Palador Pictures, the only Indian firm to have bought legal rights to about 1,000 World Cinema titles has tied up with Moser Baer Entertainment, to sell and distribute 50 foreign language film titles in DVD format through the latter's over 2,000 key retail outlets across the country. This deal marks the partnership between the two biggest players in their respective categories. The DVDs, each priced at Rs.399/- also marks the entry of Moser Baer Entertainment into premium category in their repertoire of DVD labels.

The foreign films being released in DVD are some of the most awarded and critically acclaimed films of all times. These include Akira Kurosawa's masterpieces ' Seven Samurai' & 'Yojimbo' , 'Infernal Affairs' (which inspired Martin Scorsese's Academy Award winner ' Departed'), Wong-Kar Wai's Cannes award winner 'In The Mood for Love', the cult Asian horror film 'The Eye ', Ingmar Bergman's masterpiece 'Wild Strawberries', Jim Jarmusch's 'Dead Man' starring a young Johnny Depp and the mother of all monster movies – the original 'Godzilla' ,

Says Gautam Shiknis, Founder & Managing Director of Palador Pictures, "This alliance is the beginning of a World Cinema movement in India. The tie-up with Moser Baer Entertainment will now allow Indians from across the country to legally own a Bergman or Kurosawa or any of the other masters and be suitably awed by their art, craft and wizardry over the cinematic medium. I sincerely hope this rejuvenates a cult kind of movement for World Cinema and foreign films in smaller cities in addition to the metros."

Harish Dayani, Chief Executive – Entertainment Business, Moser Baer adds, "Our endeavour at Moser Baer is to offer our customers a world of entertainment in every popular language in India. We are happy to partner with Palador and bring premium World Cinema home video titles to the Indian customer at less than Rs 400. We hope that this alliance with Palador is only the beginning of an enduring relationship."

Palador Pictures has invested over USD 4 million (Rs.16 crore) to acquire legal rights to around thousand foreign language film titles in its World Cinema category. The Palador catalogue boasts of award-winning foreign film classics directed by the masters of yesteryears and the current crop of mavericks: Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton, Akira Kurosawa, Krzysztof Kieslowski, Jean-Luc Godard, Froncois Trauffat, Abbas Kiarostami, David Lynch and many more. The Palador collection covers all genres and eras and is probably the single largest collection of quality films in the world.

Enthuses Mohan Polamar, Co-Founder & Joint Managing Director of Palador Pictures, "No matter the language, World Cinema seems to connect to almost everyone through basic life situations, and in that respect, it becomes a universal language - understood and experienced by all. The techniques, perfected by some of foreign language film directors, have, over the years, become art forms and are emulated even today by filmmakers all over. It would be a crime to exclude Indian cinema-lovers from these seminal works."

Adds Shiknis, "Economic prosperity has always preceded trend-setting lifestyle patterns in culture and arts, more so in chaotic but thriving democracies. While Indian ethnocentric culture, language and arts will continue to rule the roost in India , the new globalisation spree of our country actually mandates us Indians to be familiar with the best of arts and culture from all over the world. Palador Pictures, with its core strength in the ability to predict content and market trends in media space is more than a content aggregator. It is an integrated media enterprise that spans production, content acquisition, programming and distribution in the areas of film, publishing, internet and radio."

Sourced From: Sampark Public Relations Pvt Ltd