Mumbai's CCVF readies $50m for international, Indian projects

International films will be added to the fund’s current portfolio of Bollywood films.

CCVF managing partner Samir Gupta says the fund, which launched last year, has already invested around $10m in domestic productions and is now looking to branch out into international films.

“We aim to invest around $5-7m a year in international projects, which are likely to be UK-based in the early stages although we’re not restricting ourselves to English-language films,” Gupta told Screen.

Structured as a five-year closed-end fund, CCVF was granted approval by the Securities and Exchanges Board of India (SEBI) last year. Projects are evaluated by the CCVF management team and also submitted to Ernst & Young’s Mumbai-based media evaluation team.

CCVF management also includes former UTV executive Sanjay Bhattarcharjee and former Adlabs executive Mohit Mehra. Gupta was formerly head of factual entertainment producer FBC Media’s Indian arm and produced Shashank Ghosh’s debut feature in 2003.

On the domestic side, Gupta is working with the new breed of young producers who want to deEditvelop slates of projects outside the Indian studio system – although they still aim to tap the studios’ distribution muscle. Among the filmmakers Gupta is working with are Priyadarshan, Rohit Shetty and actor-turned-producer Ajay Devgan.

India is currently experiencing a funding crunch which Gupta says works to CCVF’s advantage: “We’ll be able to find projects that are more realistically priced – we’re pleased about the market correction.”