Manmohan Shetty

Manmohan Shetty
Manmohan Shetty

Manmohan Shetty is an Indian entrepreneur who founded and developed Adlabs Films Ltd, one of India’s largest media and entertainment firms.[1]

Biography

Shetty was born and schooled in Mangalore in India to a Tulu-speaking Tuluva Bunt community.[2] He studied Arts at Mumbai’s Somaiya College and started his career with Adlabs Films.[3]

Career

Adlabs Films Ltd

Shetty founded his first company Adlabs Films Ltd. as an advertising films processing company in 1976. Soon, the firm ventured into feature film processing by setting up a laboratory in Film City, Mumbai.

He produced films like Ardh Satya, Chakra, Hip Hip Hurray, Holi and more. In the meantime Adlabs Films Ltd. went on to win the National Award several times for their technical contribution in Indian cinema. It initially started with films for advertising, The first feature film the company processed was Masoom, a Shekhar Kapoor film. Eventually it grew to process almost 90% of the Hindi film industry. It specialized in enhancing 16mm films to 35 mm format. It won several national awards as best film processing laboratory.[4]

The company went public in 2000 and expanded into the film exhibition business. They launched India’s first and largest IMAX dome in 2001 at Wadala, Mumbai, and later before introducing the multiplex culture to India.[5] Adlabs had close to 100 screens and a market capitalization of approximately $1 billion in 2008. The company has been renamed to Reliance Mediaworks Limited in 2009.[1][6]

Walkwater Media Ltd.

Shetty established Walkwater Media Ltd in 2007. It is an integrated business encompassing production across films, television, animation, other media as well as intellectual property exploitation.[7][8] His two daughters, Pooja Shetty-Deora and Aarti Shetty are associated with the company. Pooja is the joint managing director; Aarti is the creative head of its Film Production Division. Both of them produced the 2010 film Tere Bin Laden.[9]

Adlabs Imagica

Shetty started another entertainment project under the name of Adlabs Imagica. Adlabs Imagica is a theme park built at a cost of 1600Cr INR, on a 300-acre site, between Mumbai and Pune on the Mumbai-Pune Expressway.[10] The park has around 500 employees and can accommodate 20,000 visitors. Shetty is targeting to host over above 3 million visitors in the first year of operations.[11]

Entertainment One

His production company, Entertainment One, has produced films like Gangaajal, Main Madhuri Dixit Banna Chahti Hoon, Inteha and Munnabhai MBBS.

Associations

Shetty is ex-chairman of the National Film Development Corporation. He has been associated as a producer with films like Ardh Satya, Chakra, Hip Hip Hurray, Aaghat and Holi.

Filmography

References

  1. ^ "Manmohan Shetty". BBC News. 31 May 2006.
  2. ^ "Shilpa Shetty, Aishwarya Rai – Bunts and Bubblies - D P Satish' Blog". News18. 29 January 2007. Retrieved 8 March 2022.
  3. ^ "Mr. Manmohan Shetty comes on board to create rich quality content and raise the entertainment quotient in Bollywood, Firstpost". Firstpost. 25 November 2022.
  4. ^ "Official Website | Adlabs Imagica Theme Park". Archived from the original on 17 October 2013. Retrieved 16 October 2013.
  5. ^ Makhija, Prerna (20 April 2013). "Adlabs Imagica". Mint.
  6. ^ "Adlabs Films to be renamed Reliance MediaWorks". The Indian Express. 4 September 2009.
  7. ^ "Best film school | Digital film making courses | Film production school | MBA in media management - Whistlingwoods". Archived from the original on 11 June 2010. Retrieved 4 June 2010.
  8. ^ Manmohan Shetty floats Walkwater Media
  9. ^ Inner Courtyard | Saikat Datta
  10. ^ Sharma, Samidha (27 November 2012). "Adlabs founder bets big on theme parks". The Times of India.
  11. ^ D’Monte, Leslie (18 December 2012). "For Adlabs, a lot rides on new theme park". Live Mint.