Shah Rukh Khan’s Red Chillies posts net profit of Rs 85 crore in FY23

Mumbai: Shah Rukh Khan-promoted Red Chillies Entertainments posted a Rs 85 crore net profit for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2023, compared with a loss of Rs 22 crore in the previous financial year, according to the company’s latest regulatory filings.

Revenue rose 2.3 times to Rs 300 crore from Rs 130 crore in FY22, the filings with the Ministry of Corporate Affairs showed.

The privately held company has yet to report results for the fiscal year through March 2024.

Red Chillies gets revenue from film production and distribution, OTT content production, and the provisioning of VFX services. Khan owns a 50% stake, while his wife, Gauri Khan, has 49.9%.

During fiscal 2023, the company's inventories, unreleased films and unsold film rights, stood at Rs 367 crore: Rs 357 crore for web series and films under development and Rs 9.6 crore for film rights.

Queries sent to Red Chillies remained unanswered at press time Thursday.

The company had premiered Darlings, a co-production with Alia Bhatt, directly on Netflix in August 2022. Prior to that, it premiered Love Hostel, featuring Vikram Massey, Sanya Malhotra and Bobby Deol, on ZEE5 in February 2022.

The films were released directly on OTT due to the third Covid-19 wave, which impacted the theatrical release of films.

It has also ventured into OTT production and produced shows like Class of 83 and Bard of Blood for Netflix.

The company has a subsidiary, Red Chillies International, and two step-down subsidiaries: UK-based Winford Estates and UAE’s Frontstage Entertainment FZ-LLC.

Frontstage Entertainment FZ-LLC was incorporated in FY23 by Red Chillies International.

In its annual report, Red Chillies said Hartley Capital, the current preference shareholder of Winford Estates, has legally committed to subscribing to additional preference shares for a consideration of £1.5 million.

The company also stated that Khan's son, AbRam Khan, has subscribed to two preference shares for £1 million.

Red Chillies' secured and unsecured loans totalled Rs 416 crore at the end of FY23, up from Rs 355 crore a year earlier. The unsecured loans were provided by the company's directors.