MUMBAI: Ekta Kapoor’s soap factory Balaji Telefilms Ltd has formed a wholly owned subsidiary company for its motion picture business called Balaji Motion Pictures. The decision was taken at the company’s meeting held today (24 January, 2007).

With this move, the entire business related to films to be transferred to the subsidiary company.

The company had earlier entered into a deal with Sanjay Dutt and Sanjay Gupta’s White Feather Films to co-produce films. Balaji Telefilms along with White Feather Films have two films lined up for release this year, one of which is Woodstock Villa, which stars Sikander Kher and Neha Uberoi. The film will be directed by Hansal Mehta. The other is Shootout at Lokhandwalla, which stars Sanjay Dutt, Abhishek Bachchan, Amitabh Bachchan, Aarti Chhabria, Sammir Dattani, Neha Dhupia, Tusshar Kapoor, Arbaaz Khan, Diya Mirza, Vivek Oberoi, Rohit Roy. This film is directed by Apoorva Lakhia.

Balaji Telefilms Ltd has also announced the following unaudited results for the quarter ended 31 December, 2006:

The company has posted a net profit of Rs 217.701 million for the quarter ended 31 December, 2006 as compared to Rs 146.089 million for the quarter ended 31 December, 2005. The company’s total income has increased from Rs 749.866 million for the quarter ended 31 December, 2005 to Rs 863.058 million for the quarter ended 31 December, 2006.