MUMBAI: An initial public offer (IPO) of Rs 14.86 crores (Rs 148.6 million) from production house B.A.G Films - a company promoted by Anurradha Prasad and Rajya Sabha MP (member of Parliament) Rajeev Shukla - will open on 6 September 2003.
The shares are proposed to be listed on Delhi Stock Exchange (DSE), Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) and National Stock Exchange (NSE).
The IPO of 1,48,60,000 equity shares of Rs 2 each for cash at a premium of Rs 8 per share aggregates to Rs 14.86 crores. The decade old B.A.G Films Ltd. is a profit making company since inception. It has paid continuous dividends in the preceding five years.
For the year ended 31 March 2003, B.A.G. Films Ltd. achieved a post tax net profit of Rs 266.39 lakhs (Rs 26.63 million) on a turnover of Rs 1,586.65 lakhs (Rs 158.66 million), up from Rs 74.07 lakhs (Rs 7.40 million) last year reporting an increase of 259 per cent.
The B.A.G Films issue is lead managed by KJMC Global Market (I) and UTI Securities, Alankit Assignments, is the registrar to the issue.
B.A.G Films claims to be one of the established production houses in the industry established in 1993 with multi-lingual, multi-genre and multi-time band products in its portfolio. The company is promoted by a team of core media professionals - journalist Rajeev Shukla and Anurradha Prasad - having more than 15 years of experience in the Indian media industry, says the release.
The company is promoted by Anurradha Prasad, managing director, who has conceptualised, designed and anchored various shows for Doordarshan and private television channels. She has also worked with Network East, department of BBC Network. Working with top professionals of the industry, both national and international, Prasad has produced, directed, conceived, scripted, reported and anchored many television programmes.
B.A.G claims to have developed successful on-air programming of more than 1,500 hours (more than 40 programmes) in diversified software categories and strong relations across all major channels including Star Network, Sahara Television, Doordarshan (DD) and a host of regional channels.
According to the release, the following programmes, produced by B.A.G. Films, are currently on air in the following channels:
Kumkum, Pyara Sa Bandhan and Hai Na Bolo Bolo on Star Plus; Haqeeqat on Sahara TV; Rozana and Khaberein Bollywood Ki on DD Metro; Poo Villangu on Vijay TV; Red Alert and Mera Goan Mera Desh on Star News; and Gramin Bharat for the ministry of rural development government of India (DD on all regional channels).
The release also says that the company also produces corporate and advertisement films, promotional capsules and other non-broadcast videos. The company has also started work on alternative sources of revenue through delivery of content on different media such as Interactive Voice Response (IVR) on mobile phones, Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) and Short Messaging Service (SMS) platforms.
B.A.G. Films has already embarked on the following projects:
* Development of in-house production facilities, including a full-fledged convergence studio complex with state-of-the-art digital equipment and all necessary peripheral infrastructure.
* The studio complex is located at the NOIDA Film City. It will have one of the best studio floors for shooting television shows in the area. 
* Setting up of a media school under the banner of iSOMES, having international collaboration with the School of Journalism, University of Missouri and state-of-the-art facilities for creative and technical media professionals. 
* Production of low and middle budget feature films. The company claims to have already acquired rights of the story for two feature films and script and screenplay writing has been completed for one of the feature films. The company is negotiating with prospective directors and lead stars for both the feature films.
Another director of B.A.G Films, member of Parliament Rajeev Shukla is a senior journalist and a well-known personality in the media industry. He started as a television anchor with Ru-Ba-Ru - a weekly celebrity based chat show on Zee TV produced by B.A.G. Films. He is also the convener of the Indo-US Parliamentary Forum and a member of the Board for Control Cricket in India (BCCI).

Also read:

B.A.G. Films readying for IPO