UTV Motion Pictures has emerged as the top 20 film distributors in North America based on the US box office performance in the first six months of 2008.
MUMBAI: UTV Motion Pictures has emerged as the top 20 film distributors in North America based on the US box office performance in the first six months of 2008.
UTV is the first Indian film studio ever to have crossed five million USD revenue mark in the first half of this year.
Its releases grossed 5.48 million USD in the first 28 weeks of the year, making the company a leading Indian motion picture distributor in the United States and the only foreign language movie distributor in the top 20, Siddharth Roy Kapur, CEO of UTV Motion Pictures said in a statement issued here on Saturday said.
UTV motion picutres achieved this feat with only three releases this year - 'Jodhaa Akbar' (USD 3.44 million), 'Race' (USD 1.37 million) and 'Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na' (USD 539,857 and counting).
The box office total was supported by Aamir Khan's 'Taare Zameen Par' which was released in December 2007 and continued its run well into 2008.
He said entering the Top 20 is a major achievement for an Indian studio, given the fact that the market for Indian movies in the US is a small fraction of the mainstream American market.
This is especially remarkable considering that UTV is one of the youngest Indian film distributors in North America, having established operations in the United States four years ago in 2004.
"The US market is one of our top three priority markets worldwide and our sustained and relentless drive to produce and release quality content and then market and distribute it effectively, has helped us to emerge as one of the top distributors in the most competitive market in the world," he added.
Kapur said UTV has followed the good box office erformance in the first half of 2008 with the release of Shahid Kapur's 'Kismet Konnection'.
"The film has raked in over 280,000 USD in its opening weekend and is still going strong," he added.
Speaking about the company's forthcoming releases,he said the projects include Madhur Bhandarkar's 'Fashion', Rakeysh Om Prakash Mehra's 'Delhi 6' and a co-production with Sohail Khan productions 'Main aur Mrs Khanna' starring Salman Khan.
The company's first solo Hollywood production "The Exterminators" starring Heather Graham is currently in production in the United States,he added.
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