The Ramoji Group

Background Note Contd...

Commented Ramoji Rao, "My heritage lies in the soil and my forefathers were all farmers. But I sold off all my property and to atone for this and to do something special for the farmer community I started a magazine in their language" In 1974, Ramoji Rao entered the print media by launching Eenadu, a Telugu newspaper in Visakhapatnam. Ramoji Rao explained, "I focussed on the region which I thought was most relevant to the people." The Hyderabad edition was launched in 1975, followed by the Vijayawada (Andhra Pradesh) edition in 1976. In the early 1980s, Ramoji Group entered the foods business with Priya Pickles. The Priya brand was later extended to culinary pastes and powders. The Group then made a foray into films with Ushakiron Movies.

The Group established Mayuri Film Distributors to distribute its films and Mayuri Audio to market the audio cassettes of the films. In the early 1990s, Ushakiron Movies diversified into satellite television with ETV – the Telugu channel. In 1992, the Ramoji Group started a handicrafts division under the name 'Kalanjali'. The division was set up with a view to promote the sale and export of handicrafts, cottons and textiles of Indian craftsmen.

The Group set up a showroom in Hyderabad. From April 1993, the division started exports of various goods under the trademark of 'Kalanjali'. On September 9, 1997, The Ramoji Group inaugurated its most innovative creation – The Ramoji Film City based on the maxion – "Walk in with your script and walk out with your print".

Spread over 1000 acres, the Film City had gardens, temples, a sprawling countryside, a fort, hotels, city streets, railway stations, a palace, an airport, a mobile kitchen etc. It had all the technical support to make a film – 40 studio floors, a fully-equipped prop shop, a set design and construction division, state-of-the-art equipment, experienced production staff, and hi-tech digital editing, dubbing and sound-recording facility.

Said Ramoji Rao, "The idea is to save time, energy and resources and focus on creative excellence, executional quality, economical schedules and meticulous planning." The USP of the Film City was claimed to be its ability to rebuild any place for a shoot. Producers had choice of flexible locations. For instance, a song could be choreographed in any or all of the locations.

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Case Details

Case Code : LDEN001
Themes: Differentiation
Case Length : 8 Pages
Period : 1992-2002
Organization : Varied
Pub Date : 2002
Teaching Note : Available
Countries : India
Industry : Media and Entertainment

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