Lionsgate in Deal with Indian Studio

LONDON/SANTA
MONICA/VANCOUVER, May 20: Lionsgate has teamed with the Indian
filmed-entertainment studio Eros International for a joint venture that will
distribute content from Lionsgate, as well as other English-language fare,
within South Asia across theatrical, home entertainment, television and new
media.

The announcement was made
in Cannes by Jon Feltheimer, the co-chairman and CEO of Lionsgate, and Kishore Lulla, the chairman and CEO of Eros International.

Lionsgate is looking to
tap into Eros’s Indian distribution network to monetize its library in the
region. As part of the deal, the independent studio will acquire the North
American home-entertainment distribution rights to 20 select titles (including
Oscar-nominated Eklavya and the
critically acclaimed Gandhi My Father) from Eros's library of over 1,900 film titles.

The venture will also
explore the production of Indian formats and remakes based on Lionsgate and
third-party film catalogues and create crossover films that will appeal to
Indian viewers and to audiences around the world.

Lulla commented:
"With this exciting joint venture with Lionsgate, we can now leverage our
respective distribution networks and help monetize and unlock value from our
deep content libraries. We believe that Eros's initiative in aggregating and
distributing Western content, particularly format and remake rights
custom-tailored to Indian consumers, will give us a distinct competitive
advantage in the South Asian marketplace and allow us to benefit from the
growing box office, home entertainment, television market and digital new-media
opportunities. This also demonstrates our commitment to our content partners to
showcase the best of Indian entertainment to as wide an audience as possible in
North America through this alliance."

Feltheimer added:
"Our exclusive partnership with Eros is a superb opportunity to extend the
Lionsgate brand to more than a billion new consumers worldwide as well as
providing a platform for Eros content through our established network in North
America. This venture reflects Lionsgate's growth strategy on two
levels—it continues the process of leveraging content already paid for
into new distribution platforms, digital and traditional, around the world, and
it extends our commitment to partnering with some of the top content owners and
distributors around the globe.”

—By Mansha Daswani