MUMBAI: Balaji Telefilms Group chief executive officer Puneet Kinra has quit and will join the film-focused private equity company which will be floated by the promoters of the company, a source in the company revealed on condition of anonymity.

Kinra has been group CEO Balaji Telefilms since October 2008. He had joined the company from PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) where he was working as associate director of its Investment Banking practice.

Prior to joining PwC, Kinra worked in a boutique investment bank focused on Telecom and Media. He has experience in domestic and cross border transactions in Media, Healthcare, Real Estate, Retail, Pharma, Communications, Technology, FMCG and Manufacturing.

MUMBAI: Television production house Balaji Telefilms continues its profit run, improving its preceding quarter performance and turning around from the year-before quarter as its other income jumped on account of sale of discontinued operations.

Balaji Tele finished the fiscal-fourth quarter with a net profit of Rs 15.4 million compared to a loss of Rs 11.5 million a year before.

The company?s other income grew to Rs 90.8 million from Rs 3.9 million. Income from operations, however, trimmed by 35 per cent to Rs 278.4 million on account of reduction in the number of hours of commissioned & sponsored segment and lower realisation on sponsored revenue.

The company brought down its total expenditure by 11 per cent to Rs 385.6 million, from Rs 431.3 million in the previous fiscal of the same quarter.

The company?s income from operations during the quarter was Rs 247.3 million compared to Rs 337.8 million. Revenue contribution from commissioned programming (HSM) was Rs 223.2 million against Rs 271.1 million, while that of sponsored programming was Rs 24.1 million as against Rs 66.7 million.

In the quarter under review, the company has reported an operating loss of Rs 16.4 million against an operating profit of Rs 1.8 million. The company reported a negative Ebitda of Rs 16.4 million in the current quarter from Rs 1.8 million a year ago.

Realisation on programming hours

Realisation per hour from commissioned programming (HSM) increased to Rs 1.86 million against Rs 1.807 million.
The company produces shows like Pavitra Rishtaa, Bade Achee Lagte Ho, Parichay, Kya Hua Tera Vaada, and Gumraah.

Hours of commissioned programmes reduced from 150 hours to 120 hours while hours of sponsored programmes reduced from 190 hours to 126 hours.

Balaji Motion Pictures

As on 31 March, the company?s total investments were at Rs 2.58 billion including Rs 300 million invested in wholly owned subsidiary Balaji Motion Pictures Ltd (BMPL) with as much as Rs 209.962 billion being invested in units of mutual funds & debentures issued by other corporate & Trusts During the quarter, BMPL achieved a turnover of Rs 584.4 million as against Rs 416.9 million during the previous fiscal. In the current financial year, BMPL has reported profit of Rs 88.3 million against Rs 23.2 million for the same quarter a year ago.

The company?s cost increased substantially to Rs 501.9 million compared to Rs 391.1 million in the year-ago period. Ebitda for the quarter was Rs 82.5 million, up from Rs 25.8 million.

Balaji Tele?s FY?12 performance

Balaji Telefilms posted a net profit of Rs 204.41 million for the fiscal ending 31 March as per the consolidated audited results. The company had finished previous fiscal in red with a net loss of Rs 10.80 million.

The company?s net sales in the fiscal reduced by Rs.145.8 million to 1.7657 billion due to the fall in turnover of the Balaji Telefilms by Rs 313.4 million on a standalone basis, which was due to reduction in volume of Hindi Commissioned programmes from 617 hours to 466 hours.

Total expenditure fell by Rs 88.917 million to Rs 1.9378 billion compared to Rs 2.0268 billion in the trailing fiscal. The company?s cost of production/acquisition and telecast fees increased by Rs 230.123 million to end at Rs 1.4670 billion. Staff cost too saw a minor increase at Rs 199.833 million as against Rs 183.652 million in the previous fiscal.

However, the fall in turnover was supported due to the improved performance of BMPL which increased in turnover by Rs 167.6 million, a 40 per cent increase as compared to last year mainly due to the excellent performance of The Dirty Picture.

MUMBAI: Balaji Telefilms? chief executive officer of Television Manuj Agarwal has quit after spending close to two years in the organisation.

The board of directors has approved the resignation of Agarwal who was heading the television business of the group.

Prior to Balaji Telefilms, Agarwal was chief operating officer at Percept D?Mark, the experiential marketing arm of the Percept Group. Agarwal had replaced Nachiket Pantvaidya who quit Balaji in November 2009.

NEW DELHI: The much publicised television premiere of Vidya Balan starrer The Dirty Picture turned out to be a damp squib as the Information and Broadcast ministry directed Sony Entertainment Television to televise the movie post 11 pm.

The ministry contended that the film could be shown on television only late in the night as it came under the category of adult content.

Following a directive by the Lucknow Bench of the Allahabad High Court last week on a petition filed by a city lawyer, the I&B ministry made it clear to Sony that films with any adult content could not be shown at times when children are watching television and reiterated Rule 6(5) of the Cable TV Networks (Regulation) Rules in this connection.

Balaji Telefilms CEO motion pictures Tanuj Garg vented his frustration through micro blogging site Twitter, "It?s unfortunate that even after valid censor certificate being in place, the telecast was held (back). The cuts made to TDP (The Dirty Picture) were done in a manner that would not offend the larger populace, but completely retain the film?s creative integrity. Despite the cuts, forces in Delhi decided to hold the telecast!"

After the Allahabad High Court order, the producers had obtained an order from the Bombay High Court after agreeing to cuts and getting the film re-certified by the Central Board for Film Certification (which is understood to have earlier advised Sony to telecast the film only late in the night).

The film had been certified and released last year with an Adults Only certificate.

Both filmmaker Karan Johar and Tusshar Kapoor have tweeted in similar fashion, pointing out that the film was considered suitable for national awards.

Accordingly, Sony resorted to other programming at 12 noon and at 8 pm by running a scroll which read, "For unavoidable reasons, we regret to inform that the film The Dirty Picture will not be telecast today. Any inconvenience caused is deeply regretted."

While the morning slot was filed with ?Crime Patrol?, the evening slot had the telecast of the film ?3 Idiots?, screened without any commercial breaks.

The film, which has won Vidya Balan the National and several other awards for best actress, is based on the life of sensuous South Indian actress Silk Smitha and has been directed by Milan Luthria for Balaji Telefilms. The film also featured Naseeruddin Shah, Tusshar Kapoor and Emraan Hashmi.

The film, which collected Rs 790 million at the box office, was produced reportedly at a cost of Rs 320 million. The film has won three national awards.

MUMBAI: Seeking to tap a growing demand for trained personnel in India?s vast entertainment industry besides meeting its own needs, Balaji Telefilms is soon going to launch a chain of academies under the banner of Institute of Creative Excellence (ICE) that will train students aspiring for a career in TV and film entertainment industries.

The new academies are likely to come up in Delhi, Kolkata and Hyderabad besides Mumbai where the ICE?s pilot project was launched last year. The academies will offer courses in acting, direction, editing and scriptwriting, sound recording, cinematography and production among others, divulged ICE CEO Anurag Gupta.

The company will employ graduates to work on its content; it will also help meet the needs of the rest of India?s vast entertainment industry. The fees of the academies will range between Rs 300,000 to Rs 600,000 per semester.

Gupta, however, refused to divulge on the kind of investments that will go into the setting up of the academies as a matter of his company?s policy.

ICE offers three-six-month certificate programmes.