THE BIG MEN BEHIND ANIL AMBANI

IIPM : EXECUTIVE EDUCATION

Mahesh Ramanathan: The two most high-profile men in the BIG gang are Mahesh Ramanathan (COO, Big Motion Pictures) and Tarun Katial, for now, CEO of Big FM, but if our sources in BIG are to be believed, then the new head of BIG Broadcast – Ambani’s to-be-launched bouquet of TV channels. But first, about the cinema guy. Mahesh Ramanathan, the suave ex-COO of Percept Picture Company came on board last year to head Big Motion Pictures, the backbone of ADA’s media & entertainment jamboree. An IIM-A graduate, Ramanathan may look a little out-of-place in his pin-striped blue shirt and staid black trousers (as he was dressed when we met) in the otherwise creatively attired film industry, but hear him speak and you see the grit behind this otherwise mild-mannered honcho. “Motion Pictures is the key driver for content in Big Entertainment. Be it our radio, TV, music, home videos or online presence, film entertainment content is a must have,” he explains. So Ramanathan is expectedly pulling all stops to deliver on his promise to ADA and Sawhney – of delivering not only Hindi, but a pan-Indian spectrum of high quality films with versatile actors. In the pipeline for now are over 70 movies across languages. To enable more strategic fits with Ambani’s media empire, in times to come “Big Motion Pictures will also get into content and platform specific films, noticeably tele-films, DVD-films and TV films,” says Ramanathan. In fact, ADA’s dream of having a strong foot in Hollywood has also taken a major leap recently - BIG has signed a $1.5 billion deal with Steven Speilberg’s DreamWorks SKG to finance at least 32 movies over a six year period. Earlier in May, ADA had entered into alliances with production houses of stalwarts like Nicolas Cage, Jim Carrey, George Clooney, Tom Hanks, Brad Pitt and more, to co-produce Hollywood movies. Quiz Ramanathan about ADA’s aggressiveness in Hollywood and he says, “Hollywood is the largest segment in the global entertainment industry. On the contrary Indian movies make for just 2% of global pie.” Clearly, the strategy is not misplaced!

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Source : IIPM Editorial, 2008

An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri and Arindam chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

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