India's UTV is ramping up its acquisition activities here at Cannes ahead of the launch of a bouquet of new movie channels over the coming months.
The first to launch will be Bindass Movies, a companion to general entertainment channel Bindass, both of which are aimed at upwardly mobile 16-35 year-olds. UTV's acquisitions team is acquiring mostly English-language product for Bindass Movies which is scheduled to launch on July 15.
In November, UTV aims to also launch a horror channel and a world cinema channel, tentatively branded 'Olive'. The horror channel will broadcast films and TV series, including English-language, Japanese and Korean titles, while the world cinema channel will air a broad range of foreign-language product.
Olive will be aimed at 16-30 year-olds, which according to UTV chairman Ronnie Screwvala, are most likely to have an interest in arthouse product: 'We've found that this segment is the most language agnostic when it comes to story-telling.'
Screwvala added that he also sees big potential for these titles on DVD which is a growing market in India where around 50% of legitimate video outlets stock foreign-language films.
The Olive channel forms part of UTV's previously announced plans to invest $16m to acquire arthouse titles for release across various platforms, although the company announced on May 16 that is had parted ways with its partner in the venture, Palador Pictures.
Screwvala says it still has rights to the 300 titles it acquired before hooking up with Palador and the 100 it acquired jointly with the company.
Meanwhile, UTV is also launching two new movies here at Cannes - Jodha Akbar, a historical epic from Lagaan director Asutosh Gowariker which stars Aishwarya Rai and Hrithik Roshan (Krrish), and Goal, starring John Abraham (Water) and Bipasha Basu (Dhoom 2) about an Asian football league which was filmed entirely in the UK.
The first to launch will be Bindass Movies, a companion to general entertainment channel Bindass, both of which are aimed at upwardly mobile 16-35 year-olds. UTV's acquisitions team is acquiring mostly English-language product for Bindass Movies which is scheduled to launch on July 15.
In November, UTV aims to also launch a horror channel and a world cinema channel, tentatively branded 'Olive'. The horror channel will broadcast films and TV series, including English-language, Japanese and Korean titles, while the world cinema channel will air a broad range of foreign-language product.
Olive will be aimed at 16-30 year-olds, which according to UTV chairman Ronnie Screwvala, are most likely to have an interest in arthouse product: 'We've found that this segment is the most language agnostic when it comes to story-telling.'
Screwvala added that he also sees big potential for these titles on DVD which is a growing market in India where around 50% of legitimate video outlets stock foreign-language films.
The Olive channel forms part of UTV's previously announced plans to invest $16m to acquire arthouse titles for release across various platforms, although the company announced on May 16 that is had parted ways with its partner in the venture, Palador Pictures.
Screwvala says it still has rights to the 300 titles it acquired before hooking up with Palador and the 100 it acquired jointly with the company.
Meanwhile, UTV is also launching two new movies here at Cannes - Jodha Akbar, a historical epic from Lagaan director Asutosh Gowariker which stars Aishwarya Rai and Hrithik Roshan (Krrish), and Goal, starring John Abraham (Water) and Bipasha Basu (Dhoom 2) about an Asian football league which was filmed entirely in the UK.
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