Namit Malhotra

Namit Malhotra
Born Namit Malhotra
(1976-04-02) 2 April 1976
Alma mater H.R. College of Commerce and Economics, Mumbai
Occupation Founder, Executive Chairman and Global CEO of Prime Focus

Namit Malhotra (born 2 April 1976) is the Founder, Executive Chairman and Global CEO of Prime Focus Limited, world’s largest independent integrated media services company.[1][2][3]

Early life

Namit is the eldest son of Bollywood film producer Naresh Malhotra and grandson of cinematographer M.N. Malhotra. He grew up in Mumbai, India and graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in Commerce from H.R. College of Commerce and Economics, Mumbai.[4][5]

Career

Namit began his journey in Bollywood at the age of 19. In 1995, he enrolled in a computer graphics school where he saw how whole movies could be created on computers. He recruited three of his teachers at the school as co-founders and started Video Workshop, an editing studio in his father’s garage.

The next two years, Video Workshop did all kinds of editing work for many television shows and serials (like Boogie Woogie for Sony, Colgate Top 10 for Zee Entertainment, Gaatha for Star India), advertisement films/TVC's (for producers like Sunil Manchanda of MAD Entertainment) and music videos (for producers like Sanjay Gupta, Kunal Kohli and Anubhav Sinha). It also ran the post production facility for Channel V. By 1997, Video Workshop was putting together 21 television shows a week.

In 1997, Malhotra merged Video Workshop’s business with Naresh Malhotra’s Video Works, a film production equipment rental business to create Prime Focus. Prime Focus grew as a provider of technological creative services such as visual effects, sound and Digital Intermediate (DI) for television and movies. Prime Focus was one of the earliest companies to set up scanning and recording system (2001) and DI system (2003) in India. It was the first visual effects company in India to operate a Motion Controlled Rig (2004)

By 2005 Prime Focus’ growth had attracted enough attention from angel investors like Manmohan Shetty and Rakesh Jhunjhunwala. In 2006 Namit listed Prime Focus on the Indian stock exchanges through an Initial Public Offering (IPO) and became the first Managing Director and CEO of the newly listed company. Prime Focus expanded its creative services business globally as Prime Focus World (PFW), acquiring visual effects (VFX), broadcast and post-production facilities in London, New York, Los Angeles andVancouver. In 2008, Malhotra promoted Prime Focus Technologies (PFT) which was founded in Bangalore by Ramki Sankaranarayanan and Ganesh Sankaran. They created the world’s first hybrid cloud-enabled Media ERP suite, CLEAR™.

In 2009, leveraging Prime Focus World’s proprietary View-D technology, Malhotra agreed to convert Clash of the Titans into 3D in just 8 weeks. The film was a roaring success at the box office and led to a wave of marquee films being converted in to 3D for re-release, including Star Wars: Episode I, II & III, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 & 2, Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, Wrath of the Titans, Transformers: Dark of the Moon and Shrek 2.

In October 2011, Malhotra relinquished his role as Managing Director of Prime Focus Limited to Ramki Sankaranarayanan. In 2012, he secured Standard Chartered Private Equity to invest in Prime Focus and diluted his stake in Prime Focus World to bring onboard Aid Capital Partners and Macquarie Capital Group in 2013.

In June 2014, Malhotra announced the merger of globally acclaimed visual effects house Double Negative with Prime Focus World. In the following month, July 2014, Reliance Group announced a transaction to merge the Film and Media Services business of Reliance MediaWorks with Prime Focus and additional cash equity infusion resulting in owning over 30% stake in Prime Focus Limited. Thus, creating what is undisputedly the world’s largest media services powerhouse with operations across 16 cities, 4 continents and 7 time zones, and over 5500 people.

Malhotra returned to the board of Prime Focus Limited as Executive Chairman and Global CEO in June 2014. He is a regular speaker at industry events like Stereo Conversion Round Table, FICCI FRAMES, KL Converge and British Columbia – India Trade Mission. His interviews have appeared in Los Angeles Times, Variety, The Hollywood Reporter, Post Magazine, The Economic Times, The Times of India and Forbes, among many others.

Personal life

Namit moved to Los Angeles in 2010 with his spouse of twenty years, Ami and three sons, and are currently based in London, UK.

Other Interests

Namit is passionate about sports cars. His elder son is named after F1 legend Ayrton Senna.

References

  1. ↑ "Working to create the 'Pixar of India': Namit Malhotra, chairman & founder, Prime Focus". Economic Times. Retrieved July 15, 2013.
  2. ↑ "Prime Focus Ltd". Bloomberg Businessweek. Retrieved November 6, 2014.
  3. ↑ "Prime Focus Q1 FY15 Consolidated revenues at Rs 3.5 bn" (PDF). The Hindu Business Line. Retrieved November 14, 2014.
  4. ↑ "Namit Malhotra". KL Converge. Retrieved November 3, 2014.
  5. ↑ "How Namit Malhotra turned Prime Focus a creative force behind five Oscar nominations for 2012". Economic Times. Retrieved February 19, 2012.


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