MUMBAI: London-headquartered media and entertainment group Eros International that owns and distributes Bollywood content globally has announced a long-term output deal with the Mumbai-based production house K Sera Sera to co-produce and exclusively handle global distribution of its forthcoming films.
Indiantelevision.com was the first to report that K Sera Sera and Eros were in negotiations for an output deal.
"We have signed an MoU for a broadbased two-year output deal. We are working out the details," says K Sera Sera managing director Parag Sanghvi. The deal is "for assignment of some of its rights for some of its forthcoming film projects." Definitive agreement for assignment of the rights shall be entered between the parties at a later date.
The deal gives Eros access to K Sera Sera's entire output over a long term period, which is guaranteed to be at least 10 films. Projects in the pipeline include Nanhe starring Bobby Deol, Dombivili Fast directed by Abbas Mastan, and three Salman Khan films, including Partner directed by David Dhawan, informs an official release.
With this deal, Eros expects to increase its presence in India through co-productions and the acquisition of distribution rights to include music publishing and more significantly, Indian cinema distribution, which accounts for over 50 per cent of the revenues of the Indian film industry.
Says Eros chairman & CEO Kishore Lulla, "This deal demonstrates our content consolidation strategy as outlined at the time of our flotation. We are confident that collaborating with a successful production house like K Sera Sera will help accelerate our growth from co-productions and ensure a steady flow of content through our pipeline."
Adds Sanghvi, "We are delighted to be associated with Eros who have been pioneers in the Bollywood distribution and entertainment space for over three decades. This output deal allows us to focus on our core competency of film production."
Eros's latest Bollywood venture has been Omkara, a Bollywood adaptation of Shakespeare's Othello. As per the official release, the movie grossed box office revenues of $6.7 million in its first week of worldwide release in August 2006.
