After a lackluster 2009, the Indian film industry is set for a revival of fortunes with good business being generated at the international film festival in Cannes, according to industry body CII.
"There was an overall revival in the film market this year and in brisk buying and selling activity. Indian showbiz companies who came with a clear focus to the market are optimistic to close deals in the coming weeks," CII said in a statement.
The chamber sees an overall recovery in the film industry this year with distribution firms, including UTV Motion Pictures and IDream Independent Pictures, expecting to generate good business after the Cannes Film festival.
CII's business members, including UTV Motion Pictures, IDream Independent Pictures (IDIP), Accel Animation Studio, Supreme Communications and Sarthak Movies participated in the Cannes Film Market, 2010 at Palais.
UTV Motion Pictures launched Vikramaditya Motwane's 'Udaan' at the market. Udaan, which represented India at Cannes in the 'Un Certain Regard' Section, generated buzz among the buyers and the critics.
UTV's list of movie offerings for the Cannes included Peepli Live, Harischandrachi Factory, Paan Singh Tomar and animation films Arjun and Alibaba and Forty One Thieves among others.
The 2010 edition of the festival also saw a slate of films from IDIP, a leading Indian sales agent for independent films (non-Bollywood).
This list includes a horror title "Fired", an urban contemporary drama "LSD" and a family film "I am Kalam".
"All the three titles were well received by a healthy mix of buyers as well as film festival programmers. We are confident to close some major territories in the next few months," said an IDIP official.
Prashant Burra, producer of Ram Gopal Varma's Phoonk 2 who was part of the CII business-to-business stand said, "My objective was to sell Phoonk 2 for overseas sales and look for co-production for my new project. I'm putting together a new project to pitch at Cannes next year," Burra said.
CII works closely with the Film & Television Producers Guild of India Ltd, Film Federation of India, South Indian Film Chamber of Commerce for the B2B market.
According to a industry report, the Indian film industry is expected to grow at the CAGR of nine per cent and touch Rs 137 billion by 2014 from Rs 89 billion in 2009.