Mumbai film festival: Global buyers hungry for Indian film titles

Gone are the days when Indian films appealed only to theIndian Diaspora overseas. Today, audiences in non-traditional markets like China, Korea,Japan and Germany areeager to see Indian films - especially the Bollywood flicks.

Global interest in Bollywood has been further fuelled by thesuccess of films like Aamir Khan's 3 Idiots and Shah Rukh Khan's Kabhi AlvidaNa Kehna and My Name is Khan, in markets such as Taiwan,Korea, Germany, France,Egypt, Syria, Lebanon,Jordan, Poland, Malaysia,Taiwan, China and Belgium.

The overseas market for Indian films is growing and islikely to increase by about 20 per cent in the next five years, according toglobal and Indian buyers and sales agents.

According to the latest PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) reporton the Indian entertainment sector, the Indian film industry clocked overseasbox office revenues of Rs 770 crore in 2010 and this is estimated to go up toRs 1,250 crore by 2015, a compounded annual growth rate of 10.2 per cent perannum.

Film industry veterans say ten years ago the overseas marketfor Indian films was just about 3-5 per cent of Bollywood's entire theatricalbusiness. 

No wonder then that the Mumbai Film Mart (MFM), the filmmarketplace created for the first time at the 13th MAMI film festival, saw 40global buyers and sellers looking to meet Indian producers and independentfilmmakers. The focus was largely on growing non-traditional markets for Indiancinema.

"The three-day event from October 15-17 saw at least500 meetings from over 2,000 meeting requests taking place between buyers fromnon-traditional markets eyeing all kinds of Indian films," says RashmiLamba, manager, MFM. The mart is a marketplace created by the Indian filmfraternity for the Indian and global film industry.

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Large global buyers like B.J. Park of Apex Entertainment,Stephan Holl of Rapid Eye and David Jourdan, senior vice president ofInternational Sales at IM Global, though were present for two days only but madethe most of their meetings with Indian filmmakers during the time.

B.J. Park of Apex Entertainment released 3 Idiots in South Korea.

"The emotions in 3 Idiots resonated with South Koreancinema viewers. Besides, Indian cinema is getting bigger and better," hesaid.

Apex Entertainment has acquired titles like Sanjay LeelaBhansali's Guzaarish and Amol Gupte's Stanleyka Dabba. The company plans to release at least 200 prints of Guzaarish in theKorean region.

Eugene Kim of Showbox, another South Korean company adds,"Before Black and 3 Idiots released in my country, we had no idea aboutIndian cinema. But now we are looking for films with potential to release in South Korea.The next big Hindi film to be released in South Korea is going to be SRK'sRA.One."

The movie will release across 200 screens in South Korea and in about 25 screens in Taiwan. Korea was also open to regional (southerncinema) from India.

German cinemas have long enjoyed SRK and many have releasedhis films and other Hindi films.

"Indian films - both Bollywood and regional cinema -have huge potential in the German market," says Stephan Holl of Rapid Eye,responsible for making Shah Rukh Khan a household name in Germany.

Latin America is one of themarkets that Indian filmmakers are exploring, says Lamba.

Rakesh Roshan's Kites was a big success in Latin America. David Jourdan, senior vice president-International Sales,at US theatrical distributorIM Global says: "Kites did better than usual in Latin America region. It captured 70 markets as against the usual 30markets that generally Indian films capture."

Indian cinema has a huge fan following in Latin American,Eastern European and African countries and distributors from these countriesare keen on acquiring Indian films.

MFM also saw interest from Japanese buyers. One of thecompanies present at MFM was Nikkatsu Corp, one of the oldest production anddistribution companies in Japan.Nikkatsu has produced and distributed over 5,000 titles in various genres. Ithas also distributed a wide range of foreign films, including EasternPromises, CHE, Burn After Reading, The Ghost Writer and Wrestler. Thecompany was keen to explore Indian films to be distributed in Japan.

"It's a pity that not many Indian films are released inJapan.Most Japanese have a pre-conceived notion about Indian cinema. I want Indianfilmmakers to make new kind of cinema that can be shown to the Japanese,"said Akifumi Sugihara, director of the film business division and a buyer fromNikkatsu Corp. He attended MFM.

Despite that, South Indian super star Rajnikanth is a bighit in the Japanese market and every Rajnikanth film is released in Japan, a trendthat began with Rajnikanth's hit film Muthu.

It's not only the global buyers eyeing Indian films. Seniorrepresentatives from Indian production houses like Balaji Motion Pictures, UTVMotion Pictures, Eros International, Yashraj Films, Shemaroo Entertainment andindependent filmmakers were at MFM to showcase their products and find a placefor their films in non-traditional markets.

Eros International and Big Pictures are in talks withJapanese buyers for some of their upcoming releases in Japan. Erosshowcased films such as Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara and upcoming films such asRa.One, Rockstar and Desi Boyz. Balaji Motion Pictures showcased all its titlestill date and its to-be-released film The Dirty Picture at MFM.

Indian films are also seeing potential on foreign homevideo, digital and satellite platforms.

Vikas Arora, International programming manager for DishNetwork, the largest TV platform in the US, attended MFM at MAMI for thefirst time this year to meet with Indian production houses and buy content forthe Dish platform.

"Dish network is currently expanding its video ondemand content offering and we are looking for South Asian content, both Hindiand regional cinema. I am here therefore to meet with the content makers,"he said.

Arora was specifically meeting with large Indian studios."There are second- and third-generation Indian audiences that areinterested in Indian films," he added.

Dish Network currently offers 12 different Asian languagechannels and 85 regional language channels.

Adam Davies, chief operation officer of the UK-based Sonona,was looking to acquire Indian films. Sanona is a worldwide digital distributorfor non-English feature films.

Film marts are still a new concept at film festivals in India. They arenot as robust as at Cannesor other international film festivals.

One of the representatives from an Indian production housewho was present at the buyers lounge adds: "A market is the most importantaspect of any festival held across the world. I am glad that MAMI took effortsto set up MFM for content creation companies and it has proved to befruitful."

A film bazaar has been held at the International FilmFestival of India (IFI) for many years now. The goal of the film bazaar is tofacilitate the export of Indian content, establish and position India as alocation for global content creation and create a platform for new digitalentertainment streams for Indian films.

But the difference, say industry members, is that this martwas put together by industry. Hirachand Dand, vice president of the Indian FilmExporters Association and Honourable General Secretary of the Film Federation of Indiasays: "The Mumbai Film Mart is a collective initiative by the industry andfor the industry in the film capital of India, which produces more filmsthan any other country in the world."

Although Bollywood still rules the roost, small andindependent filmmakers also got a good response from global and Indian buyers.Film marts like MFM are a great opportunity for small and independent filmmakerswho do not have the resources, knowledge or bandwidth to travel abroad to majorfestivals like Cannes, Toronto or Berlinale, where they can interactwith buyers from around the world.

There was a booth for Marathi films, where producers couldsell their films to global buyers. Buyers like Germany's Rapid Eye showed keeninterest in films like Harishchandrachi Factory, said people at the booth.

The regional cinema industry is also exploringnon-traditional overseas markets. According to attendees, a buyer from Korea hasalready acquired a Tamil film.

Sarah McKenzie is managing director of the UK-based CreativeScreen Associates, a company that provides a range of international andnational services for the creative and screen industries in Europe, NorthAmerica and Asia. Creative Screen Associatesis in the process of developing an independent digital distribution platformfor Indian independent filmmakers to get wider release, she said.

There was a separate booth for independent filmmakers to showcasetheir films on DVD to international buyers.

"Even Indian film buyers like UTV and PVR have comeforward to buy international films. The plan for next year would be to involvemore countries. We want people who are willing to support Indian films,"says Lamba, who said he was overwhelmed with the success of MFM.