Saregama

From Infogalactic: the planetary knowledge core
Jump to: navigation, search

<templatestyles src="Module:Hatnote/styles.css"></templatestyles>

Saregama India
Public
Industry Retail
Founded 13 August 1946 (The Gramophone Company), 3 November 2000 (Saregama)
Headquarters Kolkata, Mumbai, India
Area served
Global
Key people
Mr.Vikram Mehra (MD)
Parent RPSG Group
Website http://www.saregama.com/

Saregama India Ltd. is a renowned Indian music label and a leading content producer for Indian television.

Saregama is known for its music catalogue which consists of more than 117,000 songs in 14 languages built over a period of more than 100 years. It has daily/weekly TV shows currently on air with leading television networks in India.

Saregama’s head office is located in Mumbai, with other offices in Kolkata, Delhi & Chennai.

Overview

Listed on the NSE and BSE, Saregama India Limited, is one of India’s most recognized music recording company.

The history of Saregama stretches back over a century to 1901. From producing the first song recorded in India to creating strong inroads into the production of cinema and television content, digital retailing, aggregation, radio programming and events, Saregama has evolved into one of the leading entertainment content companies in Asia.

History

EMI

In 1901, operations started as the first overseas branch of Electrical & Musical Industries Limited, EMI London.

The company was incorporated on 13 August 1946 with the name of ‘The Gramophone Co. (India) Limited’. The name of the Company was subsequently changed to ‘The Gramophone Co. of India Limited’ effective 1 April 1956. It was converted into a public company on 28 October 1968 and consequently the name of the company was changed to ‘The Gramophone Company of India Limited’.

RPG Group took over the company in 1985 from EMI.

The name of the company was then changed from “The Gramophone Company of India Limited” to ‘Saregama India Limited’ on November 3, 2000. The name "Saregama" refers to the first four notes of the Indian musical scale.

In 2005, the remaining EMI stake was sold off to the parent company.

HMV

The Gramophone Company has always been better known as HMV (His Master's Voice) in India. RPG Group has been using the brand under license from the former parent company, EMI.

On 3 November 2000, RPG Group changed the company's name to Saregama India Limited, and introduced a music label of the same name.

Dum Dum Recording Studio

The Recording Studio and the entire Dum Dum establishment of Saregama India Limited was built in 1928. It is one of the oldest studios in Southeast Asia. Noble Laureate Rabindranath Tagore had recorded his songs and poems in his own voice at this studio. Rebel poet Kazi Nazrul Islam’s voice was also recorded here.

Legendary artistes from the Indian musical fraternity have recorded at this studio. To name a few K.C.Dey, Hemanta Mukherjee, Sandhya Mukherjee, Manna Dey, Suchitra Mitra, Ustad Bade Ghulam Ali Khan, Pandit Ravi Shankar, Ustad Bismillah Khan and many more. Renowned legendary film director Satyajit Ray always preferred to record his musical scores for his films at Dum Dum studio.

Major television shows such as Dadagiri, Didi No.1, Dance Bangla Dance & Saregamapa Lil Champs have been shot here.

Operations

Music Audio Business

Saregama provides a large music repertoire across all genres and languages, which includes the top-recording artists of the past hundred years and some of the greatest names in music. Saregama owns the best of yesteryears music, right from the music of the first film made in BollywoodAlaam Ara’ (1931) to the likes of artistes such K.L. Saigal, Lata Mangeshkar, Madan Mohan, Shamshad Begum, Asha Bhosle, Mohd. Rafi, Kishore Kumar & many more.

Over the years, Saregama has been able to complete the journey from a music label into digital business conglomerate.

In April ’14, Saregama entered into a partnership with an international digital distribution company, ‘Believe Digital’, for digital distribution of the entire music catalogue across different languages and genres in international market especially with the Indian diaspora.

In March ’15, Saregama relaunched its online music store, www.saregama.com, consisting of more than 117,000 songs in more than 14 languages downloadable at a price of either 9 INR for the regular MP3 or 50 INR for a high quality lossless wav format. It has four main sections – Hindi, Devotional, Regional & Languages in 35 sub categories with an added feature called ‘Experience 360’ which provides the users with information regarding the song, artists, artist biography & videos along with related songs.

Saregama is focusing on building a robust content monetization distribution, viz., relationships with Telecom Operators, DTH/ Digital Cable platforms, iTunes, OTT services (Gaana, Hungama, Wynk Music, Eros, Saavn, Biscoot & Guvera) & TV channels and Radio stations. Additional focus areas include, Direct-to-customer retail business namely, website & applications, physical distribution, YouTube, international markets monetization, ad sales from reinterpretation projects, new Indian language Television software (shows).

Saregama Classical mobile application

Saregama India launched a subscription based mobile application in September 2015 which features its catalogue of Indian classical music. The app, named 'Saregama Classical' has more than 10000 musical works of over 400 classical music artistes which covers the three major subgenres of Indian Classical music i.e. Hindustani, Carnatic & Fusion. It also has a curated list of 50 artiste based stations for listeners to choose from.

The app consists of works from world renowned artistes such as Pt. Jasraj, Ustad Zakir Hussain, Pt. Ravi Shankar, Begum Parveen Sultana, M S Subbulakshmi, Karaikudi Mani, N. Ramani, Pt. Bhimsen Joshi and many more. Amidst various features, the most notable one is its offline listening where the app allows you to download (offline) its songs on the phone, so that the user can listen to it later without any data charges.

Saregama Classical is available worldwide on Apple and Android stores. It is a free to download app with a seven-day trial period. Customers then have an option to choose from monthly, semi-annual and annual subscription offers. The payment can be made either through the iTunes for Apple users or the Google Play store for Android users. Customers can also pay via their telecom operator or through their credit card/net banking/debit card.

Music publishing business

Saregama’s works with television channels, advertisers, film producers, radio stations, film & television production houses for use of its content. The Bollywood industry continues to synchronize Saregama’s catalogue to create new content while retaining the nostalgic value of retro music.

The examples for such collaborations would be the song Fifi from Bombay Velvet, Hungama Ho Gaya from Queen & latest Mahindra Rise ‘Kisi Se Kam Nahi’ TV Advertisement.

Television Software

Saregama is one of the leading producers of Content for TV channels in Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam and Bengali.

Hindi

Saregama’s debuted on National TV at prime time with “Prayaschit”, a Crime based show for Sony. This was followed by “Police Files” season 1&2 and “Pyar Ya Dehshat”, both 100 plus episodes each on BIG channels. Currently Saregama has 2 shows running on Doordarshan at prime time, “Stree Shakti” and “Jab Jab Bahar Aayi”. Along with TV shows, Saregama is also producing Vignettes based on the Famous Speeches of renowned leaders like Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru, etc. for EPIC TV. Saregama has been a regular producer of Savdhaan India on Life OK. Till date we have produced 175+ episodes and 8 Maha Movies of the said program. Currently Saregama is producing for the Maharashtra Fights Back series, which is aired over the weekend.

Hindi Shows:

  • Savdhan India, Maharashtra Fights Back
  • Daffa 420
  • Jab Jab Bahar Aayee
  • Prayaschit
  • Police Files Season 1 & 2
  • Pyar Ya Dehshat
  • Stree Shakti
  • Vignettes

South

The South TV Division of Saregama was started in June 2001 and has since then produced approximately 4000 hours of TV Content which has been telecast on Sun Network. Saregama has produced serials in highly diverse genres like socio mythology, family soaps, fantasy fiction, horror etc. in all four South Indian Languages.

Many of its popular soaps and serials have crossed three years and have been popular amongst the viewers. The serial ‘Athi Pookkal’ is a big success and has crossed 1000 episodes and is the leading serial in the noon band of Sun TV. Saregama has also produced several non-fiction shows where film celebrities such as A.R.Rahman, Vasunthara Das, Shivmani, Lawrence, Mumtaz, Malavika have participated as judges. Saregama currently has 8 hours of programming per week on Sun TV out of which two are daily soaps (‘Chandralekha’ and ‘Valli’), one is a horror fiction (‘Bhairavi’) and one is a family game show ‘Chellame Chellam’.

Tamil Shows:

  • Muhangal
  • My Dear Bhootham
  • Pondatti Thevai
  • Kuttees Choice
  • Athi Pookkal
  • Valli
  • Pillai Nila
  • Chandralekha
  • Soolam
  • Velan
  • Raja Rajeshwari
  • Veppalaikari
  • Bhairavi
  • Mirinda Ooh La La La
  • Close Up Super Dancer
  • Masthana Masthana
  • Rani Maharani
  • Chellame Chellam
  • Johnsons Baby Kuzhandai Paramarippu
  • Jollywood Express
  • Pepsodent Kids Khiladees

Telugu Shows:

  • Iddaru Ammayilu
  • Jeevitha Chakram
  • Namo Venkatesa
  • Super Boy
  • Kasi Majililu
  • Close Up Super Dancer
  • Rexona Evergreen Athithilu
  • Jollywood Express
  • 7 Up Ooh La La La
  • Johnsons Baby Sisu Samrakshana

Kannada Shows:

  • Rathnagiri Rahasya
  • Golmaal Gowramma
  • Henne Nee Jaane

Malayalam:

  • Aayilyam Kaavu
  • Rani Maharani
  • Jollywood Junction
  • Mummy and Me
  • Johnsons Baby Sisu Samrakshanam

Awards

  • Sun Kudumbam Awards for Best Actress in a Negative Role for the serial Athi Pookkal
  • Sun Kudumbam Awards for Best Actress in a Negative Role for the serial Valli
  • State Award for Best Child Artise in the serial My Dear Bhootham