‘In 2-3 years of consolidation, the minnows will be out of business’

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: No one perhaps understands the concept of ‘movies with a bucket of lip-smacking popcorn’ better than this Rs 900-crore-plus media conglomerate. Pyramid Saimira with its eight businesses is one of the fastest growing media companies in India. In an exclusive interview, Pyramid Saimira MD S Saminathan tells FE’s Pritha Mitra Dasgupta about his new forays in areas as diverse as radio, food & beverage and private music. At present, the company is into film production, distribution and exhibition. It is also involved in TV content production, advertisement and F&B. Excerpts:

Which business garners the maximum revenue and what is the percentage?

As a group, we fetch around 50% from our exhibition business. F&B contributes around 25%, distribution adds around 20% and the rest, 5%.

Five years down the line, which business do you think will become the focus of Pyramid Saimira?

In five years, we will have 33% in film business, 33% in F&B business and 33% in marketing, advertising and other businesses.

How much have you invested in the F&B business? What percentage of revenue is generated through this?

There is a saying that cinema brings the crowds and popcorn makes money. At Pyramid, we have created three distinct concepts regarding our F&B business. First, we will be creating canteens at our theatres and we consider it as a captive business. It has the potential to get a topline of say 20-25% of box office with good returns. Secondly, we are looking at food courts in our theatres. Here, we will have full-fledged food courts which will target both captive as well as the general audience. These will use the ‘locational’ advantage of theatres as well as captive footfall. Thirdly, we are looking at building high-street food courts or restaurants. For Pyramid Saimira, the food business will not just be an adjunct to cinema. For us, it will be a mainstream business.

Do you have any plans of entering into content production for the animation and gaming business?

Yes. This is the reason why we have acquired Aurona, which is a game developer from the UK. We want to use its infrastructure of post-production and create animation content. We will use its animated movie characters for the gaming business, as well. Further, gaming is an independent business. We will also plan to get into console gaming given our wide geographical presence and customer base.

What kind of services do you provide in advertising? Who are your clients?

We have taken over Dimples Cine, which is one of India’s largest cine advertisement companies. We are scaling up that company into a holistic media company.

A number of players in the entertainment business have forayed into FM radio. Do you have similar plans?

We run three radio stations in the US. We will be starting shortly in Malaysia and, possibly, in India. In India, radio is so far an unprofitable proposition but, since we have content and is also building our music label, foraying into radio will be a logical extension for us.

A number of corporate houses are entering the media business. Players like Reliance and the Mahindras are already in the news. Do you, therefore, feel that the pie is getting smaller and smaller?

The entertainment business is getting consolidated and in the next 2-3 years, all small-time players will be out of business. When big corporates come, they also bring capital, expertise and more focus on expansion, and the industry will expand because of all new structured players’ entry. But media and entertainment will become the big boys of the game and 4-5 players may survive while sharing this Rs 1-lakh crore business among them.

What is the biggest challenge for the entertainment industry?

The biggest challenge is in the mindset of players and the government and the media. They are unnecessarily glamourising this business. Pyramid is trying its best to de-glamourise films in southern India. That’s because glamour negates teamwork and it tends to focus on frivolous issues, which are generally more individualistic.

Is Pyramid Saimira going in for a second IPO?