India's Zee Telefilms has taken a further step towards realising its ambitions of creating one of Asia's largest studios, by acquired a majority stake in Padmalaya Telefilms, a Hyderabad-based film, television and animation production company, for $12m.

Padmalaya Telefilms has more than 300 films, including 60 in-house productions and several Telegu and Tamil blockbusters, in its library.

Padmalaya studios is located in 12 acres of land at Jubilee Hills, a prime locality in Hyderabad. It produces three-to-four Telugu movies a year, and around 10-12 films are produced in its studio every year. The studio has the latest cameras, equipment, lights and post-production facilities.

Subhash Chandra, Chairman of Zee Telefilms told Screen Daily, " The acquisition would help the Zee Group leverage from Padmalaya's strengths in animation, TV software and movie production" The acquisition certainly strengthens Zee's regional language channels.

This is the second major acquisition by the Zee Group in the last month, after taking a controlling stake in ETC Networks.

Zee Group plans to create one of the largest animation studios in Asia to exploit the multi-billion global market for animation.

Previously, Columbia TriStar was in negotiation with Padmalaya to acquire a minimum 26% stake in the company.