Cinema Capital Venture Fund (CCVF), a SEBI approved fund focused on the Indian film industry, has received approval from the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) for bringing in Rs 50 crore to its existing fund. Cinema Capital had earlier raised Rs 175 crore from which it has made a few undisclosed investments. The fund, which was earlier planning to raise a corpus of Rs 750 crore, may now alter its plans and look at raising only Rs 500 crore.
“Because the market scenario is down these days and it is not a very good time to raise funds, so we might be more conservative and look at a range of Rs 500 crore only and not Rs 750 crore,” said Sameer Gupta, Founder and Managing Partner, CCVF. “During these times, no one can it easy,” he said.
CCVF plans to invest mainly in film production companies rather than individual films, though it might invest in films through the production companies. “We usually prefer investing in (film production) companies so we have a greater access to the portfolio of films that the company might do. This is less riskier as against an individual films," said Gupta. The fund will also invest in the South Indian and other regional film industries.
Another fund that focuses on the Indian film industry is Vistaar Religare Film Fund (VRFF). The fund had recently invested in three films, Victory, Stoneman Murders and Siddharth - The Prisoner. The films have reportedly not fared well on the box office, incurring losses to the fund. Commenting on such risks involved in investing in films, Gupta said: “It's important to have a team that can evaluate which films to invest in and one must gauge the market scenario and based on that it should be ascertained what kind of films are doing well.”
