Mukta Arts Ltd

Mukta Arts Ltd., headed by Subhash Ghai, a well known Hindi film personality is one of the complete entertainment company with presence in Film Production, Television Content production, Film Distribution and Equipment Hiring for Film Making. It is the first Hindi film production company to tap the capital markets. Established on September 7, 1982, it has several hits to its credit with a strong backing of Subhash Ghai, its chairman. The company come out with a maiden Rs 100 cr public issue in Jul.'2000. Out of which Rs 75 cr was the book built portion. The allotment finalised in the last week of July resulted in high net worth individuals getting 50% of the book-built portion(Rs 75 crore). It has made its debut on the BSE at a premium of about 33% to its offer price of Rs 165 for a Rs 5 paid-up share. The scrip got listed at Rs 220 on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE). Presently the company is the generation and distribution of contents forthe entertainment industry. It has to its credit a long list of commercial successful Hindi films. These films have been extensively appreciated bythe audience both in India and overseas. Mukta Arts is also engaged in the business of hiring out cinematic equipment and owns a mordern studio'AUDEUS' which is equipped with sophisticated and state-of-the-artequipment for world class production and post production operations. It has also forayed into the distribution business. The company plans to enter the television software arena with a library of around 15 to 20 films. It will take the company another year or so to develop this library. The company is also weighing the options to market these serials, etc. to various channels, as the issues of control of rights, etc. have to be looked into before venturing. Further the company has set up a Story Development Workshops, the first of its kind for the Hindi Cinema industry. This will help in creating a bank of stories and scripts for content creation which can be used both for the film as well as television medium. The Company marked its entry into Distribution of cinema in digital format through a joint venture with Adlabs Films Ltd under the name and style of Mukta Adlabs Digital Exhibition Pvt. Ltd. during 2004. It undertook a turnkey project for a city specific television channel INTV in Dubai. The Company carried out all the pre-launch activities and launched the channel within a period of 4 months. The Company thereby established its strength in television programming and production and providing consultancy services in television in 2005. Operations of Mukta Adlabs Digital Exhibition Pvt. Ltd. were consolidated during the year. The new trend Panasonic projector was introduced in the market during 2005. The development work of building a commercial complex at the Audeus, prime location began in May 2006. The Company increased its bandwidth is distribution and exhibition. During the year 2006, it distributed and/or exhibited over 25 films in part territories. These included 'Paheli', 'Harry Potter', 'Family', 'Waqf, 'Garam Masala', 'Iqbal', 'Ek Ajnabi', 'Barsaat', 'Taj Mahal' and others. Mukta Movies Distributors (MMD) was made a key player in the distribution business in the major territories of Punjab and Delhi-UP. The Company's major achievements was launching the Whistling Woods International institute on July 18th 2006. It expanded their exhibition business and took on additional theatres for programming including PVR theatres in Mumbai during 2007. In 2008, the Company acquired 25047 shares of Rs. 10/- each of Red Carpet Films Limited at Andheri, New Link Road, Mumbai, a company which had tied up a Funding and Distribution deal with Eros Multimedia Pvt, Ltd. The second year students of the Manipal University moved into Whistling Woods International (WWI) in July 2009. The Company in year 2009 had acquired 51% controlling stake in Coruscant Tec Private Limited of entering into mobile VAS space as the Company accessed to a large library of audio and video content. In 2010, it further acquired balance 49% shares of Coruscant Tec Private Limited, through which the Company held 100% shares of the said Company making it a fully owned subsidiary company. The first of the Mukta Cinemas was commissioned and made operational in July 2011. In April 2013, the Company signed a Joint Venture agreement with VN Films Pvt Ltd, a subsidiary of UFO Moviez India Ltd, to move all its 450 plus screens under programming arrangements into a new company, Mukta V N Films Limited and it was made a subsidiary of the Company effective on June, 2013. The Company's new joint venture with UFO, Mukta VN Films Limited started operations from April 2014. It opened cinemas at Sangli and Hyderabad taking the total number of screens operational to 24 in 2014. During 2014-15, the Company released two of its own productions, Hindi Feature film Kaanchi and Punjabi feature fi lm Double Di Trouble. The Programming service business from April 2014, was carried over by subsidiary, Mukta VN Films Limited, which is jointly held by the Company along with VN Films Private Limited, a subsidiary of UFO Moviez. The Company launched a digital company Connect One and produced a number of short fi lms specifi cally for the internet medium to good response during the year 2016. It opened 4 new locations in India in the centers of Dehradun, Panvel, Aurangabad and two in Mumbai in 2017. In 2017, the Company transferred its Cinema Exhibition Division to its wholly owned subsidiary, Mukta A2 Cinemas Limited, separate legal entity, through Slump Sale. It completed the production of Marathi film, Vijeta' in 2020-21. The Company completed its production of the film '36 Farm house' which was released on Zee OTT Platform in 2021-22. In 2023, it started production of the daily soap 'Jaanaki' which shall be telecast on Doordarshan. Production of the Marathi feature film Tu Mi Ani Amaira', shot in London, was completed and ready for release. Read More