Ram Gopal Varma’s Factory set it rolling. UTV jumped on to bandwagon. And now Percept Picture Company is joining the party. A party that sees more than a dozen Bollywood films being dished out every year from one single production house. While Varma’s plans of unleashing one film every week is still a distant dream, Percept’s immediate foray into films looks prolific enough — they are planning to produce 15 films by June 2005.

It all started in 1998 with Raj Kaushal’s directorial debut Pyaar Mein Kabhi Kabhi, a film that could only churn out a couple of musical hits in the form of Musu musu hasi and Woh pehli baar. It took another four years before Percept Picture Company ventured into its next production — another directorial debut, but this time a successful one.

Vishal Bharadwaj’s Makdee (picture above) not only was a kiddies’ delight at the box-office, it turned out to be a force to reckon with at the children’s film festivals across the globe. What’s more, when Percept sold the television rights of the film to Zee, it instantly recovered more than 30 per cent of the budget through that one deal.

And now, Percept is the reason why Revathy’s heart-warming AIDS drama Phir Milenge is not just a small-festival film. Director Revathy admits: “It was Percept who told me ‘let’s make this film big’ and only then could we make the film on such a grand scale.”

From the point of view of Percept, though, it is just a social need they are addressing. “We took hold of this boiling issue of AIDS; it was topical and need-based. And then we decided to make it big commercially,” says Sunil Sahjwani, CEO of Percept Picture Company. “We knew the film could not be preachy and so Phir Milenge was made more as a woman’s fight for her rights, her love and her family. And we’ll do everything — market the film commercially, take it to the festivals and we know we’ll break even.”

Between 1998 and now Percept may have produced just three films, but it’s shifting gear — and how — from now. “By June 2005, we will produce at least 15 new films. Up next in 2004 are Priyadarshan’s Paisa Yeh Paisa and Hriday Shetty’s Dil Yeh Nadaan. Then we’ll make six more in the first quarter of 2005 and the rest between April and June,” Sahjwani said.

Talk about changing perceptions.