Veteran media baron Ch Ramoji Rao is a shrewd businessman. When he knows that the business ventures which he has launched with a lot of passion and interest are not fetching him dividends, he doesn’t retain them along with the profit-making ventures just because they are close to his heart. He doesn’t hesitate to wind them up without loss of much time.
For instance, when the people were not even aware of the present-day popular packed fruit juices with brand names like Maaza, Appy, Tropicana and Real, Ramoji Rao introduced fruit juices in the market in the name of “Soma,” in early ‘80s.
But the product did not click in the market due to lack of awareness among the consumers. So, Ramoji Rao did not take much time in closing down the business.
At a time when Eenadu had being reigning supreme in the newspaper market, Ramoji launched an English daily by name “News Time” after a massive exercise and recruiting top journalists of the country with a new concept and quality.
But a class daily like News Time could not withstand the competition from a mass daily like Deccan Chronicle. Moreover, the readership for English dailies in Hyderabad was comparatively less. So, it was also wound up within 15 years.
Now in the recent past when the media market was shattered by the Coronavirus pandemic effect, Ramoji Rao did not waste much time in winding up popular magazines like Vipula, Chatura, Sitara, Bala Bharatam and Telugu Velugu and confining them to just e-papers.
According to latest reports, Ramoji Rao is understood to have wound up another of his favourite business establishments – Mayuri Distributors, which he had launched a few years ago for distribution of Bollywood and Tollywood movies.
He had created huge infrastructure for the distribution of films and had even taken on lease some theatres. But Ramoji Rao could not succeed in this business, because his organised system could not cope up in the unorganised sector like Tollywood.
In fact, he had launched Usha Kiron Movies and produced quite a few films, but it could not sustain in the celluloid world. While payment of remuneration in Tollywood runs on black-and-white method, Ramoji always believed in white payments.
So, he gradually stopped producing movies on Usha Kiron Movies. But he continued the film distribution activity under the banner of Mayuri with limited staff. The recent dubbed film “Bichagaadu” which was a runaway hit was also distributed by Mayuri.
Now, it is learnt Ramoji has wound up Mayuri Distributors as well, as it has no films to release due to Coronavirus effect.
Sources said he had settled all the accounts of the staff and closed the business. It is not clear whether he has done it permanently or will it be a temporary phenomenon.
