“After D-Day, we have Mickey Virus” – Vivek Rangachari of DAR Motion Pictures

By Devansh Patel -

July 25, 2013 - 12:34 PM IST

This is what amazes me about Vivek Rangachari. "I am quite a competitior and we at DAR love the competition in movies but that's what keeps us going in Bollywood". He's seen it, he's learnt it and now he does it. One of the founders of DAR Motion Pictures and the newest Production House to set their base in Bollywood, the Rangachari Bros know that making their own movie has never been the end of the ride for them, and they know that the inception that started over a mug of beer to make their big leap in B-town is paying dividends. The latest being their critically acclaimed Nikhil Advani's D-Day that started off at a snail's pace has slowly but surely gained momentum at the Box Office. All overnight successes have taken a long time and it stands true when I talk to Vivek about his company and its rise so far. Post their adolescence, both the brothers have always restabilized, resummoned and refocused their energies on movie content, production and distribution. Now why am I not surprised that the path the 'boy-wonders' have taken will soon land them the title - Movie Moguls....and more, in this exclusive interview with Vivek Rangachari.

“After D-Day, we have Mickey Virus” – Vivek Rangachari of DAR Motion Pictures

So, tell me more about the movies DAR Motion Pictures have done so far besides D-Day.

We established DAR Motion Pictures four years ago. Our first release was in 2010 April when we released Mahesh Manjrekar's Lalbaugh Parel and City of Gold. Then we released Vikram Bhatt's Haunted in 2011 and in May we did Dangerous Ishq. We also did another Marathi movie Teecha Baap Tyacha Baap. Post these releases we thought of spreading our wings a little more with Nikhil Advani's D-Day and the next Anurag Kashyap movie with Phantom. I guess we are heading in the right direction, slowly but surely.

In the market where there are big players, where does DAR Motion Pictures fit?

We are an emerging company and there are bigger players and far more established players in the market as of now than we are. But in the larger scheme of things, we would like to differentiate our company in terms of high concept movies with diverse content. D-Day and our unreleased movie Mickey Virus are the best examples. Even City of Gold for that matter. We also want to be a part of commercially successful movies that are critically acclaimed. A small film called Lunchbox is also pretty well acclaimed. A big international distributor has picked up the film post our screening at Cannes Film Festival. We are looking to release the film soon in India and we are in talks with studios.

Now be honest. Was your company formed over a mug of beer or a glass of whisky?

(Laughs) DAR Motion Pictures was born out of a mug of beer. My elder brother Arun and myself were always interested in movies from the early 80's and 90's. Our adolescence was spent a lot in listening to his stories about films and shoots. We then parted ways. Arun went into investment banking, I went into I.T. But our love for films got us back together five years ago. We were never a part of this industry but we as a team spent a lot of time understanding how the industry functions. Now that we are prepared, we are here to stay for good.

How do you rate the growth of your company so far?

We have a private equity fund that we use and one of the first investors we made was into a company called Valuable Group. That was our first taste of entertainment in India. When we started off, we were only four people. One was into marketing, one into commercials, etc. Today we have a team of twenty five employees and have opened a distribution network a year and a half ago. We've distributed big Hollywood movies like The Dark Knight Rises and The Fast And The Furious 6 besides other smaller English and Hindi movies. Yes, we are growing and hope to keep it that way by recruiting likeminded people and who have a far more experience in the industry. After D-Day, Mickey Virus and Ugly, we intend to go forward with more commercial projects with good content, different genres and budget movies.

In days to come, do you look forward to an alliance with Balaji Motion Pictures or Dharma Productions?

It's too early to say we will have an alliance. But that might be years down the line. Yes, we have done co-productions with Phantom and Vikram Bhatt but with the biggies we might have to first prove ourselves with more commercial movies. Let's hope for the best.

How do you see the business of movies in the coming years in India?

I think it's a great time in the industry right now. Different movies appeal to different categories of audience. Different genres and content is being churned out these days and it's good for the business. It's only getting stronger by the day. Some movies work, some don't but the niche movies for niche audience will take time to develop. I see more commercial movies doing well; I feel there is a trend to discover your favorite actors too - like Sushant or Amit Sadh from Kai Po Che, Parineeti, Arjun Kapoor, etc. Having said that, there will be a superstar who will dictate the terms at the box office and you can't shy away from that. Industry perception is changing and it's time it should.