By IANS
Chennai : For the first time in its history, Singapore Airlines has bought the airborne rights of an Indian movie for its in-flight entertainment. The Tamil blockbuster “Sivaji” will now be shown on its flights.
The airline has acquired exclusive rights for the Tamil blockbuster movie “Sivaji” for an undisclosed sum, Bharath Mahadevan, manager, southern India, Singapore Airlines, told reporters here Wednesday.
“We paid three times more than what we used to pay even for Hollywood titles,” he said.
The airline acquired the airborne rights from London-based Ayngaram International, which bought the overseas rights from AVM Productions, the movie production house.
“This is the first time ‘Sivaji’ is being shown in a media other than movie theatres. Even before the DVD rights got commercialised, Singapore Airlines has bagged the rights,” said S.C. Babu, CEO, AVM Productions.
He said the DVD rights will be operational in three months and the television rights two years from now.
As per the deal, Singapore Airlines gets to enjoy three months exclusivity to show its passengers the Tamil movie.
“The move to buy the rights for a new Tamil movie is in line with our idea of offering local flavour to our passengers,” remarked Mahadevan.
Directed by S. Shankar, “Sivaji” stars Rajinikanth alongside Shreya Saran, Vivek and Suman.
According to Mahadevan, all Singapore Airlines flights will have six Hindi and three Tamil movies for in-flight entertainment.
Agreeing that in-flight entertainment is not the main criteria for a passenger to choose an airline, Mahadevan said it does contribute its share in the decision-making process.
He said the airline is planning to have on-board movie festivals where it would show movies of select actors, directors and others sometime next year.