The next time you catch a new Hollywood flick, don’t be surprised to see a slew of Indian names listed as producers as the credits roll at the end of the movie.

Singapore-based Indus Media Entertainment is set to launch a first-of-its-kind ₹300-crore offshore fund called Indus Media Capital, which will invest in Hollywood and South Indian films.

To be launched in September, this five-year fund will be based in Mauritius and target 20-30 investors, including HNIs (high net-worth individuals) and Indians with media business interests.

Depending on the response to this fund, the company will go in for a Series II type fund with a larger corpus of about ₹1,200 crore.

Hollywood producers Naveen Chathappuram, Charles Leslie, South Indian actor and producer PAR Subramaniam, and former CFO of Reliance Adlabs Devrajan Venkat are to be on the board of the fund. “Seventy-five per cent of the fund’s focus will be on Hollywood and the rest on movies in Tamil and Malayalam and niche media opportunities, including TV. We already have six of the 18 projects lined up for deployment of these funds over the next 18-24 months,” said Devrajan Venkat.

In the pipeline

These projects include the movie Night of the Living Dead, which is slated for an October release, and mark the entry of actor Madhavan into Hollywood; TV series Brown Nation featuring former VJ Shenaz Treasurywallah, which is currently being shot in New Jersey in the US; and a Malayalam movie featuring actor Fahad Fazil.

“We will follow a rolling dividend model under which investors will get a return as and when projects get completed.

“Our investment philosophy will be to not get into any project till its commercials are completely closed,” he added.

The current size of the global media and entertainment market is $1.8 trillion, according to PWC.

The Indian market is expected to double in four years to cross ₹1 trillion, according to KPMG estimates.

Related Topics
comment COMMENT NOW