Biography
Kamal Mukut started his career as a film location scout in 1972 with the film "Gora aur kala" and gradually transformed it into a well-diversified Media and Entertainment Enterprise. He has vertically integrated the entire value chain for Bollywood in his long career from creating content to distributing it across the platforms and everything in between. Producer, Exhibitor, Financier, Movie Distributor, content distributor & above all a solution provider, Kamal hats all the roles of this large value chain.
After establishing a successful shooting facility & line production service in Rajasthan, Kamal in the year 1975, ventured into the distribution of movies in Rajasthan and further expanded into other circuits with his offices in Delhi/UP, West Bengal (Kolkata), Patna & Assam. Later he expanded his horizon and Co/produced several mainstream Bollywood films like Kshatriya, sajish. His magnificent entrepreneurial skills transformed the distribution business in the state & helped him to develop excellent relationships with then ace producers & Bollywood bigwigs like Raj Kapoor, Yash Chopra, Kamal Amrohi, Prakash Mehra, J.P.Dutta, Rajkumar Kohli, Sultan Ahmed, Rakesh Roshan, Raj Kumar Kohli, F.C. Mehra, Harmesh Malhotra, Nasir Hussain, Hema Malini, Dharmendra, A Poornachandra Rao, etc. just to name a few. He was not only the distributor of these producers but became an integral part of their movie business.
Circa 1991, Kamal relocated to Mumbai on invitation from his friend and associate Subhash Chandra to become part of History which Zee Television Network, the pioneers of satellite TV Channels were creating. At Zee, he was solely responsible for entire filmed content vertical including Film Production, acquisition, syndication & strategy. He was also responsible for Film Industry relationships, Asset Management & Socio-Political relationship for the entire Essel Group. To appreciate his commitment & significant role in establishing the network He was awarded the PILLAR OF ZEE.
During his 8 years stint with Zee, he has acquired various kind of rights of more than 2000 movies. He also developed the negative rights vertical & acquired negative rights of more than 300 films. In his Leadership, Zee further forayed into Music Label Business with Zee Music & further aggregated music business and helped the group to start its first dedicated Music Channel. He has also contributed in creating blockbusters like Gadar, Manikarnika, etc to name a few.
He also pioneered concepts like telefilms (Phir Teri Kahani Yaad Aayi, Papa Kehte Hai, Fareb etc) and Independent music albums (video) in our country. His other path- breaking idea was to create promotion vignettes (trailers) of motion pictures on satellite television in 1998, which yielded the channel newer revenue of INR 300 Million in the initial year. In another first, as a television content producer, he managed to cast cinema superstars like Rajesh Khanna & Bhagyashree to television fiction shows, which no one then could have ever managed to.
In the year 2000, Kamal was once again ahead of the curve by developing India's first Multiplex in Non-metro market like Jaipur & established one of the most successful multiplexes of the country, he later expanded it to many screens & developed a successful model of leasing it to popular multiplex chains across the country.
In 2014, Kamal passed the baton of movie production businesses to generation next, his Son Deepak Mukut & they together upscaled the operations and produced films like Sanam Teri Kasam, Shaadi Mein Zaroor Ana, Mulk, Jhootha Kahin Ka, Genius, Dhaakad and many more in less than five years. They not only produced the films but also developed a robust countrywide distribution network to make these films available to a larger audience.
Currently, besides being a consultant to the CEO of Zee Network & overseeing the filmed entertainment businesses & acquisition for the group, he is busy with the productions of his upcoming movies, Gadar 2 and Soorya (both starring Sunny Deol), and a TV series on Vivekanand for Doordarshan channel under the banner, M.M. Moviez.
