BIG Home Video to market Warner catalogues in India

Mumbai, July 30 (IANS) BIG Home Video, part of the Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group (ADAG), has been appointed as the exclusive licensee of Warner Home Video for India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.

Announcing this, BIG Music and Home Entertainment (BMHE) CEO Kulmeet Makkar said: 'The strategic partnership would allow BIG Home Video to market and distribute VCD, DVD and Blu Ray products from Warner Home Video in these three countries.'

Shweta Agnohotri, chief operating officer of BMHE, told IANS that the size of Indian legitimate home video market was of Rs.7.2 billion.

'While piracy has to some extent been curbed in India, it is still a big menace in Sri Lanka and Bangladesh where pirated home video products account for 99 percent of the market. But we are devising ways and means to safeguard our products there,' she added.

Warner Home Video library, considered the world's biggest, has classics like 'Gone With The Wind', 'Ben Hur' and 'Doctor Zhivago' and modern-day blockbusters like 'The Matrix Trilogy', '300', 'Harry Potter', 'Batman' and 'Superman' franchises.

It also has catalogues from Turner Entertainment, Castle Rock Entertainment, HBO Home Video and New Line Home Entertainment.

Makkar disclosed that BIG Home Video would also market Warner's repertoire of television content, including popular series like 'Friends', 'Everybody Loves Raymond', 'The OC' and children series 'Tom & Jerry' and 'Scooby Doo'.

He added that BIG Home Video would release Warner's 'I am Legend', '10000 BC', 'The Dark Knight', and studio's forthcoming release 'Harry Potter & Half-Blood Prince', in the home video market.

BIG Home Video is already an exclusive licensee of Universal Studios International to distribute its home entertainment products in India and neighbouring regions