MUMBAI: Padmalaya Telefilms with its new chairman-cum-managing director (CMD) Adiseshagiri Rao, is moving on to greater heights with a whopping figure of ten feature films all set to be unveiled this financial year.

The company is planning to get five Hindi films and five regional films (which break up into two Tamil films, two Telugu films and one Bengali film) off the ground. Add to this, is the much-anticipated live action cum animated film Bhagmati, in the making for eons now, which looks to be all set for an October release.

Bhagmati is being touted as the first live action cum 2D animation film to come out of Asia. 

Speaking to indiantelevision.com, Padmalaya Telefilms executive director GV Narsimha Rao, gushes, "It's almost finished now; it is now in the process of editing. This will be a big achievement, although it's yet to be seen how the industry will respond."Although the company is very optimistic about the initiative, a major concern that was voiced during the discussion with Indiantelevision.com was the fact that Indian audiences are not ready for cartoons and animated films.

On the television software front, Padmalaya is set to enter the Hindi fray with the backing of its parent company and media heavyweight Zee Telefilms. With an already established clout in the regional space, with 5-6 hrs of television programming in Tamil and Telugu, Padmalaya is testing the waters with Zee.

Discussions are on regarding the production of content for the Zee umbrella. Padmalaya will be producing a number of shows for Zee this year. On the regional front, they are producing a show each for Maa TV, Gemini TV, ETV and Visa TV, the Telegu channels and are also in negotiations with Sun TV, the Tamil channel.

With all the progress that Padmalaya seems to have made on the animation front translating into all their major overseas deals, the film and TV software arms of the company have also not been left behind. The company seems to have an interesting vision for the year 2004-05, hoping to be a significant player in all three fields.

Some may call it blind optimism, but by the looks of it, Rao seems to be reaching for the stars. GM Krishna, the former CMD of the company, interestingly is himself a very renowned actor in the south credited with over 325 films in lead roles. 

With his first love being movies, Krishna has decided to pursue his dream and now it is all left to CMD 
Adiseshagiri Rao and GV Narasimha Rao to steer Padmalaya onto a higher pedestal.