Mumbai, Oct 2: The forthcoming Mumbai Film Mart (MFM) is expected to see participation by major domestic and foreign buyers and sellers, according to industry observers.
MFM 2011, to be held from October 15 to 17 during the 13th Mumbai Film Festival, a Reliance Entertainment initiative, is expected to be the converging point for distributors, buyers, sellers, financiers, festival programmers, and acquisition and development executives.
The film festival is organised by Mumbai Academy of Moving Image (Mami).
“The presence of organisations such as Film & TV Guild of India, Exporters Association, etc will be good for business,” veteran film producer and Film & TV Producers Guild vice-president Mukesh Bhatt told PTI.
Senior executives from IM Global of the US, Rapid Eye from Germany, Novo Films and Metropolitan of France, Top Films of CIS, Showbox, CJ Entertainment and Apex Entertainment from Korea, Nikkatsu, Happinet and Pioniwa from Japan, Taiwan's 1Production and Zeus Film and Huayi Brothers from China are among major global buyers, sellers and acquisition agents who have confirmed their attendance at the MFM.
“MFM is a collective initiative by Bollywood, which is the largest producer of films in the world. It is an important business platform,” Indian Council for Import & Export of Films and TV Programmes president, Ganesh Jain said.
Film industry veterans believe it is time we developed an overseas market for domestic cinema in non-traditional markets like Latin America, Taiwan, Korea, Germany, France, Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Poland, Malaysia, Taiwan, China and Belgium.
“For the past several decades, it has been pointed out that Indian film fests do not cater to those wanting to buy or sell movies. Traditionally, our movies are exported to cater to the South Asian diaspora. But there are several nations which screen our movies.
“Most of such sales are third-party deals and so benefits don't accrue back to producers. So, this time we intend to change that by getting around 40 sellers to directly contact buyers from non-traditional markets,” Reliance Big Entertainment Chairman Amit Khanna, who is also a senior Mami trustee, told PTI.
Besides international players, the Indian Council for Import & Export of Films and TV Programmes (formerly the Indian Film Exporters Association), Indian Film & Television Producers Guild, Film Federation of India, Confederation of Indian Industries, Indian Film Producers' Guild, South India Film Chamber of Commerce and Akhil Bharatiya Marathi Chitrapat Mandal will be promoting their films with these buyers.
Domestic film production houses like UTV, Viacom18 Motion Pictures, Eros International and Reliance Big Pictures are also in the process of looking at Italy, Spain, Taiwan, China, South Korea and France for their forthcoming releases.
Domestic buyers at the festival hope to establish direct contact with world sales agents from foreign companies like Wild Bunch, Match Factory, Films Boutique, Films Distribution, Beta Film, Elephant Eye Films, Memento Films, Norwegian Film Institute, Swedish Film Institute, Urban Distribution, Bavaria Film, Terramedia Online, Kinology, to name a few, who are keen to acquire Indian audiences.
“Market is the most important aspect of any film festival across the world,” said Tanuj Garg, CEO of Balaji Motion Pictures, and added that Mumbai Festival was doing a good job in this respect.
Senior decision makers from leading domestic production companies, broadcasters, home video companies and exhibitors, such as Yashraj Films, Balaji, PVR Pictures, Cinemax, Viacom18 Media, Shemaroo, etc, will also be attending the mart. PTI
