Hindi
LAIFC presenting global best practices at Ficci Frames
NEW DELHI: The Los Angeles India Film Council are in Mumbai to share global best practice on the topics of co-productions, tax incentives, building talent skills in media and entertainment and encouraging knowledge exchange as a session co-partner at the ongoing FICCI FRAMES 2013.
Set up in 2010 by a Joint Declaration between the City of Los Angeles and the Indian Film Industry, the Council has made significant progress forging partnerships between key stakeholders in the United States and India media and entertainment industries.
The Council is supporting key panel discussions at FICCI FRAMES: ‘Indian Studio Infrastructure – Are We Ready For The Next Century?’, `Skills in M & E – The Next Big Leap Towards Creating Greater Talent’, `Single Window Clearance: Making India Easier For Filmmakers’, and key policy roundtables.
Council members speaking at the key sessions include Frank Rittman – Senior Vice President, Regional Policy Officer and Deputy Managing Director, Asia-Pacific, Motion Picture Association (MPA), Catherine McDonnell – Head of Business and Legal Affairs, Fox Studios Australia, Uday Singh – Managing Director, Motion Picture Dist. Association (MPDA), India, Teri Schwartz – Dean, UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television, D.J.Narain – Director, Film and Television Institute of India and MPA’s member studio executives: Vijay Singh – Fox Star Studios, India and Vikram Malhotra – Viacom 18 Motion Pictures.
“The global media and entertainment industry today is faced with a number of significant challenges as it works to meet consumer expectations in the digital age,” said Frank Rittman – Senior Vice President, Regional Policy Officer and Deputy Managing Director, Asia-Pacific – MPA. “Our partnership with FRAMES 2013 provides an ideal platform to discuss world’s best practices across a range of policy and commercial areas, which I hope prove to be beneficial to the local industry here in India.”
Uday Singh, Managing Director, MPDA India, said, “The Council sessions are extremely pertinent for the cross pollination of ideas, best practices and talent between the film communities in India and Los Angeles. We are privileged to be associated with FICCI FRAMES, a global convention that continues to remain a leader in promoting the growth of the media and entertainment industry in India.”
Vijay Singh, CEO – Fox Star Studios India, said, “It is inevitable that film studios in India will need to evolve their infrastructure in order to be globally on par with the best in technology, creativity and talent. I encourage the LA India Film Council to continue playing a vital role in promoting knowledge exchange in this area which is the need of the hour.”
Added Vikram Malhotra, COO, Viacom 18 Motion Pictures, “The Council is making commendable efforts in sharing knowledge among the film communities of the two countries; India and USA. We look forward to a future where film making will transgress national boundaries and enrich the cultural quotient of the world.”
The Council is also participating in ‘Shoot At Site’, a one-day focused and interactive conclave and B2B platform on Film Tourism on 15 March 2013. Shoot at Site aims to bring together the entertainment and tourism industries under the same platform to promote commerce between these two vibrant sectors. The Council will participate in key panel discussions during the above event to help stakeholders discover the benefits of co-productions, film incentives and how these have a positive impact on tourism and the economy of a country. The Council will also release a special report by Ernst & Young at this event.
“If you want to create a successful local production industry, it is essential that you are in a position to compete with some of the very attractive tax incentives that are on offer around the world. FICCI FRAMES is the perfect forum for constructive discussion on tax incentives and co-productions, and I look forward to participating thanks to the LA India Film Council,” said Catherine McDonnell, Head of Business and Legal Affairs, Fox Studios Australia.
Added Teri Schwartz, Dean – UCLA School of Theater, Film & Television, “I am honored to participate at the 2013 FICCI FRAMES Conference, and applaud this great initiative by the Council. I believe the development of talent and skill sets in the media and entertainment industry should embrace global diversity and be welcoming of talent from all all walks of life. I hope the Council’s continuing efforts will help with the free exchange of talent not only between our two countries, but across the globe.”
In 2012, LAIFC undertook several initiatives to engage with key custodians and stakeholders of the two filmmaking communities in the United States and India, including the establishment of discussions on content protection in the digital era, stimulating film co-productions, launching a short film festival, and participating in film festivals and the release of two reports on film incentives and monetising digital content.
Hindi
GUEST COLUMN: Why film libraries & IPs are the new engines of growth
Unlocking value through catalogue strength and IP synergy
MUMBAI:In a media landscape defined by fragmentation, platform proliferation, and ever-evolving audience behavior, the economics of filmmaking are undergoing a fundamental shift. No longer confined to box office performance, a film’s true value is now measured across an extended lifecycle that spans digital platforms, syndication networks, and global markets. As content consumption becomes increasingly non-linear and algorithm-driven, film libraries and intellectual properties (IPs) are emerging as strategic assets, capable of delivering sustained, long-term returns. For Mohan Gopinath, head – bollywood business at Shemaroo Entertainment Ltd., this transformation signals a decisive move from hit-driven models to portfolio-led value creation. In this piece, Gopinath explores how legacy content, when intelligently repurposed and distributed, can unlock recurring revenue streams, why the interplay between catalogue and original IP is critical, and how media companies can build resilient, future-ready entertainment businesses.
For all these years, we thought that a film is successful if it performs well in theatres. There are opening weekend numbers, box office milestones, and distribution footprints that gave a good picture of how the movie has done commercially and also tell us about its cultural impact. However, there are multiple platforms today, always-on content ecosystem, which has caused a shift. Today, the theatrical performance is not the culmination of a film’s journey but merely the beginning of a much longer and more dynamic lifecycle.
Film libraries today are emerging as high-value, constantly evolving assets that deliver sustained returns well beyond initial release cycles. This becomes a point of great advantage for legacy content owners with diverse catalogues, to shape long-term business outcomes.
According to FICCI-EY, the media and entertainment industry of India achieved a valuation of Rs 2.78 trillion in 2025 which is expected to reach Rs 3.3 trillion by 2028 through a compound annual growth rate of approximately 7 per cent and digital media will bring in more than Rs 1 trillion to become the biggest sector which generates about 36 per cent of overall market revenues.
This shift is the expansion of distribution endpoints. We know how satellite television was once the primary secondary window but today, it coexists with YouTube, OTT platforms, Connected TV, and FAST channels. Each of these platforms caters to distinct audience demographics and consumption behaviors, helping content owners to obtain more value from the same asset across multiple formats.
For instance, films that had great reruns, now find continuous engagement across digital platforms. On YouTube, classic Hindi cinema continues to attract significant viewership, reaching audiences across generations and geographies with remarkable consistency. At Shemaroo Entertainment, this is reflected in our film library shaped over decades as part of a long association with Indian entertainment. From classics such as Amar Akbar Anthony to much-loved entertainers like Jab We Met, Welcome, Dhamaal, Phir Hera Pheri, Dhol, Golmaal, and Bhagam Bhag, many of these titles continue finding new audiences while retaining their place in popular memory. Their enduring appeal reflects how culturally resonant stories can continue creating value over time. Similarly, FAST channels have created curated, always-on environments where catalogue content can continue to thrive through star-led and genre-based programming.
This multi-platform approach has very well transformed films into long-tail IP assets which are capable of generating recurring revenue across advertising, subscription, and syndication models.
The evolution of audience behavior is equally important. Nowadays, it’s more important to find what’s more relative than what’s recent as viewers are more influenced by mood, memories, and algorithmic suggestions than by release schedules. Even if a movie was released decades ago, it can trend alongside a newly released movie, if surfaced in the right context. Thoughtful packaging, whether through festival-based playlists, actor-driven collections, or genre clusters, allows catalogue content to remain dynamic and continuously discoverable. Shemaroo Entertainment has built extensive film libraries over decades and its focus has mostly been on recontextualizing content for the consumption of newer environments. This process doesn’t just include digitization and restoration, but also re-packaging of films as per platforms.
Syndication itself has evolved into a key growth driver. In perspective, when looking at the domestic market, curated content packages continue to find strong demand across broadcast and digital platforms. Meanwhile, in the international market, especially in markets like Middle East, North America and Southeast Asia, the appetite for Indian content is opening up new monetization avenues. Here, the ability to package and position catalogue content effectively becomes as important as the content itself.
Importantly, the need to re-package catalogue content does not diminish the role of new content. In fact, originals and fresh IP are essential to sustaining the long-term value of a film library because they act as discovery engines that bring audiences into the ecosystem, while catalogue content drives depth, retention, and repeat engagement.
This interplay between the “new” and the “known” is what defines a robust content strategy today. While new films generate spikes in consumption, catalogue titles offer familiarity and comfort. These are factors that are increasingly valuable in an era of content abundance and decision fatigue. This is also shaping our strategy, drawing value from both a deep catalogue assets and a growing focus on original IPs to strengthen long-term audience engagement and build more predictable revenue streams.
There is growing recognition that long-term value in entertainment will be shaped not only by how intelligently existing content continues to live, travel and find relevance, but also by how consistently new stories are created to renew that ecosystem. In that sense, film libraries and original IP are not parallel bets, but reinforcing engines of growth. For media companies, the opportunity lies in making these two forces work together, because that is increasingly where more resilient and predictable businesses are being shaped.
Note: The views expressed in this article are solely the author’s and do not necessarily reflect our own.
