Who's afraid of Shyam Ramsay

04/12/2010

A chopped hand claiming innocent lives. A black cat driving Premier Padmini. The Ramsays have been the unbeaten kings of seedy horror films. Aastha Atray Banan meets the brain behind such inanities

SHYAM RAMSAY looks too genial to be making horror movies. With a rotund, smiling face, he seems intent on scaring the heebie jeebies out of you. And although the cult Ramsay name has become synonymous with seedy horror movies, there is nothing creepy about the director. He even offers this reporter a role in his next movie, maybe his version of a good deed. He has just returned from Nashik where he went to gauge the reaction of the audience to his new film Bachao, which follows the shenanigans of a film crew shooting a horror film who realise there are real ghosts on the sets. He tells us why bachcha bachcha knows the Ramsay name — “It’s not just about horror. We have got more. Sex, comedy and songs — can a horror film get any better?”

He could be right. When one thinks of horror, every true blue movie lover in India chants the Ramsay name. It all started in 1972, when Shyam and his famous family made the hit, Do Gaz Zameen ke Neeche. The late 1970s saw films such as Darwaza and Guest House. In the 1980s, they gave hits like Sannata, Purana Mandir, Haveli, Saamri, Veerana and Shaitani Ilaaka. The heroes of these movies were spirits and deformed creatures and the victims were barely clad women and lost-in-the-middle-of-nowhere couples. Though none of them would admit it today, many big names have worked with the Ramsay banner — be it Rakesh Roshan, Deepak Parashar, Raza Murad, Kiran Kumar, Navin Nischol and Javed Jaffrey.
The Ramsays truly became a household name with the Zee Horror Show, that gave television its cheesiest horror show ever. Film critic Raja Sen says the Ramsays offered a vivid sense of the surreal to the audiences. “They followed the tradition of the Hammer horror films from the UK. My earliest Ramsay memory is seeing a black cat drive a Premier Padmini,” he says.
Ramsay, 58, realised early that he was going to be a maker of the macabre. Hollywood film Dracula, the first horror movie he watched, set the cogs in his brain moving. “I was fascinated by Dracula, Frankenstein and Werewolf. I used to read plenty of horror stories and even took inspiration from news reports either about unsolved murders or ghostly sightings,” he says. And though his father FU Ramsay, who fled from Karachi to Mumbai, was known for films such as Rustom Sohrab (1963), Shyam and his brothers had other plans. Tulsi directed the first few and then started writing, Keshu, who passed away recently, handled production, Arjun production design, Kumar story and screenplay, Gangu dealt with cinematography and sound, while Shyam stuck to direction. “People watch horror movies because they need a break from all the drama. Why do you go on a roller coaster ride? For the rush, right? Well watching horror movies gives you the same rush. We also have another important ingredient — sex. We don’t want you to get too scared. That’s why we have a young seductress in our films,” he says.
His confidence is contagious. It’s also true that Ramsay films have never pulled in the multiplex crowd. Maybe because their films became repetitive slews — a car breaks down in the middle of nowhere, the couple in it finds a haveli with a deformed caretaker and as they get down and dirty on a massive bed, the monsters creep out of the woodwork. “These tried and tested environments work. People in villages still believe in witches and say that a woman is a witch if her feet are turned backwards. In metros too, people may not be as superstitious but everyone believes in evil spirits.”
Though the elite in the metros would never strut in their Jimmy Choos for a Ramsay film premiere, the banner has its fans in the Tier 2 and 3 cities. “Our films do well in Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh. That’s why we are still able to sustain ourselves,” says Shyam candidly, adding, “Even the industry is proud of us. We are one of the rare families that have become a household name.”

‘People watch horror films as they need a break from drama. We have another important ingredient — sex,’ says Shyam Ramsay

Their genre has been flooded with snazzily produced movies such as Ram Gopal Verma’s Bhoot and Vikram Bhatt’s Raaz in the past few years. Shyam is in awe of these directors. “After watching Bhoot, I was happy to know there are directors who are keeping the genre alive. For many years, we have had no competition, but now I am always on my toes.” And though the Ramsays can’t compete with the Karan Johars, their resilience has to be applauded as they have to make do with much lesser. SV Srinivas, a film theorist at the Bengaluru-based Centre for the Study of Culture and Society, says, “They are a curious mixture of Christian notions of afterlife and evil and Indian mythology, which reveals itself in the form of the sexual devil woman. Technically, their only draw could be the kind of make-up they do. But the most fun about these movies was the predictability.”
HIS LAST MONTH’S release Bachao was touted as India’s first comedy-horror film, but it failed to create any ripples. But Shyam seems undeterred. “Our next movie will have even better effects. We are not going anywhere,” he says. The star of Bachao, Shakti Kapoor, who has been a constant in many of the Ramsay films, blames the failure on lack of publicity. “Bachao was not publicised properly. But Shyam is a great director. Who is RGV or Vikram Bhatt? Shyam is their father,” he says. Actress Archana Puran Singh, who became a household name thanks to the Zee Horror Show, feels “it’s sad that in India, they have not got their due”. “Maybe the next generation of Ramsays should take over and reinvent the banner,” she adds.
Already putting the fate of Bachao behind him, Shyam seems ready to charge ahead. “If there is day, there has to be night. If there is God, there has to be evil. And that’s what I want to reveal. Horror is my only calling and I will fulfill it all the way through.”
aastha@tehelka.com

Let the plot thicken

Aastha Atray Banan

20/11/2010

A film on reality television might shake you out of your couch, says Aastha Atray Banan

Kingmaker Shorey in a still from Tejpal’s (left) Kaam Ka Plot — Kingmaker Shorey in a still from Tejpal’s (left) *Kaam Ka Plot*
Photo: Shailendra Pandey

IT’S RARE WHEN A HINDI MOVIE lets its hero win his battle against exploitation just by the pure force of his street sharp ways. It’s even rarer when the hero is a middle-class, jobless Mumbaikar. Maybe that’s why film critic and first-time director Mintty Tejpal’s Kaam Ka Plot is disturbing at first, but endearing as it ends. Not only because it attacks the reality TV phenomenon; it also gives the middleclass Indian an identity. “It is a comment on reality TV. I know what goes into this business. We are becoming voyeuristic as a society and that bothers me. But the focus is on the middle-class Indian who has disappeared from our movies,” says Mintty.
The film revolves around Dashrath Srivastava (Ranvir Shorey), a gullible do-gooder who is tricked into the dirty world of reality TV but manages to become a smart businessman. “Despite the resources with which the film was made — it cost Rs. 60 lakh, was written in a week and shot in 16 days — it has tremendous merit. The fact that Mintty has managed to create ripples in an industry that works through coteries is commendable,” says Shorey, who co-starred with Sandhya Mridul and Vinay Pathak.
Though it was commissioned by Zoom as a made-for-television film and premiered last week, Mintty is hopeful that Kaam Ka Plot will attract distributors. However, that hasn’t stopped the accolades from flowing in. While filmmaker Sudhir Mishra calls it “quirky, full of surprises, often very funny and has a deep connection with reality”, film critic Rajeev Masand feels it’s the film’s unpredictability that sets it apart from the usual fare. “The premise was familiar and I kept waiting for the usual, but it never came.
The end was absolutely surprising. It stuns because it’s uncompromised.”
aastha@tehelka.com

10. Vicky & Aakash Dhangar

Aastha Atray Banan

13/11/2010

10 PEOPLE OBAMA SHOULD MEET

Vicky and Aakash Dhangar

20 & 17 Mumbai

Moving along Aakash (left) and Vicky
Photo: Apoorva Guptay

OBAMA SHOULD follow his instincts: American soft power goes much further than the hardware. Vicky and Aakash, for instance, credit America with putting a new bounce in their step. The dance-form known as B-boying, adopted by young black and Latino rebels living in the South Bronx during the 1970s, has given these boys of middle-class Dharavi a swagger that they could only dream of. Finally, they feel like they are ‘doing something different’ with their lives. It all started with a live demonstration by New York-based Netarpal Singh (aka Hera), whose organisation Tiny Drops teaches Mumbai’s ragpickers, electricians, tailors and carpenters the art of ‘breaking’ out. “We had seen music videos and always thought these guys rocked. Watching this documentary about the origins of B-boying in America left us dumbstruck. When Hera performed, we thought that we might be able to do the same thing — even though we might break a few bones in the process,” laughs Aakash. Terms like ‘toprock’ (upright dancing and shuffles) and ‘freeze’ (still poses that punctuate beats and end routines) are now part of their everyday parlance. B-boying has also given them hope for a better life. While their father (a Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation employee) dreams of raising his sons to be engineers, they would rather dance. “It keeps us positive and creative. If the Americans can make careers out of B-boying, so can we!” says Vick.

Aastha Atray Banan

IRDA to allow cross-selling of micro-insurance

Abhishek Anand

02/11/2010

By Abhishek Anand
THE INSURANCE Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDA) is considering a proposal to allow cross-selling of micro-insurance products by insurance companies. Cross-selling means one firm can sell the policies of another — a relaxation the industry has sought for long. Micro-insurance products are policies that are priced low enough for the poorer sections to avail of.
“We may allow crossselling of micro-insurance products, but we haven’t set a timeframe for effecting it,” IRDA Chairman J Hari Narayan told TEHELKA at a health insurance meet held by the Confederation of Indian Industry in Delhi.
The proposed move will open up rural areas to firms that do not have a presence there. Currently, insurers have tie-ups with banks that have large rural networks, mainly public sector ones, to sell micro-insurance products. But the drawback is that the bank can sell products of only that particular company.
According to Narayan, the IRDA is considering allowing banks to tie up with more than one insurer. But if the new proposal comes through, insurance firms — largely private sector ones — will be able to piggyback on the extensive networks of their public sector counterparts. On their part, the public sector players will be able to enlarge their portfolio of products; for instance, a general insurance company offering health insurance will be able to offer life insurance after tying up with a life insurer.
Micro-insurance products with affordable premiums are tailor-made for low-income groups. Insurance firms, both life and non-life, have in total 23 such products. Narayan was categorical that crossselling, when it happens, will be confined to these.
In separate guidelines, the IRDA has also capped the maximum amount of commission an agent can charge for these micro-insurance products.
Meanwhile, firms are planning to start offering combi-products, or policies offering both life and health covers. For this, general insurance firms are looking at tie-ups with life insurance firms. “We are negotiating with a life insurance firm to launch a combi-scheme and hope to finalise it before year-end,” says Antony Jacob, CEO, Apollo Munich Health Insurance Company Ltd. Jacob, who did not reveal the name of his company’s partner, said the two negotiating companies need to come to an understanding on several issues, including the premium to be charged and the break-up between life and health cover. “It may require three to four months before we can roll out such a product,” he said.

Firms plan to offer combi-products, or policies offering both life and health covers

Last year the IRDA issued comprehensive guidelines on combi-products. According to these, only pure term life insurance cover could become part of such a policy.
Despite measures taken by the IRDA and aggressive marketing by insurance firms, India is under-penetrated. According to a Swiss report, quoted by IRDA in its annual report, insurance penetration in India stood at a paltry 4.6 percent by 2008 end. Of this, the lion’s share, or 4 percent, went to life insurance, with non-life left with only 0.6 percent. The total business in India was worth $47 billion ( Rs. 2,20,900 crore) by 2008.
Illustration: Naorem Ashish
abhishek.anand@fwtehelka.com

The cub has bared his fangs. Will his bite match his roar?

Aastha Atray Banan

30/10/2010

HE HAS the literati fuming, television channels debating, columnists penning scathing opinions and the average Indian wondering if indeed freedom of expression is a birthright. But the man of the moment, Aditya Thackeray, is ignoring the storm he has whipped up — because there is a history exam to take. The 20-year-old third year student at St Xavier’s recently got Rohinton Mistry’s Such a Long Journey struck off the university syllabus because it criticised his grandfather — an event that coincided with his official induction into the Shiv Sena as the leader of the youth wing. As he stood alongside his grandfather and father at the Sena’s annual Dussehra rally last week as the new face of the Sena, bets were being laid across the nation — will this English-educated Thackeray reverse the Sena’s fate, or will he, like his father, watch helplessly as the party disintegrates?
Journalist Mahesh Mhatre, who has followed the Sena’s shenanigans for decades, says, “This Rohinton Mistry issue was stage-managed. But like an old Marathi saying goes: If there is no water in the well, no use trying different ways to get it out. They are using him as their last attempt to get back into the game, and are fielding him against Raj. But it won’t work — firstly, because all their issues are non-issues, and secondly because Raj has the kind of charisma Aditya will never have. Though he is intelligent, simple and good natured, he also has a chip on his shoulder. I met him at a party, where he got a call from a Shiv Sainik on his cell phone. The way he warned the worker to never call him on his personal number again was very surprising!”
For his classmates, Aditya is just another student in St Xavier’s: genial, friendly but dressed weirdly in tiger motifs. “He was known as the Sena boy only in the first year, because he came to college with bodyguards. But now, he’s just like us,” says Poonam Burde, a third year sociology student. “He had a right to object to the book, but the fault was the vice-chancellor’s. How can you just take a decision overnight?” she adds. Another friend, Clyde Galbao, who studied with Aditya until last year, laughs, “Aditya is very normal, except that his jokes are horrible. He is nice to everyone and rarely talks about politics, but he does have intelligent opinions on everything.”
Interestingly, until five years ago, Aditya wanted to go abroad to study international law. Why he suddenly took such a detour is a point to ponder, says Kumar Ketkar, editor of Marathi daily Loksatta. “We have had many dinners together and Aditya came across as intelligent and sensitive. I was glad there was one sensible Thackeray at last. And now he has joined the Sena! He can’t speak one line of Marathi without the Bombay Scottish accent. I don’t think he can indulge in mindless militancy like the other Shiv Sainiks, but has entered politics just because of family pressure.”
The Shiv Sena is standing firm on its ground that Aditya is the face of tomorrow that will propel them ahead, and is in no way competing with Raj. “How can you compare the two? Raj is 42 years old and Aditya just 20. He is neither like Balasaheb nor Uddhav, he is simply Aditya and he will stand on his own. He has always been interested in politics and possesses the patience to be a politician,” says Sanjay Raut, editor of Saamana. “He is responsible for roping in that section of the young population that sees politics as unnecessary and is interested in technology. As far as the Rohinton Mistry issue is concerned, he doesn’t need an issue to be launched. He is Bal Thackeray’s grandson and that is enough.”

For his classmates, Aditya is just another student dressed weirdly in tiger motifs

BUT IS it? The Shiv Sena, like the BJP, has been suffering in an India that brushes aside right-wing politics and keeps development centrestage. Choosing the subject of a book as a vehicle of his initiation into the party sends out the message that the young Thackeray conforms to Sena ideology. Princeton University historian Gyan Prakash notes, “In attacking Rohinton Mistry’s book, Aditya is following a well-known script as a rite of passage into Shiv Sena politics — to get street cred as an authentic Sena leader. Note that he claims to have not read the whole book but just some offending passages. How can someone who claims to represent the Marathi manoos actually admit to reading a book in English? So, the book must be turned into a symbol and attacked. Only then his own background as someone who has grown up in comfortable circumstances, studied at St Xavier’s College, and is a part of a political dynasty can be set aside to craft another image. The fact that he is English-educated will not win him a following since the whole exercise is designed to draw our attention away from that and to establish him as an authentic Marathi manoos.” Filmmaker Shyam Benegal agrees, “He has narrowed down his perspective to what Shiv Sena has always been, and the hope for a fresher approach has come crashing down.”
State politicians say they are not threatened by the third-generation Thackeray. “Their ideology is outdated and I don’t think it will make a difference unless he wants to improve on that,” says Congress MP Milind Deora. His party colleague Sanjay Nirupam, who was with the Sena from 1996 to 2005, and has known Aditya since he was a toddler, feels that only the performance of the party will determine if Aditya matters. “How can you launch the third generation when even the second hasn’t been launched properly?” he chuckles, adding, “But I wish him all the best.”
A poem called Advice written by Aditya some time back contains the lines: “If only you learn from the mistakes of the past; take lessons from the present; and plan for tomorrow.” By his own logic, then, the political debutant should now work towards saving the Shiv Sena from its own philosophy.
aastha@tehelka.com

BRIC is a thing of the past. All eyes are now on Civits

Abhishek Anand

23/10/2010

By Abhishek Anand

CIVITS (China, India, Vietnam, Indonesia, Turkey and South Africa) are fast emerging as the new global poster boys, and might well leave BRIC — the term coined by Goldman Sachs economist Jim O’Neill for the Brazil, Russia, India and China combine – way behind. What’s taken CIVITS ahead of BRIC are basically two factors: the huge domestic demand in South Africa and Indonesia, and the emergence of Vietnam and Turkey as the new investment destinations.
“All four are growing rapidly and promise a sound economic future; whereas Russia and Brazil have failed to live up to their earlier promise. It’s thus no surprise that they are being replaced,” says Suresh Tendulkar, senior economist and former chairman of the Prime Minister’s Economic Advisory Council.
After O’Neill’s coinage, BRIC became virtually a paradigm to measure the increasing transfer of economic power from developed nations to emerging markets. But now, it’s CIVITS that is being most closely wooed and watched. For instance, in the past year, both India and China grew rapidly despite the global slowdown. The Indian economy grew at a healthy 8.8 percent during the first quarter (April-June) this fiscal. And the Reserve Bank of India estimate suggests it is likely to grow at 8.5 percent through 2010-11. China is poised to grow even faster. During the second quarter, its economy grew 10.3 percent.
The Indonesian economy too saw 6.2 percent growth during the second quarter of the current fiscal; it was 5.7 percent during the first. On the other hand, the Russian economy grew by just 3.1 percent during the first quarter of this year.
But, considering that second quarter gross domestic product growth was just 1.2 percent in the UK and 1.7 percent in the US, some economists are completely unwilling to buy the line that CIVITS will necessarily beat Russia and Brazil. “The long-term prospects of the Russian economy look good, and Brazil’s too is growing at a comfortable pace,” believes DK Joshi, chief economist at credit rating agency CRISIL Ltd, the Indian arm of Standard and Poor’s.
According to him, removing Russia and Brazil from the watch list is as premature as it is off beam.

I hate you, I hate you Mallika

Aastha Atray Banan

23/10/2010

But who can really hate her — overheated housewife, faux Indian princess or nagin? Aastha Atray Banan meets the multiple personality order called Mallika Sherawat
IT’S A HOT and humid day. But at Mumbai’s Famous Studios, sweltering heat doesn’t interfere with the important business at hand. Shouting, cajoling, promising the moon, passive aggression, suicidal despair, it’s all part of the everyday logistics. Then Mallika arrives.
Seven hours of waiting backstage, as Mallika records an episode of Zee’s Sa Re Ga Ma Pa, we are shepherded into her vanity van for a quick chat. She apologises quickly with the same unmistakeable mouth that once kissed its way to fame, and you are already distracted.
The distraction doesn’t stop at her long legs, slim waist and full bosom in a white lace dress. Her eyelids bat flirtatiously and non-stop. You believe that she is genuinely happy to see you, until you remember where you are. Then you wonder — is this how she wins people over? Despite not having a single big hit to her credit since Murder, except the sleeper hit Pyaar Ke Side Effects, Mallika just doesn’t seem to disappear. She is at Cannes (though Aishwarya Rai would like to pretend she isn’t). She is being hailed as the next Brigitte Bardot by Time’s Richard Corliss. She became the first Indian actor to have been given an honorary citizenship in Los Angeles, and now she is starring in the strange Hollywood production, Hisss. What is it that ‘they’ see we seem immune to?
Maybe they love her because she plays exotic Indian princess so beautifully, simultaneously devoid of sin and full of Mae Westisms — she recently called a python her best onscreen lover. “I am the salt of the earth,” she declares, and Third World salt is clearly the best kind.
“She is such a princess. Did you know that she didn’t even know what the middle finger denoted when she first came to LA? It was hilarious,” executive producer of Hisss, William Sees Keenan, laughs, adding, “Seriously, she is a saint, a nun even. She draws the line between what is sensual and trashy quite clearly.” If Keenan is to be believed, she doesn’t smoke or drink and is in bed by 10 pm.
There is a pause needed here. Is this the same Mallika who set India on fire with one memorable numeral — 17 kisses in a film? And the same Mallika whose soundbytes make you wince (‘I am like Viagra to Indian men’)? But a few minutes into the conversation and you realise you are in a brand new game — Mallika as the sexy nerd, too bright for Bollywood. “What sets me apart is that I am not an actress defined by the man she dates. I am an actor who dares. Wasn’t it Woody Allen who said, ‘Not taking risks is a bigger risk?” she says with a steady gaze. She does this often — spout showbusiness philosophy. “I read a lot of biographies. Did you know that Bette Davis’ tombstone reads, ‘She did it the hard way’? I am such a nerd.” Rumours on FTII campus has it that Sherawat has Bollywood’s biggest collection of world cinema, and that she is a walking film encyclopaedia.
“Why do people assume — just because I do the roles I do — that I’m like that? I like my professional persona, but I’m very different in real life. But why does that matter to anybody? I say what I say, and do what I do, because it’s a part of my work persona.”
She shrugs away questions about her early reputation in Bollywood. “The kisses were no big deal. Wouldn’t one kiss her husband? We are in the 21st century for god’s sake.” Or the criticism about the black dress she wore during the premiere of Inglourious Basterds. “Blame Dolce and Gabbana,” she laughs, “Anyway, the red carpet is not meant for comfort. It’s meant to grab eyeballs.”
FORGETTING REEMA
Mallika quotes Bette Davis and it’s clear she sees a parallel in Hollywood’s favourite ‘broad’ — an outspoken firebrand. She talks a lot about fighting her conservative Haryanvi upbringing on her way to Bollywood. “My parents thought I was joking. It’s still not accepted in my family, though my mother supported me,” she says. There are reports her father disowned her when she decided to act, and so she took on her mother’s name, and thus was born Mallika Sherawat from the ashes of Reema Lamba. She was also allegedly married once, to Jet Airways pilot Karan Singh Gill, whom she met as an air hostess. There are plenty of Reema Lamba stories from that period but she dismisses them with a single line and steely glare, “I was never an air hostess.”
In all this rewriting, she does not erase her time as a student at DPS Mathura Road, and later Miranda House College in Delhi. She remembers it as uneventful though. “I wasn’t interested in boys. Didn’t we just talk about me being a nerd?”
Mallika’s contemporaries have a different story to tell. “We knew her as someone very popular with the boys. You couldn’t ignore her. She was always there, always asking for attention. Later, when we heard her in the media with her stories about a hard childhood, we all had a good laugh,” says a junior from school who insists that Mallika is 34, and not 29 as she claims to be.
But Mallika Sherawat doesn’t seem to care about the accusations of being spotlight-hungry at all costs. “Isn’t it good I can get attention so easily? I love it when people call me audacious.

A few minutes into the conversation you realise you are in a brand new game — Mallika as the sexy nerd too bright for Bollywood

I don’t want my fans to get bored, and I want my producers to make money, and I want to be laughing all the way to the bank. So being audacious works for me.” It may also be a strategy to be different in an industry full of factorymade actors. The road less travelled has kept her in the news for sure, even though Bollywood seems to be wary of casting her.
Himanshu Malik, Mallika’s first co-star in the 17-kiss hit Khwahish, is a good example of the confused weathervanes Bollywood is composed of. “The brand of movies Mallika likes doing are too risqué and her ‘I-am-sosexually- forward’ personality makes her shelf life less,” he says. Of course, for all of Malik’s piousness his 15 raging minutes of fame began and ended with kissing Mallika.
Mallika’s Hollywood story doesn’t look like it will end with Hisss. She will also be seen in Love, Barack, a romantic comedy set in Barack Obama’s presidential campaign. Mallika plays Aretha Gupta, a devoted local Obama volunteer coordinator.
Filmmaker Saket Chaudhary, who cast Mallika and Rahul Bose in Pyaar Ke Side Effects, tries to explain Bollywood’s attitude towards her. “She has always played characters who are on the edge sexually, except in my movie. Bollywood doesn’t allow her that. We can’t distinguish between the real and reel persona. She was very professional, a delight to work with. She gave me no hassles, despite my being a first-time director.”
Right now, Mallika is riding high on the Hisss wave. She is sure that the movie, which stars her opposite Irrfan Khan, and for which she has been in the news again for shedding her clothes, will be a superhit. “It’s the age-old story of the spurned nagin, only with great visual effects. How can you resist that?”
It is difficult to not admire Mallika’s chutzpah. There have been no crowds cheering her on all these years. But as her inspiration Bette Davis said, “I survived because I was tougher than anybody else.” Mallika has been a good student.
aastha@tehelka.com

Green is the new gold. Equity funds look to reap rich harvest

Abhishek Anand

16/10/2010

By Abhishek Anand

Windfall Indian agri firms have profited from infusion of equity funds
Photo: AP

IT IS financial inclusion of a different kind. Sensing a huge opportunity, private equity funds are increasingly investing in the rural economy, primarily consisting of agribusiness, microfinance and livestock. The latest in the series is Lighthouse Funds, which has recently invested nearly Rs. 34 crore in Dhanuka Agritech Ltd.
Dhanuka Agritech is present in businesses such as agrochemicals, fertilisers and seeds. The company’s agri-division has a pan-India presence and a dealer network of 15,000 outlets across the country.
Summit Partners, a US private equity fund with $11 billion in assets under management, too has made its debut in India with a $30 million investment in Krishidhan Seeds Ltd (KSL), a commercial seeds company based in Maharashtra.
KSL develops, produces and distributes proprietary hybrid seeds of cotton and rice. It claims a countrywide presence and offers a diversified portfolio of more than 120 products including crops, vegetable seeds and crop nutrition. It has more than 30,000 seed growers under its fold and has a strong network, with about 1,600 distributors and 25,000 retailers across the country.
And that is not all. Vistaar Livelihood Finance, a microfinance company, recently raised nearly Rs.15 crore from SVB India Capital Partners, a mainstream investor, and Elevar Equity, a social venture fund. Vistaar Finance has several schemes under which it lends anywhere between Rs. 15,000 and Rs. 40,000 to rural people.
“With the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act and rapid growth of the Indian economy, income level is on the rise in rural areas. It provides immense opportunity and that is luring private equity funds,” says Brahmanand Hegde, managing director and chief executive officer, Vistaar Finance.
MOREOVER, SOME companies are also trying to rope in strategic investors. For instance, Delhi-based agribusiness firm Dev Bhumi Cold Chain Private Ltd is looking to raise funds through private equity.

‘Agribusiness has the potential of yielding 25 percent returns,’ says BMR Advisors director Sujata Mody

“The potential in the rural sector is immense and major private equity and venture capital firms, including the likes of Nexus, New Silk Route Advisors and Sequoia Capital, are looking to invest in the sector. We have roped in the services of PricewaterhouseCoopers to help us raise funds,” says a senior official of Dev Bhumi Cold Chain Private Ltd.
“Agribusiness has the potential of providing returns close to 20-25 percent and that is why both private equity as well as venture capital companies are exploring opportunities in the area,” says Sujata Mody, director, BMR Advisors. “The average deal size is anywhere between $10 million and $25 million.”
However, IFCI Venture Capital Funds Ltd chairman Atul Kumar Rai is not so gung-ho on rural investments. “No one has any doubt about the potential of our rural sector. But there are several roadblocks ahead,” he says. “There is a huge shortage of power and even roads are not in a good condition. On top of it, there is no pricing freedom on many agricultural produce. As a result, risk involved in the business is high and, hence, only big private equity funds are in a position to take such risk.”
But as they say, the higher the risk, the higher the possible gains.
abhishek.anand@fwtehelka.com

The only Fashionistas

Aastha Atray Banan

16/10/2010

If you are trying to spot the next hot trend, head to the Northeast. Forget the metros, street fashion is born in Shillong, Kohima and Imphal, says Aastha Atray Banan
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NAMRAPALI NARZARY is a 21-year-old Bodo student from Assam, studying sociology at JNU. Narzary is currently into the body-con look inspired by Serena Van der Woodson from Gossip Girl. Think super tight bandage style dresses — unwatered down fashion but at non-Hérve Léger prices. On the university’s tree-lined streets, among the studied slacker fashion of the student population, Narzary stands out with her effortless style.
Narzary is not an exception. A casual glance across college canteens anywhere in India will confirm where the real fashionistas of the country are. Not Mumbai, Delhi or Bengaluru. The girls and boys from the Northeast are the frontrunners. Fitted dresses, abstract-shaped pants, harem pants, bubblegum colour schemes, skinny jeans, ties, hip-hop sneakers and gelled, highly structured hair all hit Gangtok, Shillong, Imphal and Kohima before they hit ‘mainland’ India.

Narzary did not spend years trying to choose between the three prevailing influences on Indian street fashion: Bollywood bling, dated American trends and ‘alternative’ meaning ethnic with a heavy dose of handlooms. As a teenager, Narzary only wanted to look like the Korean girl band 21. With Bollywood unpopular and minimal local language programming, pop culture in the Northeast takes a lot of its cues from Korean television anyway. The Korean pop music aesthetic contains some startling artifacts: pink one-shoulder shrugs, leather bodysuits with silver studs, 1980s playsuits, hot pants in neon colours and dropped crotch pants for men. Mazami Sailo Rose, an executive working for the Italian fashion house Pal Zileri grew up in Mizoram. She explains the leaning toward Seoul simply, “Our bodies are different from people in the rest of India, so are our features. We resemble people from Korea and China. It’s better to dress like them than dress like Bollywood stars. That’s why Korean pop bands are a huge influence.”
The fashion establishment may be catching on. When the prospect of a Guwahati Fashion Week was announced recently, hopes were raised for a runway without embroidered lehengas, glistening sherwanis and sequinned saris. The event, which is tentatively slated for this month, will feature fashion designers and models from the Northeast. Debasish Shyam, business head, United Spirits Limited, one of the sponsors, explained simply, “We found that the youth in the Northeast spend most of their disposable income on fashion. And since there is no concerted effort to establish an official platform for fashion in that region, we stepped up.”
So why is the Northeast ahead of the curve? Nandini Baruah, 30, a well-known Guwahati designer who will also be showing at the Guwahati Fashion Week, believes that the region’s melting pot nature helps. “Take Assamese society, there are descendents of the Mongolians who came from China and descendents of the Aryans. There are many intercaste marriages as well. Due to this mix of cultures, people are more open-minded here, and thus, fashion is easily accepted. You are bound to find a unique Justin Timberlake or Rihanna at every corner.” Daniel Syiem, 30, a designer from Shillong also brings up the influence of pop music, “Right now, with the coming of VH1, hip-hop dominates the scene. It’s great that finally we may have a fashion week to call our own. For years, we have dressed well, now we can link that fashion awareness to a larger context of fashion in India.”
If you were missing a sartorialist-like blog tracking some of this fashion, look no further than A Bit of Our Life (stylingscholars.blogspot.com). Lepcha and Longkumar are 20-something anthropology students in Shillong. You can’t see their faces but everyday they post pictures of themselves in delicious new clothes somewhere in their hometown. With wearable colours, clean lines and high-waisted everything, the girls are less hip-hop and more Aisha. Aisha with flair. L1 and L2, as the girls like to call themselves, trace their instinctive fashion antennae back to their parents and grandparents.
An antenna so sensitive that to be rebellious means to be anti-fashion. Mumbai-based copywriter Kima De Mizohican complains, “There is a lot of pressure to look good. When I go back from Mumbai to Mizoram, I have to hear jibes from people about being too casual. Fashion has become such an integral part of people’s lives that if you are not with it, you are totally uncool.”
PHOTOS: GARIMA JAIN AND MS GOPAL

RBI to Raise Lending to Match Private Moneylenders

Abhishek Anand

25/09/2010

By Abhishek Anand
RURAL MONEYLENDERS, used to charging high interest rates from the indebted poor, will have competition once the regional rural banks (RRBs) have been recapitalised to raise their lending ability. The government has accepted the recommendations of the Deputy Governor of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), KC Chakrabarty, to pump around Rs 2,200 crore into the RRBs to substantially raise their capital adequacy level. This is a measure of a bank’s capital in relation to its lending, and thus a barometer of its health.
The 15,475 branches of the 82 RRBs in 619 districts — the primary formal source for farm loans and other rural financing — have, for the most part, been out of bounds of the poor because as many as 23 of them have a capital adequacy ratio of less than 7 percent; and in seven of them it was a measly 1 percent till last March. This may be a mild improvement since March 2008, when 22 of them didn’t even have this much.
According to a senior finance ministry official, the committee headed by Chakrabarty also favours having a separate fund of Rs. 100 crore to train RRB staff and build capacity. The move will raise the banks’ capital adequacy to 7 percent by March 2011 and 9 percent by 2012. The committee had examined ways to strengthen rural banks, so they can support an agricultural growth rate of 4 percent over the next few years.
The money should also help clean up the banks’ balance sheets. Though only three RRBs made losses in 2009-10, the accumulated losses of 30 such banks stand at Rs. 1,808 crore. In sync with the government’s focus on the rural economy, RRBs have been concentrating on priority sector lending. Against the mandate of at least 60 percent loans to this sector, the share of such banks has been above 80 percent. The banks also provide loans of up to Rs. 5 lakh to small-scale industries, and the retail, education and housing sectors. In 2009, they gave loans worth Rs. 56,268 crore.