Indian Film Company says float plans going well

LONDON, May 4 (Reuters) Bollywood film maker The Indian Film Company Ltd (IFC), which intends to float on London's junior AIM market at the end of May, said that its plan to raise 55 million pounds was on target.

''The fund raising is going very well,'' Chief Executive Sandeep Bhargava told Reuters in a telephone interview on Thursday. ''We were supposed to finish the roadshow on Friday in London but I am already back in India.'' The film-producing firm is looking to raise 55 million pounds by going public and is backed by Indian media giant Network 18 Group , which is taking an approximate 9 percent stake of 5 million pounds.

Bhargava already has plans for most of the stakeholders' money as IFC comes with a hectic pipeline of 14 films -- some of them to be released in June or July. ''So we will start seeing cash flow from the very first quarter,'' Bhargava added.

IFC plans to make 40 films per year, focusing on the production of commercial Hindi films that are targeted at India and the Asian community worldwide.

Revenues from India's film industry, valued at about .75 billion in 2006, are forecast to nearly double to .4 billion by 2010, according to estimates by PricwaterhouseCoopers.

Bhargava also thinks that IFC's movies stand a high chance to be successful in Europe as countries like Germany host a large population of Bollywood aficionados.

''We never thought that we would be able to release a film in France or Germany dubbed in the local language and released in the cinema but we did that,'' he said.

REUTERS PYB VV1716