Sun TV pumps in Rs 2 bn towards movies in FY'09

MUMBAI: Sun TV Network Ltd. has pumped in Rs 2 billion towards movies, upping its investments at a time when many players are crowding the market in the southern region. Movie acquisition for telecast rights makes up the bulk of the investments for Sun TV Network which runs a clutch of highly successful channels in Tamil, Telugu, Kannada and Malayalam languages. "We have invested Rs 2 billion towards movies in FY'09. We have a library of 8500 films," says a source in the company. On the film production front, Sun TV has an investment plan of Rs 700-800 million for 10-12 movies a year. "We have a pipeline plan and the strategy is to produce small and medium budget movies," adds the source.
Sun grossed a revenue of Rs 280 million from the few movies that it released last fiscal. "We had a 15-20 per cent RoI (return on investments) from the movies that we released in the fiscal," says the source.  Sun is producing Endhiran on a budget of Rs 700 million. "The movie will come up by the end of this year or erly next year," says the source. Sun TV, which has Rs 3.30 billion of cash on its books, has a capex requirement of between Rs 750 million and Rs 1 billion in FY'10.