Palador Pictures entered into a strategic relationship with Tata Sky Ltd. (a joint venture between the TATA Group and STAR TV).

According to the agreement, ShowcaseTM, Tata Sky’s pay-per-view service, will now showcase a collection of American, European and Asian films from the Palador library. Palador Pictures aimed to generate revenues worth USD 20 million through the deal by March 2009. It has already raised private investments worth USD 6 Million.

The movies that have been selected from Palador are from filmmakers, such as Akira Kurosawa, Jim Jarmusch, Oxide Pang Chun & Danny Pang, Wong-Kar Wai, among others. Every week Tata Sky is likely to replace the old films to a new lot from the Palador library.

The subscribers of Tata Sky can watch the movies several times till midnight after ordering any of them once. The exclusive tie-up with Palador gives the opportunity to Tata Sky to showcase some of the best of foreign films such as Akira Kurosawa’s ‘Seven Samurai’. The main reason that pulled the attention of Tata Sky towards Palador was to keep up to its claim of providing greater choice, convenience and control to its subscribers. This way it ensures that it will now bring world cinema to the TV screens of all viewers.

Gautam Sikhnis, the founder and MD, Palador Pictures, said, ‘We have worked hard to create a collection of the best-of-the-best movies from across the world and are currently nurturing around 1,000 titles in our ever-growing library. And now, the task of taking them to the discerning Indian viewers is made easy with Tata Sky satellite television service.'

Vikram Kaushik, the MD and CEO, Tata Sky Ltd. commented, ‘Our tie-up with Palador enables us to introduce our subscribers to classics in the world cinema category made by legendary film makers. These films will be available in DVD quality picture and will have only one ad-break, thereby enhancing the viewing experience for our subscribers.’

The Palador collection has the most varied categories and backgrounds of films from around the world. An amount of more than USD 4 million has been spent by Palador for being able to achieve this. The entire amount has been spent in acquiring the legal rights to 1,000 films from the world cinema category comprising English and foreign language films.

The Palador collection consists of films from directors, such as, Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton, Akira Kurosawa, Krzysztof Kieslowski, Jean-Luc Godard, Francois Truffaut, Abbas Kiarostami, David Lynch and many more. Mohan Polamar, co-founder and joint managing director, Palador Pictures, commenting on the penetration of world cinema foreign films in India, said, “Lot of film admirers who felt the TV and film libraries did not have much of the good foreign language films will now rejoice. They don’t need to waste their times scouring the streets for their favourite movies. Palador promises them the delight of all those movies without having to hunt for them.”