NEWS

MUMBAI: Rising acquisition prices are not restricted to the cinema space alone, if the recent music rights deals being struck are to be believed.

Studio 18's latest acquisition - Singh is Kinng's audio rights have been sold to Times Music's sub brand Junglee for an amount between Rs 80 to 90 million, sources indicate. The market however had been swamped for a few days with news reports suggesting that the Akshay Kumar starrer's music rights had broken records by getting acquired for a whopping Rs 135 million.

Both company sources aver that while a high amount has indeed been paid for the film's rights by Junglee (its first Bollywood music acquisition was Anees Bazmee's Welcome), it has not crossed the magical figure of Rs 100 million.

When contacted, Indian Film Company and Studio 18's CEO Sandeep Bhargava refused to comment on this issue. On further probing, he admitted that the figures being bandied about were inflated, but didn't confirm the actual price. Times Music COO Adarsh Gupta echoed the same sentiment.

Well placed sources in the industry say that Singh is Kinng's music deal is undoubtedly a high value one, as the highest priced Bollywood music deal till date has been that of Farah Khan's Om Shanti Om, which was acquired by T-Series for an amount between Rs 60 to 70 million. Aamir Khan's 2007 film Taare Zameen Par was also supposed to have sold to T-Series for a high price, but the actual figure is nearer Rs 50 million, say sources.

Without confirming any numbers, T-Series marketing media publishing (TV) Vinod Bhanushali believes that the deal patterns lately are too steep to be true. "How will one recover these maddening monies?" questions Bhanushali.

He adds, "The physical sales are down without a doubt, but how much one can bank on digital sales too. There is a limit to number of downloads as well." He explains that deals are struck sensibly, no one can afford to have major loses.

Fairly new player in the market, UTV Music which released home production Jodhaa Akbar early this year feels that the recovery patterns are increasing by the day. Says UTV Motion Pictures, CEO, Siddhartha Roy Kapoor, "Since music labels have the audio rights for a long period of time, the modes of technology can be exploited to the hilt. The return of money is more or less guaranteed. Unless and until the music turns out to be a dud!"

Along with Singh is Kinng, Ghajjini acquired by T-series is another high value deal of this year.