MUMBAI: Hollywood studios have been making strategic investments in Indian media companies over the last few years. In order to secure their interests in the country, the Motion Picture Association (the umbrella body for the major Hollywood studios) has opened an office in India which is to be headed by Rajiv Dalal.

The Motion Picture Dist. Association of India, with the office at Mumbai, will serve as the voice and advocate of the American motion picture, home video and television industries in India.

Motion Picture Association of America chairman and CEO Dan Glickman says, “ With over three billion total admissions in 2007 and multiplex screens increasing over 400 per cent from 193 in 2006 to 907 in 2011, our member studios have decided to participate more actively in this dynamic market by investing millions of dollars into the Indian film and television industry. Our new office will serve to promote, protect and expand their interests in India."

Dalal notes that the organisation will work with local authorities on several issues including legislation. One of this is entertainment taxes, the rates of which are among the highest in the world. In Maharashtra, the entertainment tax is 45 per cent for theatre chains unless a Marathi film is being shown. This, he says, means higher ticket rates which could affect box office collections and encourage piracy.

According to a report by Ernst & Young, the Indian film industry lost $959 million and 571,896 jobs due to piracy in 2007.

The MPA will talk to representatives of state governments on how this issue can best be tackled. Obviously, securing intellectual property rights is key and a big challenge is rampant piracy.

“Another issue for us is market access restriction. For instance in the south there is a restriction on how many times a film can be played a day in a theatre. Then there are importation problems. Sometimes prints take time to get cleared at customs. There is also the issue of same day and date of release of Hollywood films in India not always happening,” says Dalal.

Fox Star India Studios CEO Vijay Singh dwelt on the reasons why Slumdog Millionaire, which was the first film to be distributed by the company, was such a success. “In India, it has made $6 million and has won 97 awards globally as of now. I think that it would be fair to compare it to Rock On. Both films did not have big name stars and both did equally well at the Indian box office. It was a rags to riches story and this is a theme that has been used in Bollywood before."