HAVING SETTLED OLD DUES...

ABCL tees off restructure bid
NEW DELHI: The shahenshah of Indian cinema Amitabh Bachchan has returned dues to all creditors, except Doordarshan, and is now working to put his beleaguered dream venture Amitabh Bachchan Corporation Ltd (ABCL) back on track. The matinee idol has decided not to induct foreign equity in the venture as part of the restructuring exercise. This was stated by Amar Singh, the Samajwadi Party MP who is a director in the ABCL board. "We (ABCL) have cleared all dues, except to Doordarshan. The company is now being restructured and put back on the growth track... We will not be inducting any foreign equity in ABCL," he said.

ABCL’s total dues to Doordarshan had amounted to Rs 17.65 crore. It is learnt that Bollywood’s man of the millennium has proposed to pay the principal amount ABCL owes to Doordarshan. But in lieu of the interest, he has offered his services for endorsement. The company, he said, will concentrate on producing feature films as part of its growth strategy.

"We have already lined up three films, including one featuring Amitabh Bachchan and Abhishek Bachchan, one with Amitabh Bachchan and Aamir Khan and one starring Abhishek Bachchan as the solo hero. Filmmaking is the core competency area of ABCL and we will concentrate on that," he said. "There is no question of our going back to managing events. ABCL will continue to be in the entertainment business, making films."

ABCL had managed the Miss World pageant held in 1996 in Bangalore, which had landed the company in deep financial mess. However, with most of the dues settled now, Big B’s company is all set to get a fresh lease of life. ABCL, Bachchan’s attempt to bring in some corporate discipline into filmmaking, was set up in 1995. The country’s first media and entertainment conglomerate, ABCL had released big films like Shekhar Kapur’s Bandit Queen, Mani Ratnam’s Bombay and Priyadarshan’s Sazaa-e-Kaala Paani, besides producing films like Tere Mere Sapne, Naam Kya Hai and Major Saab.

The company had also marketed television serials. But the company ran up huge losses and owed money to a host of banks and television companies. In July last year, ABCL was declared sick by the Board for Industrial and Financial Reconstruction (BIFR). ABCL was referred to BIFR with accumulated losses of Rs 70.82 crore on a net worth of Rs 60.52 crore. Bachchan had, on an earlier occasion said that efforts were being made to restructure and pump back life into his debt-ridden ABCL. However, he had refused to divulge details on the internal restructuring being planned for the company

At least two ABCL creditors, Canara Bank and Allahabad Bank, had moved courts to appoint a court receiver to take over the superstar’s bungalow and two flats in Mumbai, to recover their dues. Meanwhile, Combined Artistic Productions, a South African production company, which executed some of the works in connection with the world beauty pageant held in 1996, had also filed a winding-up petition against ABCL. It had also sought an interim order from the Mumbai High Court seeking to restrain ABCL from, in any manner, transferring, selling, alienating or disposing of its assets, pending the hearing and final disposal of the petition.
(Agencies)