Rakesh Jhunjhunwala, the billionaire investor known for identifying good companies at start-up stages, has taken up a 30 per cent plus stake in Pune-based Krayon Pictures, co-founded by Kishor Patil, who is also CEO and managing director of KPIT Cummins Infosystems.
Krayon Pictures aims at emerging as India’s answer to Walt Disney’s Pixar Animation studios.
Jhunjhunwala, termed as India’s Warren Buffet by the Forbes magazine, was also an early investor in KPIT Cummins Infosystems, a Pune-based niche IT firm that is a specialist in the auto sector.
“Myself, family and associates hold around 50 per cent of the company while a significant portion is held by other co-founders and is reserved for stock options too. KPIT was Jhunjhunwala’s first unlisted investment and one, which he kept for 10 years. We have had a close interaction since and he, too, has acquired a stake in this venture,” Patil told Financial Chronicle. When contacted, Jhunjhunwala said he was busy and would speak later.
Krayon is aiming to differentiate itself from other animation studios in India, such as Maya and Tata Elxsi’s Visual Computing Labs, by creating original content for a global audience. This would be its own intellectual property that would allow it to share in the profits, which can often be disproportionate to the cost of producing a film.
In contrast, most other animation studios in India rely on outsourced assignments and also dabble in creating their own content as producers. “We want to focus on telling Indian and Asian stories, but creating content tailored for a global audience. We expect that it will take an investment of $40-50 million over a decade or so for us to be able to compete with the likes of Pixar,” Patil said.
Jhunjhunwala’s knack for identifying investment gems in the unlisted space is well known. In the ongoing public issue of A2Z Maintenance & Engineering Services, the big bull, as he is referred, will make 30-fold profit on his investments. He bought a stake in the company sometime in 2006 at Rs 14 a share. The IPO price band is Rs 400-410 apiece. Jhunjhunwala’s private equity investments are reported to be about Rs 300 crore. Some of his PE investments include Nandan Biomatrix, Hungama Mobile, JBCN Management Consulting and Care Hospitals.
Krayon’s hopes that it’s first movie Delhi Safari will firmly set itself on the path of being a leader in 3D animated content production in India. The film directed by Nikhil Advani and co-produced with People Tree Films has the voices of Urrmila Matondkar, Akshay Khanna, Boman Irani, Govinda and Prem Chopra and has music composed by Shankar Ehsaan Loy.
Financial Chronicle had on June 10, 2009, reported that this film was being produced at a cost of Rs 25 crore. This paper had reported Krayon’s plans to sell the satellite rights in China, Philippines, Korea and Taiwan.
“We expect that this film, which has a social message about protection of jungles and animals but told in an entertaining way, will be translated in about 14 languages across the world. In fact, this will be a stereoscopic movie like Avatar,” Patil said.
Source: My Digital FC