Covering Bollywood and the Hindi Cinema

Kudos to Ronnie Screvala for taking UTV into a new direction! UTV recently announced its new business vertical UTV Palador- a 360-degree initiative in world cinema under the brand name of 'Olive Collection.

From the UTV Press Release:
UTV Palador's 'Olive Collection' will have the world's largest library of world cinema under one roof with over 1000 film tittles from 20 countries that have won over 3000 (cumulative) awards that include the likes of BAFTA, Cannes, Pusan, Berlin, Venice and Toronto amongst others.

The company will invest Rs. 70 crores in the category. The Non-Indian language Movie Segment is estimated to Rs.1500 crores by 2009 and UTV Palador believes that World Cinema in their model could account for 20% of that.

UTV Palador's business strategy for the Olive Collection World Cinema titles is three fold:

(A) Initiate World Cinema theaters in selective locations all over India - and Special Film Clubs and Corporate Screenings
(B) DVD Label
(C) World Cinema Movie Channel

Mr. Screwvala adds, 'UTV Palador’s main objective is to ensure that the beauty, timelessness and quality of the world's greatest filmmakers is not lost to Indians. It was our vision to ensure that quality cinema is not a one off event at limited location but a regular part of India's entertainment industry. In addition, this is an extremely high potential category with no significant competition in the horizon.'

The Olive Collection is privileged to have as its brand ambassador and partner - Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra, “In India, World Cinema has been available to a privileged few. Our endevour is to bring cinema of the world to the common man in India,' says Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra.