Film Production
India, South Korea to ink audio-visual co-production agreement
NEW DELHI: India and South Korea will be inking an audio-visual co-production agreement, which was accorded by the Union Cabinet. The agreement will include cooperation between the film industries of the two countries to promote export of Indian films and act as a catalyst towards creating awareness about India and its culture.
This will help in increasing bilateral trade between both countries.
The Union Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, approved completion of internal ratification procedure, to enable the agreement to come into force.
The Agreement will be signed during the forthcoming visit of the Prime Minister to South Korea.
The agreement will mean that producers from both countries would get an opportunity to pool their creative, artistic, technical, financial and marketing resources to co-produce films.
This will lead to exchange of art and culture between the two countries, and co-productions would provide an opportunity to create and showcase the ‘soft power’ of India.
The deal is also likely to generate employment among artistic, technical as well as non-technical personnel engaged in the arena of film production including post-production and marketing, thus adding to the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
The utilization of Indian locales for shooting raises the visibility / prospects of India as a preferred film shooting destination across the globe would be promoted and this will lead to inflow of foreign exchange into the country.
This will also lead to transparent funding of film production.
An audiovisual co-production agreement between India and South Korea is expected to open doors for wide ranging collaboration and lead to strengthening of India’s cultural presence in an important part of the world as well as open up new frontiers for the film industries of both countries.
Film Production
Disney to cut 1,000 jobs under new chief executive
The entertainment giant’s freshly installed boss inherits a restructuring already in motion, with marketing and corporate roles bearing the brunt
CALIFORNIA: Walt Disney is preparing to slash up to 1,000 jobs in the coming weeks, the Wall Street Journal reported, as the entertainment giant’s freshly installed chief executive moves swiftly to trim fat and tighten the ship.
The cuts, less than 1 per cent of Disney’s global workforce of 231,000, will fall hardest on marketing and corporate roles. The planning, notably, began before D’Amaro formally took the top job in March, suggesting the new boss inherited a restructuring already in motion rather than one of his own making.
Driving the push is Asad Ayaz, Disney’s newly appointed chief marketing officer, who in January assumed command of a unified, company-wide marketing operation spanning film, television and streaming. His consolidation drive has been given a suitably cinematic internal name: Project Imagine.
The move is modest by Disney’s recent standards. Between 2023 and 2025, under former chief executive Bob Iger, the company eliminated roughly 8,000 positions across several brutal rounds of cuts, saving $7.5 billion, comfortably exceeding its own targets. As recently as June 2025, several hundred more jobs were axed across Disney Entertainment, hitting film and television marketing, publicity, casting, development and corporate finance.
Disney’s structural headaches are well-documented: shrinking streaming margins, a weakened box office, and fierce competition from Amazon and YouTube gnawing at its flanks. The company is merging its Disney+ and Hulu teams into a single app, has brought in consultants from Bain & Co to guide its broader cost strategy, and is betting heavily on digital growth.
The wider entertainment industry offers little comfort. Sony Pictures, Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery have all taken the knife to their workforces in recent years, and further cuts loom if Paramount’s acquisition of Warner goes through.
For D’Amaro, the message is clear: there will be no honeymoon period. The magic kingdom still has some cost-cutting spells left to cast.
