Why the Fox deal may resurrect Disney’s film business in India
NEWDELHI: The Walt Disney Co.’s agreement to buy Rupert Murdoch’s 21st Century Fox Inc. may have taken the global entertainment i ndustry by storm, but it is in the Indian film market for which the most positive implications of the $52.4 billion deal are expected.
While a Fox executive, on the condition of anonymity, said it would take at least a year for the Indian arms of the two entities to gain clarity on film plans, industry experts emphasise that the deal will definitely be an opportunity for Disney to look at Bollywood afresh, after deciding to halt Indian movie production in 2016 and focus on distributing Hollywood projects.
Currently, Fox Star Studios is in a strong position in Bollywood on the basis of its existing library and upcoming slate that includes projects with big names such as Karan Johar, Sajid Nadiadwala and Rajkumar Hirani.
Apart from Hindi, Fox also has big plans for Bengali, Tamil and Malayalam cinema.
“2017 has been a phenomenal year for Fox. Apart from the occasional misadventure like
Ait’s made all the right moves,” said Atul Mohan, editor of trade magazine Complete Cinema.
“It’s very logical for Disney to take up Fox’s fantastic movie slate given that they have pretty much cleaned up their theatrical infrastructure here and withdrawn in a planned manner,” said Utpal Acharya, founder of film company Indian Film Studios, adding that it would make sense to merge the entire Fox motion pictures team with Disney’s.
Another big advantage for Disney lies in Fox’s overseas movie distribution network. As early as 2010, it had emerged as the first Hollywood studio to take an Indian film, Karan Johar’s across the world.
“Fox has been the pioneer in opening up the overseas market for Indian films,” said film distributor and exhibitor Akshaye Rathi. Initially, Walt Disney had a presence in India through its subsidiary UTV Motion Pictures, formerly owned by Ronnie Screwvala. Eventually, Disney acquired UTV in 2012.
The Fox Star journey in India has been chequered. After disappointments like
it found its groove. MUMBAI: India’s recent success in containing inflationary pressures needs to be viewed in the context of entrenching macroeconomic stability, in which the government played a decisive role as it managed price pressures in some key food items, said Urjit Patel, governor of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI).
The new monetary policy framework has been playing an important role in shaping inflation expectations and outcomes, Patel said in a speech on December 7 at the Centre for Advanced Financial Research and Learning.
The speech was uploaded on RBI’S website on Friday.
“With some disinflation underway, inflation expectations are, perhaps, getting re-anchored, indicative, in part, of the credibility earned by the new framework; but these are early days, and hence considerable caution and vigilance is warranted on the inflation front,” Patel said.
Last week, RBI’S monetary policy committee kept the central bank’s key interest rate unchanged, noting risks to inflation.
On growth, Patel said eco- nomic slowdown may well be bottoming out, as seen from the second-quarter gross domestic product (GDP) growth numbers.
“If one sees far, structural changes that come with temporary disruptions can be growth and efficiency-augmenting in the medium to long term. This is what has happened, for instance, with the introduction of the GST. It should yield gains that will mean better tax compliance and a more efficient tax system that in turn will impart a permanent upward push to our growth,” he said.
After five consecutive quarters of deceleration, GDP growth quickened to 6.3% in July-september.