Opening Credit Entertainment Business in 2008

Indulekha Aravind t 51, Sanjeev Lamba is sur- Ogilvy & Mather. in a film from the very beginning,” prisingly au fait with music Then he took a job as Walt Disney’s he says, “right from pre-production.” A and films. “It helps to have head of marketing for consumer “We get umpteen script submis- two teenage daughters,” he says. “We products in Asia, in Hong Kong. His sions every day,” he says. “My col- share and listen to a great variety of first leap within Disney was to Tokyo, leagues sift through each one. I try to music.” As for films, “I try to watch a and the leap after that took him to read two or three scripts a day. Any movie every night at home, if I am the global head office in the USA. script which interests us is discussed not going out. I watch all kinds — Coordinating with all the Disney at length. We sit down with our cre- Bollywood, regional as well as inter- companies, he worked mainly with ative team and decide how to go national flicks. This has transformed the video games division. about it. It’s important for us to ask into better returns for the company.” This is the point at which he decid- why we should make a particular film. Lamba is CEO of Reliance ed to work in a film studio — because, After a film is finalised, we look at Entertainment, the company that as he says, “most video games are casting, direction, budget, market- released Bodyguard, Singham and film-based. We did movies such as ing, promotion and distribution. First Don 2, three of 2011’s biggest hits. Pirates of the Caribbean.” of all the story needs to work.” Aamir Khan’s next film, Talaash, This led Lamba to his Even when filming is releasing in June, is also from next job at an independent “I try to visit under way, the CEO stays Reliance Entertainment. studio in New York: the the sets of involved. “I try to visit the With centres in Toronto, New Weinstein Company, every movie sets of every movie that we York, London and Los Angeles, the founded in 2005 by Bob and that we are are producing,” he says. “But company makes four or five films a Harvey Weinstein. (It is the producing” I do not interfere with the year in Hindi and some regional lan- distributor for recent titles creativity of the director.” guages. It is now looking at interna- like The Iron Lady, The Artist and My Lamba looks ahead. “In 2013, the tional markets for distribution of Week with Marilyn.) This brought him Indian film industry will celebrate Indian movies. “We have a very good to films when he came home to India. 100 glorious years. With cable, 3G, logistical system. Bodyguard, which “I came back with the intention to broadband, etc., the industry has was released on 3,000 screens, was set up a film company,” he says. “I changed dramatically. But change solely managed by us,” says Lamba. was in talks with Subhash Chandra. causes turbulence. There will be some “We also work as an outsider compa- Zee Entertainment was contemplat- who will emerge as winners, while ny, where we distribute a movie. We ing a foray into films, from being only others will lose." The corporatisation did it with Haunted and Aarakshan a television company. We worked of the film industry, he suggests, has last year.” towards it for over a year, but due to a made distribution and marketing Lamba has not been in the Indian change of plans and Zee’s not aggres- much more advanced. film industry long — he entered the sively pursuing a film unit, it could “Now, a 20-year-old can think of Opening credit entertainment business in 2008. Yet, not be worked out.” pursuing a career in films,” says his career did not begin with film. He joined Reliance Entertainment Lamba. “When I started my career, Reliance Entertainment CEO Sanjeev Lamba did an MBA in marketing and in 2009. Lamba says he has spent Bollywood was not as we see it today. Lamba talks to Shelly Walia about his was placed with Asian Paints. For 10 three years building a team that This fast-growing industry today has company’s hit movie releases and the years in the late 1980s and early 1990s understands film production, distri- a much wider scope, which is opening he worked as an account executive bution, sales and marketing, world- the gates to more creativity and strategy behind them and later as planning director with wide. “We make sure we are involved professionalism.”.

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