MUMBAI: Tuesday 30 April 2013 8 am. Just another day at the Balaji Telefilms head office opposite Fun Cinemas in the Andheri West suburb of Mumbai. Normally, scores of aspirants from all over India come to its gates everyday and leave their photographs, their concepts, in the hope that the Queen of Indian television - slowly becoming the queen of Indian cinema as well - will give them that elusive break.

Which she has done over the past decade and build many an acting aspirant?s, writer?s and director?s career. At least 200 young TV professionals buzzing with ideas go up the six story building, park themselves in their respective desks and plan the next big spike for the television shows Balaji delivers to TV channels every day.

But this morning was a little different. Posses of income tax officials - from the search and seizure department - reportedly stormed the Balaji head office, Krishna Bungalow in Juhu (where Ekta, Jetendra Kapoor and Shobha Kapoor reside) and brother Tusshar?s home, apart from four other locations. Along with the Kapoors? residences and the Balaji offices residences of other board of directors were searched.

A press briefing expected from the production house during the day, but no official word or address to the press was made. All the locations in which searches were in progress were like fortresses with no one being allowed entry. And those who did get access had to hand over their phones.

Ekta Kapoor and Balaji Telefilms have come even more into the limelight after she successfully launched her film banner Alt Entertainment and Balaji Films. With her slew of successful movies in her pocket (The Dirty Picture, Ek Thi Dayaan, Love Sex Aur Dokha, Ragini MMS), she was readying to release Shootout at Wadala on 3 May which is expected to do well at the box office.

Reports are that the IT department believes it should have been paid more money as tax by Balaji than it did. Details were not available at the time of writing.

"This could well be a case of the well-entrenched players in the Hindi film industry seeing Balaji Telefilms as a competitor who could threaten their fiefdom," says a veteran film industry critic. "It?s like this: every time someone makes a dent in the entertainment industry either rivals or the government intervene to make life difficult for him or her. The current IT search may well be in that space. Only time will tell us what it was all about."

The shares opened at Rs 46.30 and the closing price was Rs 45.85.

Trading volume was 181,714 at the time of closing.

MUMBAI: Colors is all set to launch a new fiction show titled ?Gurbani? (which signifies ?spiritual prayer in Sikh religion) on 18 March.

The show will be replacing Balaji Telefilms? Parichay - Nayee Zindagi Ke Sapno Ka, which is going off-air on 15 March.

?Gurbani? is centered on the desertion of brides by NRI grooms that is prevalent in various regions of Punjab. It revolves around a young and spirited girl from Punjab with dreams in her eyes of an NRI wedding and a happy life thereafter. The show will highlight the social problem where the female protagonist will be left by her NRI husband in India.

?Gurbani? will compete with Sony Entertainment Network?s ?Bade Achhe Lagte Hain?, Zee TV?s ?Punarvivaha? and Star Plus? ?Veera? at the weekday prime-time 10.30 pm slot.

?Gurbani? will be jointly produced by writer-turned-producer Damini Shetty?s Mystic Productions and Colosceum Productions.

MUMBAI: Life OK is launching one-of-its-kind series to promote the soon-to-release Bollywood thriller film ?Ek Thi Dayan?.

Titled ?Ek Thhi Naayka?, the series boasts of industry-first marketing initiative that has been exclusively created to promote a feature film.

Starting 9 March, the show will air every Saturday and Sunday at 11 pm.

The show experiments with the concept of film and TV integration through an eight-week marketing campaign to promote the upcoming movie, ?Ek Thi Dayan.? The show is a folklore which will bring together some of the biggest television actors together -- Smriti Irani, Sakshi Tanwar, Aamna Shariff, Shweta Tiwari, Mouli Ganguly, Ankita Lokhande, Kritika Kamra and Pooja Gor will be seen in their regional avatar, with a different story every week. Each episode promises to deliver content and showcases each ?Naayka?s? struggle against evils.

The series will be produced by Ekta Kapoor?s Balaji Telefilms. Balaji is also co-producing the Emraan Hashmi movie along with Vishal Bhardwaj?s VB Pictures. The movie is set to release on 18 April.

Life OK GM Ajit Thakur feels that it?s a happy marriage between Indian television and Bollywood. "The concept is a big leap forward on television. It is a collaboration of content between Bollywood and TV and a win-win deal for both of us. While the movie is getting a good promotion through this series, we are getting good content and we know there is relevant audience for the show. Ekta had many stories in her mind, while she is presenting one on the silver screen; she gave us the opportunity to telecast other eight. The show is a thriller, folklore and the very title has a message that good always wins."

While the episodes are expensive to produce, the channel and Balaji Telefilms are sharing the cost since it?s a promotional series for the Balaji movie.

Meanwhile, the channel will leave no stones unturned in promoting the show. The main activity is PR that the channel is doing around the show in various parts of the country. The channel will also be promoting the show aggressively on the social media, wherein it will be interaction with its audiences.

Kapoor said, "This is creative marketing at its best: A first-of-its-kind promotion for an upcoming movie, resulting in a win-win situation for both the movie and the channel. Also, none of the horror is same as the film so there will be something new to watch every week."

MUMBAI: Balaji Telefilms Limited?s (BTL) net profit for the fiscal third quarter has jumped to Rs 49.4 million from Rs 11.23 million in the third quarter of previous fiscal as expenses remained under control.

The company?s net sales for the quarter grew to Rs 324.8 million from Rs 311 million in the corresponding quarter.

Expenditure decreased to Rs 334.1 million from Rs 370.7 million as staff cost saw a fall to Rs 18.32 million from Rs 36.34 million. Cost of production saw a minor increase to Rs 254 million from Rs 250.7 million.

In the quarter under review, the company posted a positive Ebitda of Rs 18.47 million compared to an Ebitda loss of Rs 18.8 million in the previous fiscal.

Balaji said it has realised revenues only from commissioned programming amounting to Rs 318.1 million against Rs 239.5 million a year ago.

There was no revenue from the sponsored segment during the quarter as the company has completely exited from this segment while partial revenues from the Sponsored programming was at Rs 30.8 million in the previous fiscal.

Hours of Hindi commissioned programmes stood at 146 compared to 120 in the trailing fiscal.

Balaji said that the share of commissioned programming in revenues during the quarter has improved both in terms of volume and realisation.

Balaji Motion Pictures Limited, the motion pictures subsidiary of BTL, posted a net profit of Rs 53 million on revenues of Rs 132.5 million. The expenses for the quarter stood at Rs 74.69 million.

Significant revenues came from the sale of satellite rights of ?Kya Super Kool Hain Hum? and ?Shootout at Lokhandwala.

Additionally, in line with the company?s strategic focus on de-risking its financials and limiting exposure to the volatility of the environment, it has already committed a sale of rights for music, overseas and home video for five of its movies to be released in 2013 though the paperwork is yet to be formalised.

BMPL said it is also in the process of entering into agreements to license the satellite rights of three of its upcoming films.

On a consolidated basis, Balaji increased its net profit to Rs 102.4 million compared to Rs 33.8 million in the preceding fiscal.

However, net sales declined to Rs 457.3 million from Rs 658.2 million while expenses stood at Rs 408.8 million compared to Rs 694.8 million.

MUMBAI: After getting to be a master at producing television shows and films, Ekta Kapoor is going back to studying. She has enrolled for a business development course at the Harvard University.

On 3 May next year, the head honcho of Balaji Telefilms will fly to the US to kick-start the course. It is said that the idea originated in her mind sometime ago that has finally taken shape now.

Talking about her study programme, Kapoor said that it?s a three-year degree course where she will have to be at the University for one month every year for three years. She has also wished that her company attains the best possible growth and for that, she wants to take her knowledge to the next level by going to Harvard, one of the finest institutions in the world.

Sources reveal that the course will require Kapoor to devote at least nine to ten hours every day during her stay at the university. When asked about who will look after her company during her absence, she referred to her parents.

MUMBAI: The Times Television Network (TTN) has appointed Rohit Kishore Chopra to the post of head legal at Times Television Network and Prime Connect. He will be based out of Mumbai and be responsible for all legal and regulatory affairs of TTN and Prime Connect as well as support the team on Box TV.

The existing legal teams at TTN and Prime Connect will report into Chopra who in turn will report into Avinash Kaul.

ET Now, Times Now and Zoom chief executive officer Avinash Kaul said, "We are delighted to have Rohit on board. Given his significant experience in the broadcast space, Rohit will play a pivotal role in directing the legal and regulatory aspects of TTN?s business."

Chopra comes to TTN from Viacom18 Media where he was head corporate legal affairs. He has worked at Balaji Telefilms Limited, Reliance Big Broadcasting and ESPN Star Sports in the past.

Chopra said, "I am really excited and honored to be a part of such a diversified media conglomerate. I look forward to working with this dynamic team and adding value to the system."