Business Standard - Disney in India, interview with managing director of World Disney Co. in India
Business Standard - Disney in India
Rajat Jain is the managing director of World Disney Company (India) Pvt Ltd. According to an interview with the Business Standard Mr. Jain has big plans to build the Disney brand in India. The acquisition of Hungama TV and a strategic stake in UTV is only the beginning. Here are some excerpts from the interview:
How soon shall we see a Bollywood film made by Disney?
It’s a matter of time but not in the too distant future. Our intention is to make Disney-branded clean family movies for the entertainment of the local Indian market. But we have to first make sure that it works for the Indian audience, then this will go to the Indian audience around the world. If we make two to three movies in the next three or four years, I think it is a good beginning. We have recently hired P S Shyam, the executive director for Rakesh Mehra’s Rang de Basanti. He is head of studio production in India and currently looking at scripts, ideas.
India is a long-term strategic priority for the Walt Disney company. We are into other businesses such as merchandising, licensing, film making and publishing. Our objective is to build the Disney brand and characters as opposed to, say, four acquisitions or three buy-outs. If in that space, something is relevant and making sense like Hungama did, then we will look into it.
Over the past two years, this business has been growing at a significant rate — doubling or tripling. We started on a small base though. The global business is about $32 billion. Our vision is to become the leader in the business of kids and family entertainment. Disney is among the world’s top brands and that is the position it should eventually attain in India. That can take two years, five years or 10 years.
Right now television accounts for about 80-90 per cent of our business in India. It is not just a business but an engine to drive the other businesses. In the business cycle, TV will obviously start with 95 per cent and over a period of time move to 50 per cent.
No, I am not excluding theme parks but I am not including them either. There is no such plan at this point in time in India.
We have about 55-60 licencees in India, besides retail relationships with Pantaloon, Shoppers’ Stop, Landmark, Crossword, Lifestyle and so on, where you will see a Disney corner. With the TV impact coming in, we have 24- hour advertising and it serves to bring your consumer closer to your character. Basically we will have to ride on the organised retail boom. Traditionally, around the world retail has been the biggest driver of Disney kind of consumer products.
Disney is, perhaps, amongst the second or third biggest Hollywood studios in terms of making films. We will bring all the Disney movies that are released in Hollywood into India in English and other local languages. If we want to make a Bollywood movie, UTV automatically becomes a potential partner. The UTV model is similar to what we have built for the Walt Disney company globally.
