After releasing only two films (City Of God and 13 Tzameti) under the UTV-Palador brand, India 's UTV has terminated all business relations with Palador for its world cinema business with immediate effect.

A press release from UTV cites 'material breach of terms of agreement by Palador and its co-promoters Gautam Shiknis and Mohan Polamarasetty' as the reason for the split.

However while a spokesperson for UTV says the joint venture's 1,000-plus titles from 20 countries belongs to UTV, and that they are on track to launch a world cinema channel and DVD label under the 'Olive' brand name, Palador disagrees. Speaking from Cannes, Palador's Gautam Shiknis insists that his company owns 700 titles, with plans to add another 300 by the end of September.

'UTV was supposed to give us 30 days notice to terminate the contract but they terminated within 40 minutes. We contest the material breach of contract claim as we have not breached any of the four criteria set out in the contract,' said Shiknis.

Shiknis and partner Mohan Polamarasetty are currently in Cannes 'networking for other markets for Indian filmmakers to go to and evaluating upcoming cinema.'

'We are currently in negotiations for the rights of opening film My Blueberry Nights and are in talks with Wong Kar Wai to come to India to release the box set of his films, all of which we have rights to,' added Shiknis.