Carnival goes overseas, buys Bombay Talkies in Singapore

Carnival Cinemas, the third-largest multiplex chain in India, is making its international foray by acquiring Bombay Talkies in Singapore, its chairman and managing director Shrikant Bhasi told dna.

Bombay Talkies is an old movie theatre that got closed down after years of neglect and has now being renovated. Carnival plans to create a piece of Mumbai in Singapore centred around its movie industry culture. "With Bollywood transcending Indian boundaries and going everywhere, we though of having an international presence for our screens. We are taking over the old iconic movie theatre in Singapore, Bombay Talkies. Plans are on to create a Bollywood-themed hub there complete with food stalls that you find in a Mumbai street," Carnival Group chairman Shrikant Bhasi told dna.

Bombay Talkies was being run in an unkempt manner for years by its previous owner, also an Indian, and finally closed down with local banks like United Overseas Bank filing winding up proceedings.
"The facility is more than 25 years old. It had closed down and then renovated but the owners are unable to run it. Taking it on lease, we are trying to create a Bollywood themed hub there. We are sort of transporting a piece of Mumbai to Singapore, putting up food stalls of batata vadas, vada pavs to pau bhajis, to everything you would find in a typical Mumbai street," Bhasi, who was in the city to sign a memorandum of understanding with the Jharkhand government, said.

While this would be Carnival Cinema's international foray, it would be going back to roots once again for this maverick Malayalee NRI from Singapore who had earlier taken his rest-o-lounge D'Bell in Mumbai to Singapore. Bhasi didn't comment on the deal size but said Carnival follows an asset light model.

"Our group isn't investing much, as we follow an asset light model and most of our investments are being done by our partners. Carnival would be designing and managing the hub."
Carnival has grown in India at a breakneck speed through a string of acquisitions including multiplex businesses of HDIL, Network 18's Glitz Cinemas and Big Cinemas of Anil Ambani's Reliance Group and also properties of Leela Infopark in Kochi and Leela Technopark in Thiruvananthapuram.

But Carnival has more expansion plans. "In India we have 380 screens now and have signed up another 325 already. Our vision is to have 1,000 screens by 2018. All these are coming up in tier 2 and 3 cities of Jharkhand and elsewhere with the population above 2.5 lakh. The investment there would be Rs 1.5 to 1.75 crore per screen," Bhasi said.

 m_sumit@dnaindia.net