MUMBAI: Home entertainment major Excel Home Videos earned two Awards for India at the Twentieth Century Fox Awards for Excellence in Home Entertainment.

This is the first time that an Indian company has received honours from Fox for the home entertainment segment. The company swept two of the four awards for India, including 'Highest Growth' and 'Best Theatrical Synergy".

The other two awards were won by Hong Kong. The award ceremony held at Bali, Indonesia witnessed nine countries, including South Korea, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, among others, competing for top honours.

The award for 'highest growth' was for the 67 per cent growth the company achieved in the last fiscal. Excel Home Videos, which owns the largest DVD catalogue in the country and enjoys a retail penetration of over 12,000 retail outlets, attributes the success to its product quality, technical brilliance and innovative marketing. Apart from Fox, Excel also represents other entertainment majors like Walt Disney, MGM, Merchant Ivory, HIT, Shringar, and EA amongst others in India.

The award of 'Best Theatrical Synergy' was conferred for the pioneering efforts of the company in successfully using theatrical synergy to promote Home Video Products. Says MN Kapasi, MD, Excel Home Videos, "Merely coinciding the release hasn't achieved us the feat. The entire effort has been well coordinated with effective pricing, DVD visibility in stores, innovative advertising, among other aspects". The experiment began with the DVD re-release of the Brad Pitt starrer 'Fight Club' last February. The English DVD did roaring business with the pre-launch hype of the Sohail Khan starrer. The success was later duplicated with a string of Marvel titles including X - Men 1, X - Men 2, X - Men 3, Fantastic Four: The Rise of the Silver Surfer, Elektra, and Daredevil, among others."

The Awards, in its third year, were presented by Richard Crook, vice president, International Licensees, 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment.