It's Russian connection for Reliance MediaWorks!

Reliance MediaWorks Ltd., India's fastest growing film and entertainment services company and a member of the Reliance ADA group has concluded Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Russian World Studios (RWS) and Obyedinennaya Gosudarstvennaya Kinokollektsia (OGK). The MOU was signed during the India visit of Russian president Dmitri Medvedev.

Russian World Studios is one of the largest private film companies in the Russian market. Existing since 1998, RWS has produced hundreds of projects, both for TV and the big screen. The company also owns two studios, one in Moscow and one in St Petersburg which are spread across 22,000 square meters.

RWS is a part of JSFC "Sistema", the largest diversified financial corporation in Russia and the CIS serving more than 100 million customers in such industries as telecommunications, high technology, fuel-energy complex and petrochemistry, radar and space, banking, real estate, retail, mass-media, tourism and healthcare. Established in 1993, Sistema has shown $7.3 billion in revenue in the third quarter of 2010, and its total assets made up $42 billion as of September 30, 2010.

Obyedinennaya Gosudarstvennaya Kinokollektsia (United State Film Collection) is Russia's federal state unitary enterprise that preserves and manages the Russian film archives.

RWS and Reliance MediaWorks have associated to outsource work related to Film Restoration, Image Processing and Enhancement and HD Conversion from Russia to Reliance MediaWorks facilities in Mumbai (India) and Burbank (California).

"Russian film and television industry is moving towards digitization and the United State Film Collection houses thousands of legacy film titles which need to be restored, digitized and uprezed to HD. We are pleased to have found a partner in Reliance MediaWorks who shares our commitment for excellence and has time-proven hardware, software and custom R&D and can help us restore the Russian film legacy." said, Yuri Saprono, CEO Russian World Studios.

Commenting on this development, Anil Arjun, CEO of Reliance MediaWorks said, "By combining RWS's leadership, know-how and expertise in Russian market with our experience and versatile technology we are geared to provide next generation services to RWS and OGK's vast film archives. Russian Cinema has been a true embodiment of their rich history and by offering restoration services in Russia we are honored to have the opportunity to revive some of these classic movies."

Depending on Russia's requirement and developing business potential, Reliance MediaWorks and Russian World Studios will also explore the possibility of jointly setting up a dedicated restoration and digitization facility within RWS Studio complex at St Petersburg for image processing and touch-ups.

The restoration and digitization services would be provided by Reliance MediaWorks to RWS and OGK through its Media BPO, which is one of the world's largest dedicated film and video restoration facility. Located in Navi Mumbai and spread across 90,000 sq ft area, the state-of-the-art facility is built to international standards encompassing stringent content safety & security norms. The facility has been security audited and passed by International Studios.The facility is linked through fiber optic connections to the Reliance MediaWorks operations in Burbank and London and can seamlessly transfer data across locations.

Reliance MediaWorks' Media BPO is currently also digitizing, restoring & archiving 1000 films (Image & Audio) preserved by National Film Archive of India (NFAI). Some of the work done by the company's Burbank facility includes titles such as Citizen Kane, Singin' In The Rain, Casablanca, Sunset Boulevard, the Indiana Jones trilogy, the original Star Wars trilogy, twenty James Bond films, and numerous classic Disney animated films.

Reliance MediaWorks currently has a dominant and comprehensive presence in Film Services: Motion Picture Processing and DI; Visual Effects; Film Restoration and Image Enhancement; 2D to 3D Conversion; Digital Mastering: Studios and Equipment rentals with facilities located at US, UK and India.