MUMBAI: Indian film studio Eros International has entered into a strategic partnership with Russian distribution and production company Central Partnership (CP) – an affiliate 
This association includes exploitation via licensing of intellectual property rights owned by each party in their respective markets and distribution of film projects for both
India and Russia, opening up the market for the two companies to explore new geographies.
As part of the deal, CP will dub films from Eros’ film library in Russian language enabling the company to cater to a much larger audience in Russia and can further utilise the dubbed content on its digital platform, Eros Now, to reach out to a wider audience in Russia.
Jyoti Deshpande, group CEO Eros International, said, “India and Russia have historically always enjoyed a strong and strategic relationship. With our entry into the Russian market, we continue to build our strong global position and are delighted to take the lead in associating with Central Partnership.”She added, “Russia’s domestic market potential is promising and coupled with the rise in digital consumption by local audiences, we see a huge opportunity in exploiting exciting, unique and high-quality content together to reach audiences across the two Diasporas.”
With the growth of satellite pay TV in Russia, there is an increased demand for premium digital and television content. This alliance, Eros said, will pave the way for CP to showcase extensive repository of Bollywood films from the Eros library on pay TV.
CP will also approach free TV channels to explore showcasing of Indian titles, while Eros will distribute CP media assets on Indian television.
This collaboration will also enable the launch of Eros Now, the on-demand OTT digital platform of Eros, in Russia and CIS. CP will showcase Eros Now’s VOD content on digital distribution network RUFORM through Rutube (web video streaming service targeted in Russia) while Eros will facilitate featuring Russian content on Eros Now.
