20th Century Fox has closedits Indian distribution arm in Mumbai after 73 years of operation. CEO AdityaShastri has already left the company to joinMumbai based UTV.

Fox, which opened its officein 1932, had recently been suffering losses on its Hollywood releases and tried to diversify operations in India byparticipating in the dubbed film market as well as taking on Hindi filmdistribution.

Fox recently acquired Indianfilms for distribution including Pinjar, Tehzeeb, Bollywood Calling and EkHaseena Thi. Ironically, Fox's last release Garfield delivered aprofit of US$ 50,000. Since closing its Indian operations Fox has instructedits logo to be withdrawn from the publicity and posters of forthcoming Hindifilm Bullet, for which it had acquired the distribution rights.

Meanwhile, Sony PicturesReleasing's Indian operations grossed US$ 25m in distribution revenues in 2004.Sony's two big hits this year were Spiderman 2 grossing US$ 8m andAnacondas with US$ 5m.

The other films that didwell in India were Paramount Pictures' Van Helsing which grossed US$2.5m and and Warner Brothers' Harry Potter And The Prisoner Of Azkaban with US$2.3m. Sony's The Incredibles grossed US$ 750,000.

Hollywood Studio releasesgross about US$ 50m from the Indian market.