Callista Capital, RW Media buy stake in India's Abundantia

Financial details were not disclosed but Live Mint reported that the two investors put in around INR1 billion ($16,4 million).

Abundantia was set up last year by Vikram Malhotra, the former COO of Viacom18 Motion Pictures; the studio already has a slate of 11 movies, with a combined budget of around INR2.5 billion, stretching to early 2016 and will start releasing from mid-2014.

The studio, which will only co-produce its projects, has already signed a slew of deals with prominent India directors including Neeraj Pandey, Shoojit Sircar, Nikhil Advani and Soumik Sen.

RW Media, a Mumbai-based media and television production company, is promoted by Reena Wadhwa, the Indian partner of Italian luxury brand Gucci.

This is not the first PE investment in India's movie industry. Last November, Temasek Holdings made its first foray into Bollywood when Fullerton Fund Management - a unit of the Singapore sovereign fund - acquired a stake in local film distributor Eros International.

The same month media production company Virgin Produced partnered with Mumbai-based Cinema Capital Venture Fund and Tantrik Group, a media and entertainment asset management firm, to launch Virgin Produced India. It will develop, produce and distribute Bollywood films and remake Hollywood content for Indian audiences.

India's media and entertainment industry grew a 12% in 2013 to INR920 billion, compared with a 12.6% rise the year before.

 

 

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• Topics
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