The motion pictures division of Nimbus Communications Ltd, has within the space of a few months of launch gone into overdrive. Spurred on by the vacant space for a motion picture production house that is script backed, systems driven, research based, has sound production management processes in place, great access to talent, a proven track record in entertainment product marketing and can leverage cross media and cross product platform strengths; Nimbus has rapidly expanded its portfolio of motion picture projects.

Following the portfolio approach tode-risk its motion picture business and drawing upon its rich experience in Hindi and regional language television, Nimbus has started producing a basket of motion pictures which include Hindi blockbusters, regional language multi starrers, middle of the road mid size noveau cinema and international co-productions in English, under the stewardship of its COO Akash Khurana, himself an award winning actor and script writer (apart from being an engineering graduate, an MBA from XLRI, a former TELCO executive and a Doctorate from TISS ).

Its first release in December 2001, the Marathi film 'Ek Hoti Vaadi' has gone onto not only build audiences across Maharashtra, it has won 6 awards at the recently concluded 'Zee Alpha Awards', including Best Film, Best Actor and Best Actress. The film continues to attract crowds and is expected to generate a sales to production cost ratio of 200%. Meanwhile, the regional television strength of Nimbus has increased further with its Marathi daily soap Indradhanush on Alpha Marathi concluding a long and successful run at No 1 spot in the TRPs across all Marathi channels. Based on this success a number of other regional projects are in the pipeline.

Nimbus has commenced filming of the Rs 15 crore budget Hindi blockbuster 'Sarhad Paar' starring Sanjay Dutt, Tabu, Mahima Choudhary, Chandrachur Singh, Rahul Dev and others. Raman Kumar directs the venture based on a screenplay by the Filmfare award winning duo Robin Bhatt and Akash Khurana. Sarhad Paar is targeted to complete by end 2002 and release immediately thereafter.

Nimbus has signed Aziz Mirza to direct its next Hindi film and the project is in final stages of script development, and is expected to commence filming mid 2002. Enthused by its continuing success in South Indian language television, Suresh Krisnna has been signed to direct a Tamil/Telugu multi starrer for Nimbus also expected to commence filming mid 2002. 2 international English language co-productions are at an advanced stage of finalisation with both being slated to
commence production in the last quarter of 2002.


Says Akash Khurana : 'The business of motion pictures is the business of harnessing creativity and managing people to deliver quality products on time and within budget. At Nimbus we are using a process driven approach to achieve that'.

In fiscal 2002-2003 Nimbus is targeting sales from its Motion Picture division of Rs 30 crores, with gross profit contribution of Rs 9 crores.

Interestingly, Nimbus is the only Indian company (and possibly in the world) that has production capability and rights ownership in the 2 biggest passions of the Indian audiences : Cricket and Movies. With its dominant position in the cricket market, growing even further, Nimbus is targeting by end 2002 to be an equally serious player in the motion picture business.

Says Harish Thawani, CMD Nimbus: 'Nimbus' vision is to deliver entertainment products with strong Indian interest but large international market potential, and movies and cricket represent the largest opportunities in line with our vision'