Reliance MediaWorks inks pact with Russian World Studios

Anil Ambani group company Reliance MediaWorks has said it has inked a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Russian World Studios (RWS) and Obyadinennaya Gosudarstvennaya Kinokollektsia (OGK).

The MoU was signed during the India visit of Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, a press release issued here on Thursday stated.

Russian World Studios is one of the largest private film companies in the Russian market and has produced several projects, both for TV and the big screen. It also owns two studios which are spread across 22,000 sq mtrs.

RWS is a part of JSFC ‘Sistema’, a large diversified financial corporation in Russia and the CIS serving more than 100 million customers across varied industries such as telecommunications, high technology, fuel-energy complex and petrochemistry, radar and space, banking, real estate, retail, mass media, tourism and healthcare.

OGK is Russia’s federal state unitary enterprise that preserves and manages the Russian film archives.

RWS and Reliance MediaWorks have associated to outsource work related to film restoration, image processing and enhancement and HD conversion from Russia to the Indian company’s facilities in Mumbai and Burbank in California, the release said.

Reliance MediaWorks’ CEO Anil Arjun said, “By combining RWS’ leadership, know-how and expertise in the Russian market with our experience and versatile technology, we are geared to provide next-generation services to RWS and OGK’s vast film archives.”

“Russian cinema has been a true embodiment of their rich history and by offering restoration services in Russia, we are honoured to have the opportunity to revive some of these classic movies,” he said in the release.

Depending on requirement and developing business potential, Reliance MediaWorks and RWS will also explore the possibility of jointly setting up a dedicated restoration and digitisation facility within RWS studio complex at St Petersburg for image processing and touch-ups, the release said.

RWS CEO Yuri Saprono, said: “Russian film and television industry is moving towards digitisation...We are pleased to have found a partner in Reliance MediaWorks who shares our commitment for excellence and has time-proven hardware, software and custom R&D and can help us restore the Russian film legacy.”

The restoration and digitisation services would be provided by Reliance MediaWorks to RWS and OGK through its media BPO, which is one of the world’s largest dedicated film and video restoration facility.