Silver City Newmarket

Canadian cinemas, cable a big export market for movies from India

India's film awards are coming to Canada in June, following a well-worn path for the films they celebrate.

About 100 Indian films are screened in commercial cinemas in Canada each year. On television, one company, Asian Television Network, owns "several Bollywood movie channels with 800 movies a month."

Some of those films will almost certainly be winners when the International Indian Film Academy (IIFA) awards take place in Toronto from June 23 to 25. It will be the first time the ceremonies have been held in North America.

The first Indian cinema in North America opened in Toronto in 1969. More such cinemas followed over the following two decades, usually owned by Indian entrepreneurs. With the rise of the home video and DVD markets, numbers declined, with only about four still operating in Canada. Over the last decade Indian films have moved to the mainstream cinemas.

Kyle Moffatt of Cineplex Entertainment, the largest movie exhibitor in Canada, told CBC News the company treats the Indian films it screens "the same way as Hollywood blockbusters."

Both Cineplex and Empire Theatres, the second largest exhibitor in Canada, screen South Asian films at their cinemas, usually multiplexes, located near South Asian communities.

The blockbusters usually get released in Canada around the same time as in India. Two of the top five North American screens for Indian films are in Canada, according to Cineplex's Moffatt. Indian blockbusters are usually sellouts when they begin their runs in Canada, he says.

"The community absolutely loves" being able to see the same films when they hear about them from their relatives back home, Moffatt said.

Ken Naz, the North American president of film distribution company Eros International, estimates that about 100 South Asian films receive a theatrical release in Canada in an average year, and about 40 of those would be Bollywood films. For the Indian film industry, Naz said, a production is designated Bollywood if it's "a commercial movie geared to a commercial cinema."

The most important Canadian broadcaster of films from India is the Asian Television Network. The company, which started in 1990 in Newmarket, Ont., now has 33 specialty channels and broadcasts in a number of Asian languages. It claims to carry 800 movies a month over the 33 channels, which include 15 channels that are feeds of channels in Asia.

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