MUMBAI: Adiseshagiri Rao, one of the founder members of Padmalaya Telefilms, has officially taken over as chairman-cum-managing director of the company after the resignation of GSR Krishna Murthy.

The appointment was made official yesterday at the Subhash Chandra-promoted Zee Telefilms' annual board meeting. Padmalaya is now majority-controlled by Zee Telefilms after Chandra bought into the Southern organisation few years back.

Speaking to indiantelevision.com, Rao stated that this year Padmalaya Telefilms would be expecting a turnover of Rs 1,400 million, which would mean an anticipated jump of Rs 300 million. He also stated that the company would be moving on to the digital cinema platform also soon.

Incidentally, Murthy, who resigned with effect from 2 February 2004, is the brother of Rao.

On the feature film front, Padmalaya has its hands full with about eight films. Three of them are in Hindi and the rest being in regional languages.

With regards Padmalaya Telefilms Ltd. having bagged orders worth over $24 million from three global animation majors, Rao confirmed the development, but added that only a memorandum of understanding (MOU) has been signed till date with an Italian company.

"The formal contract will come through next month," he added. One of the business deals involves Italy-based Mondo TV, which will be involved in all the pre and post production work for the television series that will cater to the western market. The series is estimated to be a total of 104 episodes.