Popular film stars floating companies and raising money from public issuesseems to have become a fad these days. How is Balaji Telefilms differentfrom others?

Balaji Telefilms has worked all these years to create strong content andinfrastructure. We are only a content provider. We have never touched stars,mythology serials, news-based programmes or countdown shows. Since I have afilm industry background, I know that the primary reason for things goinghaywire in films is because they are overdependent on financers, stars anddistributors. But I strongly believe that content in not a king but anemperor. Television makes stars, stars don't make television. Viewers areloyal only to a programme, they have no loyalty to a star or a televisionchannel.

What prompted you to go into television software, specially soap operas,instead of films?
It's an interesting story. Nearly seven years ago, a non-resident Indianfriend, Ketan Somaya bought television channel TV Asia in London fromAmitabh Bachchan. Ketan called me and said let us float a joint-venturesoftware company because he needed programmes for his channel. Soon afterthat, Subhash Chandra of Zee announced his decision to start a televisionchannel in London.

Since Zee already had enough software, we knew TV Asia would face toughcompetition. Ketan decided to sell the channel to TV Asia and told me thathe was no longer interested in the software joint-venture. My daughter Ektathen played an instrumental role in taking a decision to go ahead with theplans and make programmes for other channels. When I look back, I am amazedat the business acumen of Ekta. She is my head, literally. (His daughterquickly interjects to say that her father is the Big Boss).

The big question today is: how long will so many Hindi and regionalchannels survive? What does the future hold for companies such asyours?
Television channels have only one way to go - grow and grow - for the simplereason that the entertainment industry in India is still in a nascent stage.

For every channel which will close down, there will be others ready to movein. At Balaji Films, we have spread our risks very well. Today we have 12daily soap operas which are telecast on more than seven TV channels whichinclude established names like Sun, Star, Sony, DD-I, DD-II and Gemini. Wedo 90 hours of shooting a day producing 30 hours of software a week. Twoyears ago, we used to do 250 hours of software in an year which rose to 650hours last year despite money constraints. This year, we have done nearly600 hours in the first five months.

How do you propose to use the public issue money?
The money will go mainly in creating infrastructure. The way the company isgrowing, we cannot manage with internal accruals alone. The IPO money willbe used for increasing our in-house shooting locations, equipments etc. Thisbackward integration will not only save shooting time but also improve theprofitability immensely.