Sunil Doshi, the producer of successful films such as Bheja Fry and Mixed Doubles, and CEO of Alliance Media & Entertainment has acquired distribution rights for 11 Miyazaki films worth $10 million (around Rs 48 crore), through an agreement with a Japanese Studio, Ghibli.
The films, including titles such as Nausicaa – The Valley of the Wind, Kiki’s Delivery Service, Whisper of the Heart, Princess Mononoke and Spirited Away, would be distributed exclusively by Alliance in India under the label Junior.
With planned releases in English, Hindi, Tamil and Telugu languages, Doshi intends to dub the films in local languages to make it more accessible to audiences from non-metros also.
Besides Japanese animation content, the media company is also releasing content from Scandinavian and North American countries for children.
Doshi will begin production for his forthcoming kid’s film in the next eight months and is ready to release Azur and Asmar, a French animation film in January 2009. “We intend to release at least one animation movie a month, and also produce one children’s feature film annually,” he says.
Alliance Media is also in talks with multiplexes for special weekend morning screenings for children and teenagers in metros, followed by smaller cities at special ticket prices starting at Rs 70. The company also has plans for television syndication, home video distribution under the Junior label as well as merchandising.