MUMBAI: The Hinduja Group has appointed Sunir Kheterpal as the CEO of IN Entertainment.
Kheterpal comes on board from Reliance BIG Entertainment, where he set up the international and domestic distribution business for the Group before moving on to managing key co-production relationships at BIG Pictures. Sunir is an alumnus of IIM Ahmedabad and has previously worked in the banking and financial services industry with Bank of America, Rabobank and YES Bank.
The Hinduja Group plans to invest 250 crores in the Content Business over the next two to three years and Kheterpal will spearhead its growth plans in the media and entertainment space. The Group has had a long association with India’s entertainment industry by way of film financing, production and distribution. The Group also owns InCable, which is one of India’s largest Cable Distribution companies.
Kheterpal says, "The Indian entertainment industry is poised on the threshold of its next growth cycle after undergoing a consolidation phase over the last 18 months or so. Amidst these on-going dynamic changes in the business environment, I am very excited to be starting my next career move with the Hinduja Group, who has tremendous passion and aspiration to grow this business".
IN Entertainment will be primarily engaged in the Content Development, Financing and Production, both for Films and TV, through Serendipity Films as well as co-productions with existing production houses. It will also acquire distribution rights of foreign films for India. Once the content pipeline starts getting readied, there are plans to roll out worldwide film distribution capabilities. IN Entertainment will also house assets pertaining to the Cable Video Channel, CVO, Cable Shopping Channel, Shop 24 Seven, and Movie Licensing through Cablemaster.
On 26 February 2010, IN Entertainment will be releasing Serendipity Film’s Teen Patti staring Amitabh Bachchan, R.Madhavan and Sir Ben Kingsley and introducing Dhruv Ganesh, Shraddha Kapoor, Siddharth Kher and Vaibhav Talwar.
