)
Global film entertainment company Eros International has entered into agreements with three major Chinese state-owned film and entertainment companies to promote, co-produce, distribute and unlock value in respective intellectual properties for Sino-Indian films across all platforms in both the countries.
China is the second largest movie market after the US, with a size of US$ 4.8 billion in 2014 and estimated growth rate of 34 per cent in 2014. China produced over 600 films in 2014. The number of theatre screens in China has quadrupled since 2010 with 5397 screens being added in 2014 alone taking their screen count to 23,600. As per industry projections, in 5 years’ time China is expected to surpass US to be the world’s largest Box Office. In comparison, India’s widest release till date has been across just 5,000 screens.
The Memorandum of Understandings (MoUs) were signed by Eros MD Sunil Lulla at the recently concluded India–China Business Forum in Shanghai which was part of Prime Minster Narendra Modi’s China visit.
The MoUs entail the prospective co-production and distribution of Sino-Indian films with state owned studios including China Film Group Corporation (CFGC) and Shanghai Film Group Corporation (SFG). Eros has also announced one of its first projects, co-produced with CFC titled DA TANG XUAN ZANG (Monk Xuan Zang) which will have Chinese actor Huang Xiaoming in the lead and will be directed by Huo Jianq. Under the co-production treaty, a film designated as a co-production will not be considered a foreign film and therefore avoids any associated restrictions.
The collaboration with the Shanghai Film Group Corporation incorporates exploitation of intellectual property rights owned by each party in their respective markets, development, co-production and distribution of film projects for both India and China. The treaty paves the way for Eros to become the preferred Indian film partner in China.
Eros has also tied up with Fudan University. This partnership gives Eros the ability to license Fudan’s IP for remakes or co-productions in India. Fudan will also assist Eros in obtaining publishing licenses for the promotion and distribution of the films from the Eros library in China across various platforms including dubbing them or remaking them to suit local audience tastes.
Sunil Lulla, Managing Director, Eros International Media Ltd said, “We are committed to helping both countries expand their market and audience instantly to over 2.5 billion people. We are really excited about the possibilities and the potential and making films together is just the tip of the ice-berg as we hope to extend these partnerships across all platforms including online.”
Ren Zhonglun, President of Shanghai Film Group Corporation commented, “This strategic partnership MOU between Eros and SFG fits into the general background of the collaboration between two countries India and China. It is also the fruit of collaborative effort on resource sharing by film makers from two countries. China and India together have 2.5 billion population with great market potential. Both as Asian countries, we share a lot of similarities in terms of culture, religion and art. There is big space is movie co-operation. We expect to visit back to India and Eros in the near future to further our collaboration”.
