan and Tera Jadoo Chal Gaya. Mr Bhagnani also partnered actor Salman Khan to produce Pyaar Kiya To Darna Kya. He is known for his marketing and promotion skills which he used during the release of the ABCL produced Major Saab.
In the case of Tera Jadoo Chal Gaya, he decided to distribute the movie himself for almost the whole of India instead of selling the rights to local distributors.
Copyright © 2001 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
