Saregama India Ltd has announced an equity partnership with Sanjay Leela Bhansali‘s Bhansali Productions, marking a significant shift in how premium film content and music rights will be managed in the industry. The deal merges Bhansali Productions’ proven filmmaking capabilities with Saregama’s extensive music catalog and live events infrastructure.
The partnership comes with a unique arrangement. Bhansali Productions will exclusively sell music rights of all its future films to Saregama under a predetermined pricing formula. This structure eliminates competitive bidding wars and provides Saregama with a guaranteed pipeline of high quality film music. For context, Bhansali’s films are known for their elaborate musical compositions that often become cultural phenomena, making this music rights access particularly valuable.
Creative Independence Meets Financial Discipline
Despite the equity investment and partnership structure, Bhansali Productions will retain complete ownership of intellectual property and exercise full creative control over its projects. Saregama’s role extends to providing governance oversight and financial discipline within the collaboration framework. This balance ensures that the artistic vision that has defined Bhansali’s work remains intact while benefiting from structured business operations.
For Saregama, this partnership represents a strategic pivot. The company plans to gradually wind down its in house film production operations over the next one to two years, instead focusing on collaborative arrangements with established creative studios. The investment is projected to be earnings per share accretive by FY27 and is expected to improve margins across its music and video business segments.
A Legacy Production House With Ambitious Plans
Founded in 1996, Bhansali Productions has delivered some of Hindi cinema’s most iconic films including Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam, Devdas, Bajirao Mastani, Padmaavat and Gangubai Kathiawadi. The production house also created the Netflix series Heeramandi. The company reported impressive financials for FY25 with revenue of ₹304 crore, EBITDA of ₹60 crore and profit after tax of ₹45 crore.
Looking ahead, Bhansali Productions has ambitious expansion plans with more than 10 feature films slated for production over the next three years. The immediate pipeline includes Love and War, directed by Sanjay Leela Bhansali himself and starring Ranbir Kapoor, Alia Bhatt and Vicky Kaushal. The slate also features Do Deewane Seher Mein, directed by Ravi Udyawar and starring Siddhant Chaturvedi and Mrunal Thakur.
Avarna Jain, Vice Chairperson at Saregama India, emphasized that the partnership aligns with the company’s strategy of collaborating with established creative studios to generate long term shareholder value. Bhansali stated the partnership was built on shared values around artistic integrity, music and storytelling.
About The Partnership
The Saregama and Bhansali Productions partnership is a strategic equity investment deal that grants Saregama exclusive music rights to all future films from the production house. The arrangement allows Bhansali Productions to retain full creative control and IP ownership while Saregama provides governance and financial oversight. Kotak Investment Banking served as exclusive financial advisor on the transaction.
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