MUMBAI: A film entertainment corporate selling its in-house movie’s distribution rights to another corporate is no longer news to the ears. However, selling the rights and then buying them back definitely is.
Shree Ashtavinayak Cine Vision, the producer of Jab We Met had sold the worldwide distribution rights of this Shahid Kapur – Kareena Kapoor starrer to Studio 18. Now the company has bought back 50 per cent stake in the Bombay territory distribution rights of the movie from Studio 18.
Studio 18 national head – domestic distribution Utpal Acharya says, “Shree Ashtavinayak has paid a sum of Rs 1.75 crores (Rs 17.5 million) to the agreed notional amount of Rs 3.5 crore (Rs 35 million) for the Bombay territory. After selling the worldwide rights to us, Ashtavinayak showed an interest in Bombay distribution, but we were not keen on selling it entirely so we agreed on a 50 per cent stake.”
Shree Ashtavinayak Cine Vision distribution and marketing head Rupen Amlani adds, “Since we have an expertise in Bombay distribution, we decided to distribute the movie jointly in this territory.”
However, while on one hand Amlani says this decision of joint distribution was agreed upon at the time of handing over the rights to Studio 18, Acharya says it was decided later.
Jab We Met is due for release on 26 October. Apart from Bombay, Studio 18 is distributing the movie in Delhi, C.P., C.I., Nizam and overseas. Adlabs is distributing the movie in Bengal and Punjab, Marudhar in Rajasthan, Satyam Cinemas in Tamil Nadu and Kerela and Bahar Enterprises in Mysore.
