Italy’s Filmmaster Events enters JV with E-Factor to organize sporting and ceremonial events

With forty years of experience behind it, Filmmaster Events specializes in the production of creative live content and entertainment, catering to sporting, ceremonial and tourism events. Remember the massive helium balloon at New Delhi Commonwealth Games? It was created by Filmmaster Events and was the largest helium balloon the world had ever seen (80m x 40m x 20m). Most recently the agency has executed the grand opening ceremony for Rio 2016 Olympic games. Filmmaster is also accredited for organizing the closing ceremonies of London 2012 Olympic, UEFA Cup 2012, London 2012 Paralympic and suchlike. Besides sports, large institutional events are another key forte where they’ve effected celebrations for countries like Mexico, Turkmenistan and Kuwait.

Filmmaster’s collaboration with E-Factor in India is led by their interest to organize world class sporting and ceremonial events in the country. “At the moment we are very strong in Europe and Middle East while our growth is steady in America, both north and south. Our study of the Indian market and event industry indicated a compelling proposition for growth in the region. To spread our roots in the country we realized the need of a strong local partner. In E-Factor we identified shared interests and an ideal fit. Ceremonies related to sporting events and tourist activations will be our key areas of focus as we lay our foundation”, says Andrea Francisi, COO, Filmmaster Events.

Commenting on the specifics of the association Samit Garg, Founder Director, E-Factor Entertainment says, “The association is a 50- 50 joint venture. We have not defined who will bring what to the fore, that will depend on the specific projects and the strengths needed to drive it. More than the financial capital invested, the pool of intellectual and creative capital created as a result of this association will be unmatched. The Italian office will largely drive creatives while implementation will be undertaken by E-Factor. Management control will be shared between the two.” Chiming in Francisi expresses, “Event companies are based on human capital. What is most important are for the thoughts to be in sync, more than the economics and finances, that part is easy. Our collective intellectual resources will be our core strength.”

Large experiential agencies such as Wizcraft, Showtime and Encompass are among the only few equipped to execute ceremonial events such as opening and closing of large format sporting events such as IPL, ISL and suchlike. The Filmmaster and E-Factor JV will be a new entrant is this relatively competitive space. When asked about his apprehension, or lack thereof, Garg states, “Getting a leg up on competition is not a fear in our mind. Incidentally, our initial steps into the world of events were in stadiums, we believe we understand the geography of that space well. Also, we understand the scape because ‘larger-than-life’ is built into the dna of E-Factor. We are extremely confident, we see no threat”.

With an optimistic drive to kick-off the JV with a big ticket account like the FIFA U-17 World Cup opening ceremony slated for October 2017, Garg comments, “We are not a ‘no’ company. We are problem solvers. We first ascertain what the need is then work on crunching the budget as opposed to the way other agencies work. Our philosophy is that nothing is impossible. If someone somewhere in the world is able to do it, we should be able to do it too. Only better and at a cheaper price, because that’s what India is about. This belief is extremely instrumental in getting us where we are today. With our horizon widened as a result of this JV we will target all the marquee ceremonial events. In two years we want to be the best in the space of ceremonial and sporting events, not in terms of the number of events we do or topline we make, we simply want to deliver the best”.

The opening ceremony of Kabaddi League is pegged at INR 4 crore while of IPL is a whopping 21 crore, speaking about the plan to score a bigger share of the pie in a new market Marques comments, “The mindset of the Indian population when it comes to ticketed events is completely different to what we’ve seen. We want to change and work with the mindset of the people. People want to be entertained and therefore the idea is to create events that are so grand and unique that people would want to come and see them and talk about them and wait for the subsequent editions with bated breath”, expresses Carla Marques, Director of Marketing and Development at Filmmaster Events.

In summary Jai Thakore, Director, E-Factor adds, “This is a great time to be alive in India. Things are changing really quickly. Our production expertise stems from the thought ‘what more can we do’ and ‘how can we add to the production value’. Our quest is to achieve a ‘world-class’ status in whatever we do. When the need is there, the suppliers will change, equipment will change, the way engineering is done will change.”