Palador Pictures
Encyclopedia
Palador Pictures is a content production, programming and publishing company operating from Mumbai, India, dealing mainly with the acquisition and distribution of foreign language films, also known as World cinema
in the Indian subcontinent through DVD, television and theatre.
Palador Pictures was the first company to focus on the world cinema
category in India in 2005. Reports from various articles published in newspapers put the number of foreign language films owned by Palador to be close to 1000 films including works of yesteryear as well as today's masters like Charlie Chaplin
, Ingmar Bergman
, Buster Keaton
, Akira Kurosawa
, Krzysztof Kieślowski
, Jean-Luc Godard
, François Truffaut
, Abbas Kiarostami
, David Lynch
etc.
. Palador is also a planet in the science fictional world of Arthur C. Clarke
. The planet, first featured in Arthur C. Clarke
's short story "Rescue Party," the first story Clarke sold. The residents of this planet are called Paladorians and are characterized as having different bodies, but one mind. Palador is also the name of a dental alloy.
The company has acquired these films from different parts of the world, especially film festivals e.g. it acquired the rights to around 300 films in the Cannes Film Festival of 2007, including the 'Extra-Special' anniversary prize winning film Paranoid Park
. In the recently concluded Berlin International Film Festival
, the company is said to have acquired films like Shine A Light)
, the biography of the Rolling Stones directed by Martin Scorsese
, and the Lou Reed
documentary Berlin.
On television, eight films from Palador's catalog were shown under a tie-up with Tata Sky
during October-November 2007. These were films by directors like Akira Kurosawa
, Wim Wenders
, François Truffaut
, Wong Kar-wai
and others. The company recently tied up with Zee Studio and is slated to show 26 of its films for six months.
's Seven Samurai, Yojimbo, Throne of Blood
; and Ingmar Bergman
's Wild Strawberries
and Summer Interlude
.
Palador has tied up with Moser Baer
, to offer 50 films on DVD. These titles expected to cost INR 399, will mark the entry of Moser Baer, known for their inexpensive DVDs and VCDs, into a premium category.
, Wong Kar-wai
, François Truffaut
and World Cinema Collectors Box Sets are available in these stores.
As a promotional measure Palador has also begun a 'Trip To Cannes' contest that allows those that buy these box sets to win a trip to the Cannes Film Festival
2008.
The online store does not have customer support, and there are no listed phone numbers to contact in case of ordering or shipping problems. E-mails to their support team are not entertained in case of disputes.
Ltd. in 2006-07. The partnership soured and UTV terminated the contract, citing 'material breach and non-performance' in May 2007. However, after a court arbitration UTV had to unconditionally withdraw the allegations in August 2007. Things soured further between the two and Palador took UTV to court in November 2007.
World cinema
World cinema is a term used primarily in English language speaking countries to refer to the films and film industries of non-English speaking countries. It is therefore often used interchangeably with the term foreign film...
in the Indian subcontinent through DVD, television and theatre.
Palador Pictures was the first company to focus on the world cinema
World cinema
World cinema is a term used primarily in English language speaking countries to refer to the films and film industries of non-English speaking countries. It is therefore often used interchangeably with the term foreign film...
category in India in 2005. Reports from various articles published in newspapers put the number of foreign language films owned by Palador to be close to 1000 films including works of yesteryear as well as today's masters like Charlie Chaplin
Charlie Chaplin
Sir Charles Spencer "Charlie" Chaplin, KBE was an English comic actor, film director and composer best known for his work during the silent film era. He became the most famous film star in the world before the end of World War I...
, Ingmar Bergman
Ingmar Bergman
Ernst Ingmar Bergman was a Swedish director, writer and producer for film, stage and television. Described by Woody Allen as "probably the greatest film artist, all things considered, since the invention of the motion picture camera", he is recognized as one of the most accomplished and...
, Buster Keaton
Buster Keaton
Joseph Frank "Buster" Keaton was an American comic actor, filmmaker, producer and writer. He was best known for his silent films, in which his trademark was physical comedy with a consistently stoic, deadpan expression, earning him the nickname "The Great Stone Face".Keaton was recognized as the...
, Akira Kurosawa
Akira Kurosawa
was a Japanese film director, producer, screenwriter and editor. Regarded as one of the most important and influential filmmakers in the history of cinema, Kurosawa directed 30 filmsIn 1946, Kurosawa co-directed, with Hideo Sekigawa and Kajiro Yamamoto, the feature Those Who Make Tomorrow ;...
, Krzysztof Kieślowski
Krzysztof Kieslowski
Krzysztof Kieślowski was an Academy Award nominated influential Polish film director and screenwriter, known internationally for The Double Life of Veronique and his film cycles The Decalogue and Three Colors.-Early life:...
, Jean-Luc Godard
Jean-Luc Godard
Jean-Luc Godard is a French-Swiss film director, screenwriter and film critic. He is often identified with the 1960s French film movement, French Nouvelle Vague, or "New Wave"....
, François Truffaut
François Truffaut
François Roland Truffaut was an influential film critic and filmmaker and one of the founders of the French New Wave. In a film career lasting over a quarter of a century, he remains an icon of the French film industry. He was also a screenwriter, producer, and actor working on over twenty-five...
, Abbas Kiarostami
Abbas Kiarostami
Abbas Kiarostami is an internationally acclaimed Iranian film director, screenwriter, photographer and film producer. An active filmmaker since 1970, Kiarostami has been involved in over forty films, including shorts and documentaries...
, David Lynch
David Lynch
David Keith Lynch is an American filmmaker, television director, visual artist, musician and occasional actor. Known for his surrealist films, he has developed his own unique cinematic style, which has been dubbed "Lynchian", and which is characterized by its dream imagery and meticulous sound...
etc.
Naming
The name "Palador" is derived from the word "Pala", a fictional island in the novel The Island by Aldous HuxleyAldous Huxley
Aldous Leonard Huxley was an English writer and one of the most prominent members of the famous Huxley family. Best known for his novels including Brave New World and a wide-ranging output of essays, Huxley also edited the magazine Oxford Poetry, and published short stories, poetry, travel...
. Palador is also a planet in the science fictional world of Arthur C. Clarke
Arthur C. Clarke
Sir Arthur Charles Clarke, CBE, FRAS was a British science fiction author, inventor, and futurist, famous for his short stories and novels, among them 2001: A Space Odyssey, and as a host and commentator in the British television series Mysterious World. For many years, Robert A. Heinlein,...
. The planet, first featured in Arthur C. Clarke
Arthur C. Clarke
Sir Arthur Charles Clarke, CBE, FRAS was a British science fiction author, inventor, and futurist, famous for his short stories and novels, among them 2001: A Space Odyssey, and as a host and commentator in the British television series Mysterious World. For many years, Robert A. Heinlein,...
's short story "Rescue Party," the first story Clarke sold. The residents of this planet are called Paladorians and are characterized as having different bodies, but one mind. Palador is also the name of a dental alloy.
Acquired films
Paranoid Park (film)
Paranoid Park is a 2007 American drama film written and directed by Gus Van Sant. The film is based on the novel of the same name by Blake Nelson and takes place in Portland, Oregon. It stars Gabe Nevins as a teenage skateboarder who accidentally kills a security guard.Van Sant wrote the draft...
. In the recently concluded Berlin International Film Festival
Berlin International Film Festival
The Berlin International Film Festival , also called the Berlinale, is one of the world's leading film festivals and most reputable media events. It is held in Berlin, Germany. Founded in West Berlin in 1951, the festival has been celebrated annually in February since 1978...
, the company is said to have acquired films like Shine A Light)
Shine a Light (film)
Shine a Light is a 2008 documentary film directed by Martin Scorsese documenting The Rolling Stones' 2006 Beacon Theatre performance on their A Bigger Bang Tour. The Scorsese film also includes archive footage from the band's career and marked the first utilisation by Scorsese of digital...
, the biography of the Rolling Stones directed by Martin Scorsese
Martin Scorsese
Martin Charles Scorsese is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, actor, and film historian. In 1990 he founded The Film Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to film preservation, and in 2007 he founded the World Cinema Foundation...
, and the Lou Reed
Lou Reed
Lewis Allan "Lou" Reed is an American rock musician, songwriter, and photographer. He is best known as guitarist, vocalist, and principal songwriter of The Velvet Underground, and for his successful solo career, which has spanned several decades...
documentary Berlin.
On television, eight films from Palador's catalog were shown under a tie-up with Tata Sky
Tata Sky
TATA Sky is a direct broadcast satellite television provider in India, using MPEG-2 digital compression technology, transmitting using INSAT 4A at 83.0°E....
during October-November 2007. These were films by directors like Akira Kurosawa
Akira Kurosawa
was a Japanese film director, producer, screenwriter and editor. Regarded as one of the most important and influential filmmakers in the history of cinema, Kurosawa directed 30 filmsIn 1946, Kurosawa co-directed, with Hideo Sekigawa and Kajiro Yamamoto, the feature Those Who Make Tomorrow ;...
, Wim Wenders
Wim Wenders
Ernst Wilhelm "Wim" Wenders is a German film director, playwright, author, photographer and producer.-Early life:Wenders was born in Düsseldorf. He graduated from high school in Oberhausen in the Ruhr area. He then studied medicine and philosophy in Freiburg and Düsseldorf...
, François Truffaut
François Truffaut
François Roland Truffaut was an influential film critic and filmmaker and one of the founders of the French New Wave. In a film career lasting over a quarter of a century, he remains an icon of the French film industry. He was also a screenwriter, producer, and actor working on over twenty-five...
, Wong Kar-wai
Wong Kar-wai
Wong Kar-wai BBS is a Hong Kong Second Wave filmmaker, internationally renowned as an auteur for his visually unique, highly stylized, emotionally resonant work, including Days of Being Wild , Ashes of Time , Chungking Express , Fallen Angels , Happy Together and 2046...
and others. The company recently tied up with Zee Studio and is slated to show 26 of its films for six months.
DVD releases
Palador has launched a DVD Label called 'The One World Collection' and have released world cinema titles under it. The films are being sold as box sets and as individual titles. Some of the movies include: Akira KurosawaAkira Kurosawa
was a Japanese film director, producer, screenwriter and editor. Regarded as one of the most important and influential filmmakers in the history of cinema, Kurosawa directed 30 filmsIn 1946, Kurosawa co-directed, with Hideo Sekigawa and Kajiro Yamamoto, the feature Those Who Make Tomorrow ;...
's Seven Samurai, Yojimbo, Throne of Blood
Throne of Blood
Throne of Blood is a 1957 Japanese film directed by Akira Kurosawa. Its original Japanese title is Kumonosu-jō , which means "Spider Web Castle". The film transposes the plot of William Shakespeare's play Macbeth to feudal Japan.-Plot:...
; and Ingmar Bergman
Ingmar Bergman
Ernst Ingmar Bergman was a Swedish director, writer and producer for film, stage and television. Described by Woody Allen as "probably the greatest film artist, all things considered, since the invention of the motion picture camera", he is recognized as one of the most accomplished and...
's Wild Strawberries
Wild Strawberries
Wild Strawberries may refer to:* Wild strawberries, a common name for Fragaria vesca* Other uncultivated species in the genus Fragaria* Wild Strawberries , a 1957 film by Ingmar Bergman* Wild Strawberries , a Canadian pop music group...
and Summer Interlude
Summer Interlude
-Synopsis:Marie is a successful but emotionally distant prima ballerina in her late twenties. During a problem-filled dress rehearsal day for a production of the ballet Swan Lake she is unexpectedly sent the diary of her first love; a college-boy called Henrik whom she met and fell in love with...
.
Palador has tied up with Moser Baer
Moser Baer
Moser Baer is the world's 2nd largest optical storage media manufacturer and supplies to the world's top dozen brands. They now make CD-R's for Memorex , TDK , Verbatim Sony and Agfa-Gevaert . They used to make CD-R's for Imation and Staples . The company was founded in New Delhi in 1983...
, to offer 50 films on DVD. These titles expected to cost INR 399, will mark the entry of Moser Baer, known for their inexpensive DVDs and VCDs, into a premium category.
Online promotion
The company is promoting world cinema online via different partnerships. It is selling its DVD titles and box sets with Indiaplaza.in and from their own online store. Akira KurosawaAkira Kurosawa
was a Japanese film director, producer, screenwriter and editor. Regarded as one of the most important and influential filmmakers in the history of cinema, Kurosawa directed 30 filmsIn 1946, Kurosawa co-directed, with Hideo Sekigawa and Kajiro Yamamoto, the feature Those Who Make Tomorrow ;...
, Wong Kar-wai
Wong Kar-wai
Wong Kar-wai BBS is a Hong Kong Second Wave filmmaker, internationally renowned as an auteur for his visually unique, highly stylized, emotionally resonant work, including Days of Being Wild , Ashes of Time , Chungking Express , Fallen Angels , Happy Together and 2046...
, François Truffaut
François Truffaut
François Roland Truffaut was an influential film critic and filmmaker and one of the founders of the French New Wave. In a film career lasting over a quarter of a century, he remains an icon of the French film industry. He was also a screenwriter, producer, and actor working on over twenty-five...
and World Cinema Collectors Box Sets are available in these stores.
As a promotional measure Palador has also begun a 'Trip To Cannes' contest that allows those that buy these box sets to win a trip to the Cannes Film Festival
Cannes Film Festival
The Cannes International Film Festival , is an annual film festival held in Cannes, France, which previews new films of all genres including documentaries from around the world. Founded in 1946, it is among the world's most prestigious and publicized film festivals...
2008.
The online store does not have customer support, and there are no listed phone numbers to contact in case of ordering or shipping problems. E-mails to their support team are not entertained in case of disputes.
Valuation
Palador raised funding of US$6 million from private investors including Mahesh Mathai, the director of Indian film, Bhopal Express in August 2007, after a 15% dilution of equity. By this estimation the valuation of Palador is US$ 40 million. The valuation is understated considering that the world cinema market in the country has been estimated to reach a valuation of Indian Rs.1,500 crore by 2009 and compose 20 percent of the non-Indian language movie segment in India.Dispute with UTV
The company was in a joint venture agreement with UTV Software CommunicationsUTV Software Communications
UTV Software Communications Ltd., also known as United Television or UTV, is an Indian media and entertainment company owned by The Walt Disney Company India Pvt. Ltd., a subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company.-History:...
Ltd. in 2006-07. The partnership soured and UTV terminated the contract, citing 'material breach and non-performance' in May 2007. However, after a court arbitration UTV had to unconditionally withdraw the allegations in August 2007. Things soured further between the two and Palador took UTV to court in November 2007.