The Hinduja Group, the banking group with media interests, has announced plans to invest $55m (Rs 2.5bn) in the content business over the next two to three years.

The investment will primarily be made in content development, financing and production, both for films and TV, through Serendipity Films as well as co-productions with existing production houses. It will acquire distribution rights of foreign films for India and it also plans to roll out worldwide film distribution capabilities. 

The group has appointed Sunir Kheterpal as chief executive of IN Entertainment, which will bring together the group’s content businesses. Kheterpal was previously with Reliance Big Entertainment.

IN Entertainment’s next major release will be Serendipity Film’s Teen Patti (pictured) on February 26. The Hindi film stars Amitabh Bachchan and Sir Ben Kingsley. IN Entertainment also has India distribution rights for over 75 English films and cable TV rights of more than 500 Hindi films along with over 30 negative rights of films. 

Serendipity Films has already built physical production capability and is in advanced discussions for providing line production facilities to Hollywood films in India.

Hinduja Group is an investment and banking group with a diversified global portfolio of holdings across the manufacturing services and banking sectors as well as a strong media presence.

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