Manmohan Shetty – Hindi film producer and founder of Adlabs Films

Manmohan Shetty is a businessman and entrepreneur, best known as a film producer and founder of Adlabs Films. Shetty initially established Adlabs Films as an advertising and film processing company in 1976, and later produced many acclaimed offbeat Hindi movies such as Ardh Satya, Chakra, Hip Hip Hurray, Holi etc. Masoom in 1983 was the first processed film by the same company. The company went public in year 2000, and also launched India’s first and largest IMAX dome in 2001 at Wadala, Mumbai, which was the primitive form of multiplex culture in the country. From a lab assistant processing films in Mumbai to a multiplex owner, Shetty has a success story to tell.

Manmohan Shetty hails from Mangalore, Karnataka. He graduated from Mumbai. He started as a lab assistant processing films in Mumbai. As an entrepreneur he started off in year 1976 with the establishment of Adlabs Films Ltd. Initially an advertising films processing company, in the 1980s started producing films. He owned country’s best film processing laboratory, which produced several award winning films. Later he established ‘Entertainment One’ film production company which gave a series of hits such as Bluffmaster, Dev, Gangajal, Namastey London, Waqt, Singh is Kinng and Munnabhai MBBS.

Known to be a big investor, in 2005 he partitioned with Anil Ambani’s Reliance for a deal of 360 crore Indian rupees. In 2007 he ventured into the field of film production by establishing Walkwater Media Limited, which handled animation work and a few more setups.

Manmohan Shetty – Some interesting and less-known facts

1. His company was the first to introduce multiplex culture and IMAX theatre in India in the early 2000s.

2. He set up India’s first IMAX theatre in 2001, the first multiplex the following year and also the first lot of 50 digital theatres in 2003.

3. He always loved new technology and has invested huge amount of money in many such new ideas in India.

4. Shetty is an ex-chairman of the National Film Development Corporation.

5. There was a time when 90% of Bollywood movies were processed by Adlabs Films.

6. He launched Adlabs Imagica, an expensive theme park in Maharashtra.