Consortium of industry veterans introduces SEA content to MENA
In view of the MENA (Middle East and North America) market expansion, industry veterans Sunder Kimatrai (formerly EVP Asia Pacific at Twentieth Century Fox International), Anish Wadhwa (CEO of Home Screen Entertainment), Shravan Shroff (entrepreneur and former MD of Fame India, Ltd., one of India’s largest multiplex companies), Gianluca Chakra (CEO of Front Row Filmed Entertainment) and Filipino media mogul Vicente del Rosario Jr. (CEO of Viva Entertainment) have founded Gulf Asia Entertainment, a film distribution company whose objective, at the outset, is to elevate the presence and profile of the Filipino and South East Asian entertainment industry in the Middle East.
Through Front Row Filmed Entertainment, the company will release between 10 to 12 theatrical Filipino titles a year starting off with romantic drama Never Not Love You (with Nadine Lustre and James Reid) today, which grossed US$500,000 in its first four days of release in the Philippines last Wednesday and is eyeing a total box-office of US$2 million.
After the US, the Filipino diaspora in the Middle East is the second largest in the world with a population of over 2.5M with 1.2M in Saudi Arabia followed by the UAE with a little over 800,000. The Filipinos in the MENA are also the second largest source of remittances to the Philippines.
“The Filipino community is the third largest community in the UAE, but unlike the audience for Indian films of various languages, Filipinos residing in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) are massive spenders and intensely socially active who regularly attend Filipino events and the occasional film that is released,” says Del Rosario Jr. “Our aim is to tap into this market and expand by releasing Pinoy films on a day-and-date basis with the Philippines across major cinemas in the GCC as well as on VOD and on digital and soon enough, bring in live events and concerts.”
According to Kimatrai, “The UAE market isn’t the only market we are eyeing. There are over 1.2M Filipinos in Saudi Arabia and another 500,000 across Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain and Oman. There is a real market waiting to be developed... and with the MENA expansion and the introduction of cinemas in Saudi, we see this becoming a real opportunity.”
Gianluca Chakra says, “While we cover Western and Arab film distribution, Asian and specifically Filipino content is indeed a natural progression. With the partners in place, this could only prove to a significantly interesting move in satisfying a vast audience that has never been properly served in region.” On May 31, the company will be releasing Sid
& Aya, a romantic love story starring Anne Curtis and Dingdong Dantes.