Harpratap Singh seems to be influenced by the Saarc Summit. It’s in that spirit, for he is now taking the Lee Cooper brand to Bangladesh, Nepal and Sri Lanka. People there will now get a chance to purchase Lee Cooper clothing through their own distributors, who Singh will appoint carefully. After all, being a Rs 30-crore exclusive licensee for UK-based Lee Cooper in India, gives him the right to do this region. Singh is expanding in India too, by entering the sector of accessories, which will include watches, belts, caps and bags. But in eyewear Lee Cooper will have to fight against competition from brands like Oakley, and Killer Loop. Many a time this growing brand has lost out on publicity, as people tend to confuse it with that of Lee. To counter this, Singh has launched a set of outstanding advertisement campaigns, which project the brand as an internationally accepted one. The tycoon has been managing through a manufacturing unit in Gurgaon all this while, but will soon be going in for a new one in Uttaranchal. All this is in keeping with the message he is trying to give out, that he can handle much more worth watching that. Swaraj makes Kolkata move Lord Swaraj Paul, who was recently in Kolkata with British delegates for the India-UK Round Table conference, was delighted by his former home-town Kolkata’s new image. He felt that West Bengal had its share of downs and it was now time for the State to rise again. Paul considered a doyen of the steel industry was however not too optimistic about the future of his industrial sector in spite of its current boom which he felt was largely due to demands from Chinese markets. He therefore announced that he would rather invest in sunrise sectors like tourism, films and fashion. The tycoon who had earlier promised to donate a sum of Rs 2 crore for a new cultural complex in the city, has now decided to fund the entire complex. Paul’s only condition however was that it would have to be one of the best in the world and definitely the best in Asia — a condition that the West Bengal government should willingly accept. The dream project will be handled by Paul’s own team and not the PWD who clearly does not have the skills to build a world class complex. Moving up the product chain Ajay and Sanjeev Bijli have the rights to distribute twelve English films this year. But they are not satisfied with that. Instead they are more interested in their new craze — distributing Hindi films. And why not, for Hindi films often generate far greater revenues than English films. Sanjeev is now in talks with 6-7 Hindi film production houses for acquisition of their distribution rights. His first attempt has been made with the latest Vikram Bhatt film Aetbaar for which he has bagged the distribution rights for Delhi and UP alone. With a budget of close to Rs 10 crore that comes from internal accruals alone the tycoons will try to distribute 8-10 Bollywood films per year. Later, they will set up 29 more screens in and around Hyderabad, Delhi, Bangalore and Mumbai. Work is already on expansion plans for multiplexes in Gurgaon and Faridabad as well as tieups with food courts and restaurants for these multiplexes. One would think the Bijlis would stop there, but they have film production on their minds. Well if you run a 100 crore film exhibition company, you’ll only head in those directions where you’ll see yourself profit. So the Bijlis seems to be on the right track. Dilip Cherian runs PR firm Perfect Relations. Send your insider dope to dilipcherian@now-india.net.in
