Fox International ties up with Murugadoss to produce Tamil films

Fox International (FI), part of the Rupert Murdoch's owned News Corporation, in a bid to promote regional movies has tied up with noted Tamil director AR Murugadoss to produce and distribute Tamil films in the country.

Fox STAR Studios is the joint venture between motion films distributor and producer Twentieth Century Fox Corporation and leading media company STAR both, owned by News Corpration. Fox STAR Studios has partnered with A R Murugadoss promoted A R Murugadoss Productions as per the agreement.

Through the joint venture, Fox International forays into Tamil Film industry, Fox International Productions President Sanford Panitch told reporters in Chennai today.

"(AR) Murugadoss is a magnet and we are happy to partner with him.. It is just a beginning...", Sanford told reporters in Chennai.

He said that they have formed an agreement last year and were distributing Hindi films. "We began our journey with Hindi films and the first was the Shah Rukh Khan starer My Name Is Khan.", he said.

Fox STAR Studios chairman Vijay Singh said My Name is Khan was a big success and had a collected about Rs 250 crore in the first two weeks. "With a success in Bollywood, we wanted to enter in Tamil film industry", he said.

He said under the joint venture agreement they have planned to do at least six to seven movies a year.

Expressing happiness over the joint venture, Murugadoss said it would help Tamil film reach global market. Fox International was present in 42 countries and with that backing films produced under the banner have an opportunity to release in most of these countries, he said.

Murugadoss said as a first step under the co-production a Tamil film to be directed by his long time associate Saravanan with new star cast would be produced. The movie was slated to be released by February 2011, he said.