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FILM AND TELEVISION
LIVE ENTERTAINMENT
PROPERTY DEVELOPMENT
INTERNATIONAL OPERATIONS
EMPOWERMENT STRATEGY
THE PLAYERS
Anant Singh
Sudhir Pragjee
Sanjeev Singh
CORPORATE PROFILE
Videovision Entertainment is a diversified company with operations that range from its core business of film and television production and distribution to media, live entertainment and film studio and property development. The company has diversified and achieved phenomenal growth over the years, resulting in it becoming one of the leading media and entertainment entities in South Africa and the African continent.
FILM AND TELEVISION
Videovision Entertainment has produced more than 75 feature films over the past 25 years in South Africa, the United States, United Kingdom, Canada and Hong Kong, with an aggregate value of production costs in excess of R1 billion.
Among the company's productions are some of the most profound films to have been produced in South Africa, including A Place Of Weeping, Cry, The Beloved Country and Sarafina! The company also produced Yesterday, the first South African film to receive an Academy Award Nomination. The company holds the coveted film rights to Nelson Mandela's autobiography, Long Walk To Freedom.
Videovision Entertainment's association with South Africa's Number One Boxoffice star, Leon Schuster, has seen the production of the top All Time box office hits in South Africa - the hit comedies Mr Bones 2 which has earned R35 million, Mr Bones which grossed R33 million at the boxoffice and Mama Jack which grossed R28 million. With these productions, the company has the distinction of producing three of the Top 6 films of All Time in South Africa:
1. AVATAR
2. TITANIC
3. MR BONES 2
4. MR BONES
5. SHREK 2
6. MAMA JACK
Released in 2008 in South Africa was More Than Just A Game, the moving docu-drama feature which tells the inspiring story of organised soccer among prisoners on Robben Island (the maximum security prison where Nelson Mandela and other political prisoners were incarcerated by the apartheid regime in South Africa). Upcoming is the comedy Stiff, which is directed by Craig Freimond (Gums 'n Noses) and stars Carl Beukes, Lionel Newton, Lindiwe Matshikiza and Nick Borraine.
Shot in the United States are American East with Tony Shalhoub (Monk) and the re-make of Japanese horror maestro Hideo Nakata's Don't Look Up, directed by award winning Hong Kong filmmaker, Fruit Chan (Dumplings, Three Extremes), the film stars Reshad Strik (Hills Have Eyes 2), Henry Thomas (Legends Of The Fall), Carmen Chaplin (All About the Benjamins), Kevin Corrigan (Departed, American Gangster) and Lothaire Bluteau (Black Robe, Jesus of Montreal).
Videovision Entertainment acquired the South African rights to and also successfully produced the international hit gameshow, Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? for three seasons. It also produced a weekly drama series, The Res for the SABC and has produced numerous documentaries, among which are: Nkosi - The Voice Of Africa's AIDS Orphans, A Hero For All (a tribute to Nelson Mandela as he stepped down as President), Countdown to Freedom (documenting the 10 days preceding the first democratic elections in South Africa 1994) and Prisoners of Hope (documents the reunion of 1250 former political prisoners, led by President Mandela, on Robben Island). Produced as a 90th Birthday tribute to Nelson Mandela, was Viva Madiba: A Hero For All Seasons. The company scored a major coup with the timely production of Obama: People's President, a documentary feature that explores the unique and innovative US presidential campaign mounted by Barack Obama.
Videovision Entertainment is among the leading independent film distributors, acquiring more than two thousand international films for distribution in South Africa over the last 25 years.
The company also holds a 50% stake in the specialist video/DVD distribution company, Next Video, which holds the South African rights to numerous libraries, including National Geographic and popular children's programming among which are, Barney, Bob The Builder and Noddy.
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MEDIA
Videovision Entertainment has a 15% stake in Telkom Media which was awarded a commercial satellite and cable subscription broadcast licence by the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa in 2006.
The company is a pioneer in commercial radio in South Africa and is a former shareholder in East Coast Radio, OFM and Jacaranda FM. It was also a founding shareholder, with Kagiso Trust Investments in the establishment of Kagiso Media. Videovision Investments divested from the commercial radio business in 2006.
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LIVE ENTERTAINMENT
The company has promoted some of the most successful stadium extravaganzas ever staged in South Africa. Among these are the South African legs of Michael Jackson's History World Tour and Gloria Estefan's Evolution World Tour. It also promoted Bollywood megastar, Amitabh Bachchan's Jumma Chooma Concert and also the Now Or Never Live! which saw ten of Bollywood's brightest stars perform to an audience of 60 000 in a capacity sold-out show at the ABSA Stadium in Durban.
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PROPERTY DEVELOPMENT
Videovision Entertainment is currently developing film studios and related facilities in Cape Town and Durban. These developments will provide state-of-the-art facilities with the latest technology and are situated in Faure in Cape Town and the Natal Command site on Durban's beachfront (next to the SunCoast Casino). The first phase of the Cape Town Film Studios is scheduled to be completed by 31 July 2010 with the development cost being R300 million.
Also being developed at present is The Pearls Of Umhlanga, a luxury residential development on the coastline, north of Durban where 250 apartments have been completed at a cost of R800 million.
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INTERNATIONAL OPERATIONS
Distant Horizon, wholly owned by Videovision Entertainment, is the company's international arm with offices in London and Los Angeles. These offices control the group's international film production and distribution activities.
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