After Chhota Bheem, Imagica to offer House of Stars rides

Team Udayavani, May 7, 2018, 5:50 PM IST

Mumbai: On the heels of sewing up an alliance for Chhota Bheem, Adlabs-run theme park Imagica has tied up with a 3D technology firm to launch the House of Stars in its bid to boost both footfalls and merchandise revenue.

The country’s first and the only theme park designed on the lines of Universal Studio of Hollywood, had Rs 20 crore of its Rs 256 crore revenue coming in from merchandise sales in FY17, taking its total ancillary sales, including food and beverages, at 30 per cent of the total income.

Imagica expects this to touch 35 per cent with the House of Stars and Chhota Bheem merchandise next year.

For December 2017 quarter, Adlabs had reported Rs 62.98 crore revenue, up from Rs 60.46 crore a year ago, while its net loss soared to Rs 35.73 crore from Rs 22.77 crore during the same year-ago period. Interest cost too jumped to Rs 32.03 crore from Rs 30.96 crore. It is yet to announce the March quarter numbers.

Come May 8, Imagica is set to soft-launch the House of Stars, the first official Bollywood Hall of Fame, which is a Bollywood-focused theme ride in technical collaboration with Kloneworld Entertainment in content association with Dharma Productions, Fox Star Studios India, Arka Mediaworks, etc, Imagica joint chief executive Dhimant Bakshi told PTI today.

Imagica will also commercially launch Chhota Bheem rides tomorrow. It had announced the tie-up for Chhota Bheem with Green Gold Animation in March.

The House of Stars will showcase interactive life-size figurines of leading film actors – from thespian Dilip Kumar to the newbie Varun Dhawan and many more, Bakshi added.

Kloneworld is founded by Ajay Sharma and Gurjit Sidhu in 2013 and is into 3D illusion art.

Imagica will also launch House of Stars merchandise apart from offering customers an opportunity to get their personal 3D printed miniature figurines, he said.

“In FY17 our merchandise income stood at Rs 20 crore, while ancillary revenue was 30 per cent of Rs 256 crore net sales. We hope with these two brand alliances, our ancillary revenue, led by food & beverages, should touch 35 per cent by 2020,” Bakshi said, adding footfalls, which touched 6.2 million in FY18, and 6.4 million in April, will go up further with these two offerings.

Adlabs, which is sitting on Rs 1,100 crore debt, is monetising its none-core assets to pare debt. Already it has sold the five-star Novotel hotel to the D-Mart promoter Radakishnan Dhamani for Rs 200 crore and the deal is expected to be clsoed this month. It is awaiting the go-ahead from its lenders led by Union Bank, Bakshi said.

It is also scouting a buyer for a 200-acre land parcel around the theme park, which may fetch it Rs 150 crore.

“The entire proceeds from these deals will be used to pare debt,” Bakshi said, adding after that they will look at expansion. “We’ve identified Delhi, Bangalore and Hyderabad to take Imagica footprint out of Mumbai.” 

Adlabs’s Rs 1,650-crore investment into Imagica since 2013 has brought about a transformation to Khopoli, the hilly terrain off the Mumbai-Pune Expressway, creating over 1,500 direct and more than 15,000 indirect jobs apart from building world-class infrastructure around the park.

Adlabs closed 1.14 per cent up on the BSE at 48.90 against a 0.84 per cent rally on the benchmark.