Screen saver: Film fund makes debut

MUMBAI: Vistaar Religare Film Fund, a first of its kind venture fund in India that would fund films, has received approval from the market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) for its Rs 200-crore fund. The fund, a five-year close-ended one with the option of extending it for another two years, already has eight projects lined up aggregating a outlay of nearly Rs 80 crore, officials associated with the fund said. Of these eight projects, one involves Dipa Mehta directing Hollywood actor Demi Moore.

Religare Enterprises, a Ranbaxy promoter group company, has joined hands with Vistaar Entertainment, a Mumbai-based film production house, for this film fund. It allows a single minimum investment of Rs 2 crore and is targeting high networth individuals to invest in the fund. Media personalities like R Balakrishnan (of Cheeni Kum fame), adfilmmaker Johny Pinto, film critic Subhash K Jha and actor-director Bhavna Talwar, are some of the advisors to the fund.

���The fund would invest in film projects in which we can get at least 50% of the equity . We won���t go for an ownership less than that,������ said Sheetal Talwar, the chairman & MD of Vistaar Religare Capital Advisors, the advisor to the venture fund. ���And we would fund projects around the world wherever we find the opportunity to make money for our investors,������ Talwar said.

Usually in about 18 months from the release of a film, it recovers all the money spent on making it. At present, there are at least 30 types of rights related to a film that could be sold. ���The fund would look at a hurdle rate of 20% for its investors,������ said Sunil Godhwani , CEO & MD, Religare Enterprises. In VC parlance, the hurdle rate is the rate of return on an investment beyond which the advisors to a fund get a share of the returns.

As of now, at least three of the eight planned projects are set to release by December . One of its projects, Awasthi, is being shot. The film has Pankaj Kapoor in the lead with Bhavna Talwar directing.