Om Shanti Om beats the previous best - Rajnikant starrer Sivaji

The Don is back in action, and this time around, the world is not enough for Shah Rukh Khan. The matinee idol has managed to sell the rights of his forthcoming production, Om Shanti Om (OSO), to Eros International for about Rs 75 crore, the highest for any Indian film so far.

OSO beats the previous best—Rajnikant starrer Sivaji—which was sold for Rs 65 crore. “Yes, the deal is done. We have an alliance with Red Chillies Entertainment (SRK’s home production firm) for the film,” Eros director Sunil Lulla told ET.

The deal gives Eros the rights to distribute the film both in India and overseas (Europe, UK , US and Fiji) as well as satellite, DVD and new media rights. Eros, say industry experts, has extracted a good bargain by negotiating the intellectual property rights (IPR) for an extended period of 15 years, as opposed to the industry practice of a decade.

What remains outside the ambit are the music rights, which have been sold separately to T-Series for about Rs 8-9 crore. T-Series will also enjoy the rights to exploit the music by selling mobile downloads to a growing mass of mobile consumers.

The deal is yet another signal of the growing appetite among Hollywood-styled entertainment companies in the country to get big on movie acquisition rights.

Some of these companies, such as UTV, Eros and Studio 18, have recently raised money on London’s Alternative Investment Market (AIM). They now need compelling content to drive revenues.

As a result, in the last year, acquisition rights for content in the Indian entertainment industry has risen dramatically, with premium content—goes with a top star cast—commanding at least 10-15% more.

“Since each of them have built large distribution channels, they now need to compete with compelling content. These companies also have to contend with a host of TV channels, including several new ones in the pipeline, as well as the DVD space.

All these companies can demonstrate results to their shareholders only if they have the content to generate,” says former head of Twentieth Century Fox Aditya Shastri.

However, a top star cast alone is no guarantee for success, as Eros discovered after plonking about Rs 40 crore on the table to buy the rights of Salaam-e-Ishq. The multi-starrer movie, panned by critics, met with dismal result at the box office, but is said to have cut its losses in the DVD market.

“SRK has an extraordinary market overseas and we are very confident of our returns; the number of prints will definitely be record-breaking,” said Mr Lulla.