Adlabs ties up with Pathe in first European deal and opens multiplex in Chicago

Adlabs has become the first Indian movie major to tie up with a major European exhibitor to establish a virtual Bollywood presence in Europe. The deal between Adlabs' BIG Cinemas and Pathé Theatres will give India's largest film distributor and exhibitor an outlet for Bollywood and other Indian films in all major cities in The Netherlands. From the article in Economic Times:

In the Netherlands, the company will roll out three Big Cinemas screens in Pathé Theaters' existing megaplexes in Amsterdam, Rotterdam and Hague. "Pathé is a perfect fit in our global strategy to bring Indian movies to Europe and other continents. Starting with the Netherlands, we will explore other countries in Europe," says Anil Arjun, CEO of Adlabs Films.

Pathé Theatres is a part of EuroPalaces movie theatre chain that runs 834 screens in France, Switzerland, Italy and the Netherlands.

Indian distribution houses prefer Pathé for exhibiting their films to cash in on the 7,00,000 Hindi movie fans of Indian, Pakistani, Afghani, Turkish and Moroccan origin.

Here, Hindi movies like Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi, Singh is Kinng, Jodhaa Akbar, Dostana and Om Shanti Om have grossed $130,000-200,000. "We believe that the admissions can be over 400,000 annually. The efforts so far to distribute Indian films can be described as sub-optimal. There are segments the world over where the demand for content is more than the supply, and we believe we can tap into this," adds Mr Arjun.

While the UK constitutes the largest overseas market for Bollywood and other Indian films, the rest of Europe makes up a significant and under-served share. This virtual presence is a further step in the direction of smart and tactic expansion by Adlabs at a time when most other Indian media companies are retreating or re-grouping.

Meanwhile in the US Adlabs is opening its first purpose re-built multiplex with a high-end luxury five-screen multiplex in a wealthy suburb of Chicago. While Adlabs already has more than 170 screens across the US, these were acquired from different cinema operators, while this is the first one refurbished inside-out to BIG Cinema specification. From The Business Standard:

The multiplex, Big Cinemas-Golf Glen, is located in Niles, Chicago. It will have five screens and a premium lounge. The facility will be digitally connected to Adlabs India, enabling the films to be transferred on fibre optic cable within four to six hours instead of using physical films, a statement issued by the company said.

"The Chicago launch is in keeping with our vision to establish a strong foothold for Big Cinemas worldwide in markets with an appetite for Indian cinema," said Anil Arjun, CEO, Adlabs Films.

"Big Cinemas has a significant presence in the US with 170 screens and accounts for 25 per cent of the box office turnover for Hindi Films and over 65 per cent for Tamil and Telugu films released in the US. This multiplex at Niles, Chicago is part of Big Cinema's strategy to actively promote and ensure better reach of Indian movies," he added.

The multiplex will screen a mix of Hollywood, Indian, Polish and Korean films and will have stadium seating to enable live telecasts of cricket matches and other events.

The grand opening will be on 29 May. Wish I was going, but too many other things going on in India right now. I will try to post some photos from the opening party when I get them sent to me.

Adlabs goes after the restoration outsourcing business

Outsourcing of work might not be popular right now, but it is a fact of business life in the global economy. And few businesses are as ripe for BPO (business process outsourcing) as restoration and image processing. Adlabs/Reliance has recognised this fact and is making a major play for this segment, based on the triple strength of, a) Lowry Digital's reputaiton and relations in Hollywood, coupled with, 2) a global fibre optic network, and now also, 3) a mega-size operation in India for handling enormous amounts of content.

From the press release:

Adlabs Films Limited, a member of the Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group today announced their establishing a BPO business for the media space.

Adlabs Films’ BPO will be one of the world’s largest comprehensive digital restoration and content processing services facilities. Spread over 90,000 sq ft, it will employ 1200 employees within a year and will comply with MPAA (Motion Pictures Association of America) standards.

The BPO is aimed at providing a comprehensive one point solution for the transition from Analog to Digital and Physical Media to Digital Data.

The BPO has already commenced business with 300 employees and has recently obtained a prestigious order for digitization and digital restoration of 1000 films preserved by the National Film Archive of India (NFAI), Pune, a media unit of the Ministry of Information & Broadcasting, Government of India.

This operation will cover much more than just restoration:

The services of the BPO include: Restoration, Encoding, Transcoding, Compression Authoring, Format & Standards Conversion, Duplication & Dubs, Meta tagging, Repurposing/Versioning, QC & Broadcast Logistics and Archiving.

My boss was interviewed by The Hindu and gave some more details:

Anil Ambani-promoted Adlabs Films on Thursday said it is looking at tapping the USD 400-million market for digital content restoration through its new media BPO venture and is planning to foray into North America and Europe among others.

"With new platforms like mobiles, online and HD, the demand for content restoration has picked up... Major portion of the demand is coming from North America, Europe, the Middle East and South East Asia," Adlabs Films Chief Executive Officer Anil Arjun told PTI.

The 300-employee BPO division, which became operational four months ago and will add another 900 employees this year, is looking at major opportunities in North America and Europe.

I am thrilled on a personal level, partly because it is the company I work for, but also because I feel passionately about archiving and restoration and have been ever since I first read The Parade's Gone By.

There are tens of thousands of films slowly fading or corroding in archives around the world and for every restored "Gone With The Wind" or "Casablanca" there are tens of thousands of obscure titles that are just as much an important part of our audiovisual history that desperately need to be saved for future generations. Thanks to operations like this the cost of restoring films will go down and more will be saved.