Namaste Cannes, nous somme Reliance

Reliance MediaWorks will have a major presence at this year's Cannes Film Festival for the first time ever. Not content with hanging out in the Indian pavillion, walking up and down the Croisette or shuffling aimlessly around the Palaise, we have taken over a large suite overlooking both the Croisette and Palaise where we will be showcasing some of the amazing things that RMW offers its film and media clients, such as restoration, image processing and 2D-to-3D conversion. We will be doing one-on-ones with journalists, film makers and other movers and shakers attending. We are also thrilled to have one of the films we did restoration on (Khandahar) is playing as part of the festival.

All of this was deemed significantly important for Screen International to do a major write up on us:

Reliance MediaWorks Ltd., the services company of the Reliance ADA group, will be in Cannes to host an open house each day for the industry. Industry members can drop in any time to the Reliance office (Relais de la Reine, 42/43 La Croisette, Suite C-61) to learn more about the services offered by RMW. Special press and group demonstrations will be held Wednesday 3-5, Thursday 12-2, Friday 3-5, Saturday 3-5, Sunday 12-2, and Monday 12-2pm.

Anil Arjun, CEO of Reliance MediaWorks, tells Screen: “What we plan to do really do a preview show, is to show showcase of MediaWorks capabilities in the global space. We wanted to do an open house, encouraging the industry to interact with our team there.”

Some of the senior executives from RMW will be attending Cannes. Reliance the parent company has had a strong presence in Cannes in previous years, but this is the first year that MediaWorks has a presence this large.

So now you also know where to find us. Do stop by and visit us - just look for the big banner that says Reliance MediaWorks, together with our partners In-Three.

Reliance Big Entertainment has had a significant presence there in past years, using the festival as its launch pad for major Bollywood and hollywood projects. But, no , we definitely can't get your script to Steven Spielberg. Yes, he has a deal with Reliance ADAG, but I very much doubt that he will stop by our suite as he is busy preparing for his next film with DreamWorks.

I've been promoted to Head of Strategy - awsome!

I'm taking a break from my blogging break to share with you the news that I've been promoted to Head of Strategy for film & media services global - something that I'm both thrilled about and humbled by - here at Reliance MediaWorks.

I started out as a consultant to Adlabs (as it was known back then) back in October 2007 to set up the company's digital cinema operation (mastering, cinema deployment and connectivity) and six months later became a full time employee, heading up the digital cinema department as COO. It was a tremendous learning process and experience, effectively bringing DCI-grade digital cinema to the world's largest film and cinema market with the country's leading company - largest lab, largest cinema chain, largest-you-name-it.

Thanks to a great team and a visionary and supportive management we pioneered everything from an Indian VPF model, 2K and 4K technology and FACT/MPAA-grade security to 3D and optical fibre delivery in India and to US. We have done hundreds of films and are now the preferred and trusted partner of both Indian studios as well as Hollywood studios working in India. This operation now largely runs itself with little requirement for me to handle day-to-day business, which is also why it is being integrated with our film lab and DI operation, to give our clients a more seamless end-to-end service proposition.

In the meantime, I had become closely involved in several of our new services ventures and international expansions, including the acquisition of Lowry Digital, the partnership with In-Three and the setting up of a London base, as well as pushing the boundaries of what we can do with our global fibre optic delivery network. Again, none of this I did myself or single handed, but by working together with my Reliance colleagues and industry contacts.

It is said that 'luck' is 'preparation' meets 'opportunity', which is why I feel that I've been lucky in that my years at Screen Digest, Unique and Deluxe were the best possible preparation for the opportunity that the transformation of India into a major global power, including the 'soft power' of film and media, represents. Tectonic plates are shifting when it comes to the global film, television, on-line and mobile media market today and India's impact will be no lesser than when the Indian subcontinent crashed into the Euro-Asian continent and threw up the Himalayas.

So where does Reliance MediaWorks go from here and what the hell will I contribute to that? Obviously we are getting into the tricky "forward looking statements" territory that all publicly listed companies have to tread carefully around. But we have already demonstrated the are building to scale in India to support unique skills and services world wide. We never take the "me-too" approach to anything we do, but focus on 'next generation' services and how to do things differently or better than anybody else. Rest assured that we will continue pushing the boundaries, to implement projects that would daunt others with the sheer size, continue focusing on cutting edge technologies and proprietary solutions developed by ourselves and work every day to earn the trust and business of our industry client, creatives, customers, studios and partners. Drop me a line or give me a call.

See you next at the Cannes Film Festival, where we will have a major presence, showcasing just a few of the many things we do.