Asoka: A sob story	Devdas: Not a tragedy, hopefully...	Brand Hrithik: Bad times

It's surely a sign of the times when all Bollywood looks to a rehashed tragedy (fine, an expensive re-make), Devdas, for succour. As to the illness itself, says Taran Adarsh of Trade Guide, an industry magazine, just look at the numbers: ''Nearly 119 of the 120 films released so far have flopped.'' With the exception of Mahesh Bhatt's Raaz (Secret)-that's right, it's the same one Sir Paul McCartney liked-no movie has worked its magic at the box-office. The timing couldn't be more awry: April, May, and June are typically the best months for Mumbai's dream merchants. ''If things carry on like this, 2002 will be a disaster,'' rues industry watcher Komal Nahata. Bollywood's best new (hyped-up) brands aren't working out either: both Hrithik Roshan and Kareena Kapoor have seen their recent ventures bomb.

	Waiting To Explode
	Bravehearts
	Interview: Osamu Suzuki
	Encounter: Asim Ghosh

Devdas could change the game, though. As could one of the five movies on the life of freedom fighter Bhagat Singh-especially in the hinterland where the theme could strike a chord in the context of heightened nationalism. As to the slump, Nahata blames it on a paucity of good scripts. Big banners, power casts, and exotic locales add up to nought in the absence of a convincing story. Ironically, where movie-makers didn't lose anything on their ventures, distributors did. In the case of Aankhen (Eyes) and Aap Mujhe Achche Lagne Lage (You Appeal To Me), the producers managed to convince distributors that the films would do well. After all, they did boast some big names. The distributors paid up, the producers recovered their costs, and the films bombed. Now, everyone is waiting for Devdas to turn things around. Unlucky in love, lucky at the tills. Or so everyone is hoping.

-Abir Pal

LEMONS
Waiting To Explode
The government's regulations regarding pension-and provident-funds could engender another scam.

Would you invest your precious all in bonds of West Bengal State Electricity Board (accumulated losses of Rs 1,770.41 crore) and Delhi Transport Corporation (losses of Rs 850 crore)? No?

Well, you already did. Worse, there's little you can do about it now. By some estimates over Rs 20,000 crore of the Rs 1,24,660 crore corpus of provident fund and pension schemes (of public and private sector companies) is stuck in bonds of public sector companies and State Electricity Boards.

Guidelines issued by the Finance Ministry are to blame: 40 per cent of the money in provident fund and pension schemes, these stipulate, must go into bonds issued by public sector units and public financial institutions; 25 per cent in government securities; 15 per cent in central or state government securities or mutual funds run by either. That leaves 20 per cent which can be invested in any of the above. And, oh, yes, a maximum of 10 per cent of this 20 per cent can, if the administration of the fund so desire, be invested in private sector bonds and securities.

MMTC, for instance, has invested in the likes of IFCI (oh, oh), IDBI (not so bad), ICICI (no problems with that one), Rajasthan State Electricity Board, West Bengal Infrastructure Development Corporation, Krishna Bhagya Jal Nigam, Indian Railways Finance Corporation and Karnataka Industrial Development Corporation. The investments may have been sound at the time they were made but are no longer so. The Rajasthan State Electricity Board, for instance, generates 9,030 million KWH of power and contrives to lose 4,981 million KWH through Transmission & Distribution (T&D) losses.

All investments in central and state government owned firms are guaranteed by the respective governments, so there is no real fear of employees being done out of their lifetime earnings. Still, an additional Rs 20,000 crore will do the combined fiscal deficit of the Centre and the states-a whopping 11 per cent of GDP in 2001-02-no good.

With an increasing number of public sector companies being privatised the stipulations may change. Only, requests made to the Finance Ministry thus far to increase the exposure of provident fund and pension schemes to the private sector to 25 per cent have gone unheeded. As have other requests to invest in equity, gold, and real estate. Good intentions gone to dust...

-Swati Prasad

BRAVEHEARTS
Expat CEOs aren't letting the fear of war scare them.

William S. Pinckney: Who's afraid of a war?

Countries like the US, the UK, and Australia may be calling their diplomats back home, but expat corporate warriors are staying put. Although most of the foreign head honchos that BT tried to contact were travelling abroad on work, they were all expected back. In fact, no one that BT spoke to seemed too worried about the Indo-Pak confrontation. ''I am not scared at all,'' declared William S. Pinckney, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Amway India, who plans to travel across India for the next few weeks. ''We are not worried,'' echoed Yung-Chun Li, Country General Manager, China Airlines (India). ''We support the Indian government in what they are doing and we have no plans to evacuate.'' David Pacey, General Manager, Grand Hyatt, Delhi, was slightly more cautious in his optimism. ''I'm in charge, so I would be the last to leave,'' he said, ''but the threat is not that bad yet. We're monitoring the situation and hopefully cooler heads will prevail.'' We hope so too.

-Abha Bakaya

INTERVIEW
"Maruti Will Make Better Cars"

Osamu Suzuki, Chairman, SMC: Focusing on customer satisfaction

Ending months of uncertainty and controversy, the Government of India has finally sold its stake in Maruti Udyog to its Japanese partner, Suzuki Motor Corporation. That could give a whole new impetus to the market leader in India. BT's Suveen K. Sinha e-mailed SMC's Chairman, Osamu Suzuki, to find out what's ahead for the industry's biggest player. Excerpts:

Unlike in Japan or some other parts of the world, Suzuki is a market leader in India. How do you plan to fend off competition from bigger rivals?

You should understand that there is no significant difference between small cars and big cars. Both of them have one steering wheel and four wheels each, and seats for four or five persons, although prices are largely different. In some markets, big cars sell better, and in some other markets, small cars. Our understanding is that India is a market for small cars. Fortunately, Suzuki's strength is in small cars, which require special know-how in terms of safety and cost.

Will General Motors, which owns 20 per cent each in Suzuki and Fiat, ally with the two companies in India?

As for Maruti, we have no plans of working with General Motors (in India).

Now that Suzuki has complete control of Maruti, what will be your new initiatives?

Maruti will make cars of better quality at better prices. In this context, we will initiate strong steps to increase our customer satisfaction.

Fresh funds are coming into Maruti Udyog as a result of the rights issue. More will come through the public issue. How will this money be utilised?

Maruti will receive only Rs 400 crore from the rights issue and nothing from the public issue, since only the government's shares in the company will be sold. Although the Board will decided how to use this money, I believe it must be used partly in developing new models and partly in improving production-efficiencies.

Although Maruti is the overall leader, it is losing out in the B and C segments. How do you plan to address this issue?

It is a matter of business strategy. I cannot comment on specific future strategy as it is for the marketing people of the company to determine. But we believe that Maruti has enough capability to cope with the new challenge.

Maruti has launched a flurry of models since late 1999- Baleno, Wagon R, Baleno Altura, the Alto twins, and Versa. However, none of them has been able to make a splash. What went wrong?

In a family, each child has different abilities. I am not seriously concerned about each model's status.

Will Maruti be used to pave the way for the entry of Suzuki's two-wheelers in India?

No, it won't.

What is the future of Maruti 800?

Maruti will satisfy all customers' needs. As long as customers want Maruti 800, we will keep satisfying them.

ENCOUNTER
''We Have Critical Mass''

Asim Ghosh, CEO, Hutchison Max: Satisfied!

Hutchison Essar recently became the first fourth-cellular licencee to launch its services in Andhra Pradesh. Simultaneously, it also unveiled a new brand (Hutch) for Karnataka, Chennai, and Andhra Pradesh. Its media-shy CEO Asim Ghosh told BT's Suveen K. Sinha what more to expect. Excerpts:

Why Hutch?

It reflects the natural evolution of the thinking that our communication with our consumer has to become real. Everyone calls us Hutch. Why not recognise this?

Earlier, you always emphasised on quality. Does the speed of the roll-out mark a departure from that?

That philosophy hasn't been sacrificed. If we can be the first and conform to our philosophy, it's a bonus.

Hutchison was the one that triggered consolidation in the telecom sector with the acquisition of its partner's (Max India) holding in Hutchison Max. Are you satisfied with the footprint you have?

People have never understood our agenda, which, at all times, has been to have a critical mass. Our foreign shareholders have turned down more deals than they have accepted. Still, 85 per cent of our subscribers have been organically grown.

You haven't answered my question.

One is never satisfied. We have been trying to define success in geographical terms. Our foreign shareholders believe in that. But footprint has to be defined in terms of consumers' needs. We have critical mass and I am satisfied. But I can't say that is the ultimate truth.

You started the system of having a second brand for pre-paid services. But have announced only one brand for your south Indian operations and Delhi.

We are doing away with the twin-brand system. We invented it. But that's not the system around the world.