Unlike most of the world, in India, domestically produced movies have historically dominated the box office. Today, the five major Hollywood studios have all made some inroads into the movie market. Let’s take a look at one of the more recent entrants (and the only studio truly still based in the geographical neighborhood that is literally Hollwyood), Paramount Pictures. The company was my clients prior to my starting Amritt and I have enjoyed many lunches at their Commissary and wandered their lots on Melrose Avenue.
When Paramount Pictures South Asia head Kurt Rieder paid which was by now an annual visit to India to assess the burgeoning Indian media market. He liked what he saw – new digital media and platforms had already mushroomed in India and Rieder was optimistic that digital cinema would be more affordable to movie goers since it allowed simultaneous releases of movies across the subcontinent.
In April of the following year, India’s only Formula 1 team, Force India, was featured in Hollywood’s movie Fast and Furious 4 directed by Justin Lin and with Vin Diesel, Dominic Toretto and Paul Walker in the lead roles. Fast and Furious 4 was released in English, Hindi, Telugu and Tamil and delighted sport enthusiasts all over India.
2009 also saw Paramount Pictures strike a deal with the AXN television channel in India (part of Sony) for marketing and promoting its movies. This agreement started with the theatrical release of Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen across all metros and smaller cities and towns in India.
Later in the year, at the Paramount Pictures Studios lot a historic pact was signed by the City of Los Angeles and the Indian film industry which was represented by the Film and Television Producers Guild of India and the Film Federation of India where both parties agreed that they would work hand in hand in the areas of motion picture production and development, technology, distribution, content protection and commercial cooperation. This pact was followed by the creation of the Los Angeles-India Film Council to increase the production of Indian films in California.
Paramount Pictures Chairman and CEO Brad Grey said, “Paramount is honored to host these important discussions, which usher in a new era of strategic partnership. We hope this groundbreaking collaboration will yield more co-productions and alliances, greater films and a stronger global film industry.”
Most recently Paramount Pictures Paranormal Activity 2 directed by Todd Williams and starring Katie Featherston, Micah Sloat, and Sprague Grayden was well received in India. Media reports said that while audiences found the pace of the movie to be ‘crawling’ but the climax to be ‘mind blowing.’ Tom McGrath’s Megamind, an animated comedy, about a super villain voiced by David Ferrell and his enemy the super good guy Metro Man voiced by Brad Pitt was in the Indian theatres at Christmas last year. Indian reviews have pronounced it ‘delightful’ and ‘a fun film.’
Look for more action on the ground in India from the folks of Melrose Avenue in Hollywood.
