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Eros, India’s premier film studio, continues to expand its regional presence this year with more than 25 releases across Bengali, Marathi, Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam and Punjabi. Following their double success together with Bengali films ‘Belaseshe’ and ‘Praktan’, Eros will release director-duo Shibo Prasad Mukherjee and Nandita Roy’s ‘Posto’ this year. Also on the anvil is director Moinak Bhowmik’s ‘Bibaho Diaries’, ‘Double Feluda’ director Sandip Ray’s next, two projects by Sujoy Ghosh, Kamleshwar Mukherjee’s ‘Good Night City’ and a project each by directors Ranjan Ghosh, Raja Chandra and Rabi Kinagi.
The company has also greenlit two Telugu projects by ace directors Chandu Mondeti (of Premam fame) and Maruti in association with IDream’s production division.
Also, slated to release are four Marathi films- ‘Baghtos Kay Mujra Kar’ by Hemant Dhome which makes a strong statement on the current state of Shivaji’s forts across Maharashtra, sequel to the hit ‘Coffee Ani Barach Kahi’ by Prakash Kunte and another two films in association with Everest Entertainment.
Eros’ Tamil slate will offer a range of titles by established directors as well as new talent which include Ramu Chellapa’s ‘Enkitta Mothathe’, Suresh Sangiah’s ‘Oru Kidayin Karunai Manu’, Manikandan’s ‘Kadasi Vivasayi’, Bharath Krishna’s ‘Nervazhi’ and another project with director Venkat Prabhu.
Post the release of the legendary tales of ‘Char Sahibzaade’ and ‘Banda Singh Bahadur’, the company has also announced Punjabi films – 3D animation ‘Guru Tegh Bahadur’ and ‘Jaita’, to be directed by Harry Baweja.
Following the success of its Malayalam releases like ‘Happy Wedding’, ‘IDI’ etc., Eros continues to make successful inroad into Malayalam cinema with multiple releases coming up including ‘C/o Saira Banu’ starring Manju Warrier, Amala Akineni, directed by Antony Sony Sebastian; Ranjan Pramod’s ‘Rakshadhikari Baiju Oppu’ with Biju Menon and Aju Varghese as leads; ‘Sunday Holiday’ directed by Jis Joy starring Asif Ali, Sreenivasan, Lal Jose and Asha Sharath and another film to be directed by Thomas Sebastian.
This year will also see Eros’ debut into Kannada cinema with the release of ‘Aake’ in association with K S Dreams and Nakshatra Productions, directed by K M Chaitanya and starring Chiranjeevi Sarja and Sharmila Mandre.
Speaking on his association with Eros, leading Bengali director Shiboprasad Mukherjee said, “It’s been great to partner with Eros who recognize the importance and potential of regional cinema, opening newer markets in India and overseas”.
Jyoti Deshpande, Group CEO, Eros International commented, “With this film slate, Eros demonstrates two fundamental strengths, firstly its firm footing on a dominant market leadership position built on the pillar of a wide, diverse portfolio of films and secondly its ability to foresee market trends and adapt swiftly to step up its own production and co-production model over the content acquisition model. While the demonetization in India was a temporary cloud over the business affecting footfalls in the short run, we see great opportunities including a cashless economy driving accelerated adoption of ErosNow(1), one of the leading OTT services in India with over 2 million paying subscribers and over 55 million users worldwide.”
“A compelling film slate with winning budgets and not just winning scripts, backed with a well-oiled global distribution network that consistently opens new markets for Bollywood coupled with strong pre-sales and a game-changing early mover ErosNow(1) digital strategy, positions Eros uniquely to capitalize on the rapidly growing Indian entertainment sector.”
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