Saregama
| Company type | Public |
|---|---|
| Industry | Retail record shop and Home Video |
| Founded | 13 August 1946 (The Gramophone Company), 3 November 2000 (Sa Re Ga Ma) |
| Headquarters | Kolkata, West Bengal, India |
Area served | Global |
Key people | Subroto Chattopadhyay (Managing Director) |
| Products | Music cassettes, Compact Disc, VCDs, DVDs, Gramaphone records (formerly) |
| Parent | RPG Enterprises |
| Subsidiaries | Sa Re Ga Ma Home Video |
| Website | http://www.saregama.com/ |
Sa Re Ga Ma India Limited (formerly known as 'The Gramophone Company of India') is an Indian music company. Sa Re Ga Ma also works in the Home Video business. It uses the music labels Sa Re Ga Ma, RPG Music and HMV.
Sa Re Ga Ma releases DVDs and VCDs of famous Bollywood and Hollywood movies. Sa Re Ga Ma is situated in Kolkata, West Bengal.
Overview
In 1901, operations started as the first overseas branch of Electrical & Musical Industries Limited, EMI, London. The Company was incorporated on 13 August 1946 with the name of “The Gramophone Co. (India) Limited”. The name of the Company was subsequently changed to “The Gramophone Co. of India Limited” and with effect from 1 April 1956 the word “Private” was added to its name. It was converted into a public company on 28 October 1968 and consequently the name of the company was changed to “The Gramophone Company of India Limited”.
In 1985, it was taken over by RPG Group from EMI, UK.
Effective 3 November 2000 the name of the company was changed from “The Gramophone Company of India Limited” to “Saregama India Limited” vide a fresh Certificate of Incorporation issued by the Registrar of Companies, West Bengal.
Sa Re Ga Ma provides the largest music repertoire across all genres and languages, which includes the top-recording artists of the past hundred years and some of the greatest names in music.
HMV brand
The Gramophone Company has always been better known as HMV in India. So strong has been this recognition, that after the RPG Group takeover, it could not phase out the brand. RPG Group has been using the brand under license from the former parent company, EMI. It has tried to introduce parallel brands, such as RPG Music.
In an attempt to build its own brand, on 3 November 2000, RPG Group decided to change the company's name to Sa Re Ga Ma India Limited, and also introduce a music label of the same name and use this and HMV for eight years on new recordings, and on old ones for 23 years, thereby attempting to gradually transfer the strong recognition from HMV to the Sa Re Ga Ma brand.
Music
Sa Re Ga Ma is the biggest record label in India . Sa Re Ga Ma has an inventory of more than 600 cassettes and CDs. Sa Re Ga Ma provides services in the following form:
- Film Music (Old and New) – 70% of music ever recorded in India.
- Devotional (National and Regional)
- Ghazals and Classical (Hindustani and Carnatic)
- Indi pop and World music
- Remixes and POP Bhangra
- Regional – Punjabi, Bengali, Tamil, Malayam, Kanada, Telugu, Gujrati, Marathi, Assamese, Oriya, Chattisgadi.
Home video
Sa Re Ga Ma is the biggest international home video provider in India. The following production house's DVDs and VCDs are released under the label of Sa Re Ga Ma:
- Bollywood Movies (more than 65% per year)
- Warner Bros. Pictures (or Warner Home Video)
- Universal Studios (or Universal Studios Home Entertainment)
- Jurassic Park and its sequels
- New Line Cinema
- The Lord of the Rings films
- Paramount
- Other studios include: