MUMBAI: The DAR MentorCap jointly promoted by DAR Media Private Limited, a leading Mumbai-based film production and distribution company, and MentorCap Management Private Limited, an investment advisory firm, has received Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) approval for its film fund under the new AIF guidelines.

With an initial corpus of Rs 1 billion, the DAR MentorCap Film Fund has tenure of five years with a liquidation option for investors after three years. Apart from high-levels of corporate governance, transparency and credibility the fund is also seeking significant alpha generation targeted IRR in excess of 20 per cent.

The Film Fund is being marketed as an exclusive product amongst an identified set of High Net worth Individuals (HNIs) and Institutional Investors.

DAR MentorCap Founder & Partner Shailesh Haribhakti said, "The steady upswing in the Hindi film industry has now prepared it for systems, processes and good governance. The simultaneous establishment of the AIF regulations have created the space for this unique film fund that will execute over 20 projects in the next 2-3 years.

"The most distinguishing aspect of the fund is that it already has a wide selection of projects to invest in through our partner DAR Media‘s extensive network and experience. From that perspective investors in the fund will see their money working from the word go. A new Asset Management Company (AMC) - Creative Collaboration Advisors has already been set up to evaluate and manage the fund‘s investments," added Haribhakti.

The funds General Partner DAR Media has already identified, seeded and created a consideration set of over 20 projects for the fund, leveraging key industry partnerships with the likes of Anurag Kashyap, Shimit Amin, Tigmanshu Dhulia, Nikhil Advani, Danis Tanovic and Pan Nalin, amongst others.

DAR MentorCap, and Chairman of DAR Media Founder & Partner Arun Rangachari said, "The DAR MentorCap Film Fund will follow a calibrated, controlled, transparent and focused investment strategy of acquiring quality projects, following innovative risk mitigation strategies and getting optimal returns. We aim at hedging risk by investing, at ground level, in a bouquet of projects that are at various points of the film‘s production and release cycle. To this effect DAR Media will offer its entire production slate, which currently stands at over 20 projects, to the fund for its consideration. These projects are being offered to the fund at zero premium and is a reflection of our endeavour to facilitate institutional and HNI investment flows into the industry.

"This apart the Fund will further be encouraged to work with the entire value chain of the Indian film industry and take up positions in projects that are in sync with the fund‘s overall investment strategy," added Rangachari.