Percept, Future Group to set up Bollywood Retail

Percept has formed a 50-50 joint venture with Future Group to set up Bollywood Retail. The entity will focus on providing "Bollywood experience" and Bollywood merchandizing within the Future Group’s retail network.

The JV will independently source Bollywood IPR and software from Percept’s Bollywood Corporation and will use retail infrastructure from the Future Group.  It will entail an initial capital outlay of Rs 50 crores. It will be opened across 8-10 locations in the first phase including Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, Kolkata, Bangalore, Indore, Jaipur, Pune, Delhi and Mumbai. The first Bollywood experience centre is expected to start by the end of this year.

Kishore Biyani (pictured), Group CEO, Future Group, said, “Bollywood is one of the biggest entertainment phenomenons that rules India – it transcends age, gender, geographical and cultural barriers, but yet binds the entire populace together. For many, Bollywood is an experience in itself which they aspire to get close to and we will give the audiences an opportunity to do so. Through this partnership with Percept we hope to bring a unique touch and feel of the Bollywood experience to the consumer.”
 
Shailendra Singh, Joint MD, Percept Limited, added, “Bollywood merchandize is just the first of many things to result from this partnership. The international market has been exposed to the concept of merchandizing and is a much more mature market than India; the domestic market is still nascent, but I am sure that in due course, the concept of merchandizing will be lapped up by the consumers in a big way. The target audience has clearly been demarcated and while we will cater to both international and domestic markets, we will look at a 70:30 ratio in terms of target marketing. We will use Future Group’s expertise in the retail business to market and leverage Bollywood Merchandizing.”