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Globalization
Stressed at FICCI Frames India 2004
By Janet Fine, TBS Contributing Editor
The
fourth Federation of Industry Chambers FICCI FRAMES 2004 (March
15-17) annual Indian global convention on the business of entertainment
held in the Renaissance Hotel in Mumbai, India counted more
than 250 entertainment companies from twenty-five countries
in addition to a large Indian participation discussing media
in a global framework.
Globalization was stressed to the point that one participant
said, "If all goes well, premier Pakistan cities will have
fancy multiplexes built by the Chinese and show Bollywood films
and then come home to Arabic programming on their cable TV."
The Chinese government has submitted a proposal to construct
200 multiplex theatres across Pakistan. The Muslim country enjoys
a wide assortment of Mid-east Sat TV, still yet to penetrate
India, except for Dubai and Saudi channels.
"The Indian film industry is increasingly becoming global
and we need to start thinking big and differently with the Government
of India to consider every demand of the media industry to open
up trade," said Indian Information and Broadcast Minister
Ravi Prasad in the opening speech.
"A new Digital Age has dawned and India is a global player
with an estimated 1,000 films, 5,000 music recordings and 200,000
TV series made a year. The animation industries marks the wave
of the future and Indian professionals should come up with a
plan to carve out a share of this 25 billion dollars global
pie."
Expanding
Global Ties
Different countries looking to expand Indian ties included a
British delegation led by UK Culture Secretary Tessa Jowell,
who said that collaborations between countries marked a new
age in global filming, a 18-person Australian delegation led
by Indian-Australian filmmaker Anupam Sharma specializing in
co-productions, and a delegation of Canadian film and TV schools
looking to link up in India. International Indian stars Hema
Malini and Amitabh Bachchan received the "FICCI International
Legends" at a glittering ceremony featuring appropriately
Western fusion and Indian classical music to "represent
the global trend." For the first time in 40 years, a delegation
from the Pakistan entertainment industry attended the conference
and forged new links.
A
panel comprising the Pakistan Film Producers Association Chairman
Mian Amjid Farzand Ali, Evernew Entertainment CEO Saijad Gul
and other representatives from Pakistan TV and media signed
for the first time distribution and co-production deals. Pakistan
and Indian Sat TV also resolved to exchange popular programs
and do joint ventures together, furthering the transnational
interaction between both countries. An estimated 85% of cable-connected
homes in Karachi receive Indian channels and with DTH opening,
revenue of Indian satellite channels will get a boost from these
new initiatives.
"So
far, Indian artistes have been crossing the border to act in
Pakistan serials. It would be a better idea to tie up with production
houses in India to produce serials jointly," said Evernew
executive director Mohammed Seja.
Some
of the seminars included "Funds and Projects" which
explored ways for Indian producers to tap the global pool of
funds and the role of venture capitalists and global lending
institutions in the entertainment industry. The seminar on "Growing
digital cinema opportunities in India" featured representatives
from Hughes Communication, Barco Digital, and Mukta Adlabs who
predicted there would be 590 digital screens in India next year
to help lighten the burden of expensive film prints. Some of
the American animation industry has been outsourcing to India
and this was discussed at the "Animation Network Anticipation"
seminar with Disney South East Asia/Korea VP Raymond Miranda,
Turner Ent. Networks Asia director Marc Buhaj, and Ramesh Sharma,
CEO of Moving Pictures Company, who has a high tech TV studio
in New Delhi; the seminar discussed globalization of animation
to incorporate universal characters. Disney Int. president Andy
Bird said that he estimated an annual 30% growth for Indian
animation and an increase for the Disney TV group's current
twenty-nine hours per week programming to India.
"Market-led
development is the global model for Pay TV growth and despite
no present Pay TV in China, STAR is prepared to wait since there
are more than 50% of 90 million households that have TV penetration,"
said STAR TV CEO Michelle Guthrie from Hong Kong, in India for
the first time, at the panel "Asia-Pacific TV Markets:
Lessons from a Decade of Development." Zee Telefilms chairman
Subhash Chandra went one step further to say there was no need
to regulate the cable TV industry. Guthrie agreed. "Globally
the deployment of set-top boxes is market driven and nowhere
in the world is it mandatory," she said. Presently, although
the Indian parliament has passed the set-box rule, it has been
postponed for the political election times after June.
The
Asia Pacific entertainment market is expected to grow from $209
billion to $263 billion by 2007, according to an Asia Price
Waterhouse report who said that broadband penetration is expected
to increase from 13.5 million Asian households in 2002 to 169
million in 2007. A FICCI-Ernst & Young report held that
the Indian TV sector is almost three times the size of the movie
segment and grew at 14 percent in the year, including cable
TV subscription fee and revenues for broadcasters from Pay TV.
The
mood at FICCI FRAMES 2004 was one of looking to the future and
unabashed hype. The FICCI chairman, Amit Khanna is a director
of Reliance Entertainment. Reliance, a booming company is better
known for its yarn and oil output and is striving to get a foothold
in the lucrative tech and entertainment industry. Khanna, a
producer and perennial organizer, replaced a protesting FICCI
founder-president, Bobby Bedi, producer of such global films
as "Bandit Queen," who apparently objected to the
choice of speakers-seminars were peppered with Reliance Infocom
representatives. So it was inevitable that the closing speech
was by Reliance CEO Mukesh Ambani, who in keeping with the other
speakers presented a commercial power-point presentation, predicting
widespread digital entertainment opportunities with sweeping
Broadband inroads—mostly by Reliance Infocom. The presence
of fifty million cable TV households and forty-five million
telephone fixed lines in India represents a potential growth
trigger for Broadband and Reliance and others are scrambling
with fiber optics to launch what they call the "New Digital
Age" in India.
"The FICCI FRAMES goes beyond just a conference. We have
the Knowledge Series throughout the year to interact with others
such as our trip to Germany to visit Bertelsmann in the area
of media, publishing and TV," said Film director Yash Chopra,
chairman of FICCI's Entertainment committee. "FICCI FRAMES
has helped in building bridges with the global entertainment
industry."
This
year's FICCI FRAMES 2004 certainly supplied an enthusiastic
backdrop for transnational dreams and schemes of an ever energizing
and globalizing world entertainment industry. TBS
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