Prime Focus Launches 'True North' at 16th Anniversary Celebration

Celebrating its 16 years in the media and entertainment industry, Prime Focus today launched True North, its global 24x7 content operations hub. True North will house more than 600 people and offer cloud based media services to Prime Focus Technologies' global clientele including the likes of Star, Bloomberg, Disney, Warner Bros., SONY Music, Viacom 18, SONY MSM, BCCI (Board of Control for Cricket in India), IPL (Indian Premiere League), Hindustan Unilever Limited, The Associated Press, A & E TV Network, Netflix, Schawk! and WPP.

With True North, Prime Focus Technologies is offering two compelling solutions to the industry: Digital Lab for Cinema and a Production Hub for TV. Supported by a 17 giga bit media network and Tier 3 data center with no single point of failure, True North serves as the digital backbone for over 200 TV channels and manages over 100 TV shows a day. Prime Focus' latest innovation will become the de facto virtual hub for TV, Cinema, Digital and Media sectors.

Prime Focus, which is more known for its world class visual effects, 3D conversion and animation services in Hollywood and Bollywood, has worked on some of Hollywood's biggest films, including Baz Lurhman's The Great Gatsby, White House Down, World War Z and the recently released and much acclaimed Gravity (2013).

Commenting on the milestone Namit Malhotra, Founder, Prime Focus, said, "Our history of many firsts is backed by technology and talent. Continuing with this tradition, we are laying down today the technology vision for the future of digital media and entertainment." He added, "While the visual effects and 3D conversion businesses are witnessing exciting times, we see our next wave of growth in Prime Focus Technologies, which has grown at 120% YoY over the past few years. Digital is changing the way the media industry works and posing tremendous opportunities for all stakeholders. Prime Focus' CLEAR media ERP platform powered by True North digital media services cloud infrastructure positions us in the driver's seat to lead this transformation.

Malhotra added, "Globally, the market for cloud-based media ERP and media processing services is approximately US$5 billion. At Prime Focus, our emphasis will now be on the expansion of our technology services to newer geographies, and utilization of our already established global digital network."

At a glittering event at the Grand Ballroom of the JW Marriott Hotel attended by the who's who of the M&E industry, Mr. Amitabh Bachchan formally dedicated 'True North', the world's largest digital media cloud to the global media and entertainment industry, in the presence of Founder & CEO of Prime Focus World, Namit Malhotra and CEO of Prime Focus Technologies, Ramki Sankaranarayanan.

The event saw a huge turnout from all segments of the M&E industry covering films, broadcast, advertising, distribution, sports and digital media. Over 600 guests attended the event which also took the shape of a networking evening and reinforced the tremendous goodwill Prime Focus and the Malhotra family have earned serving the industry for 3 generations.

Prime Focus also took the opportunity to graciously felicitate those who have contributed significantly towards its growth story. They included Mr. Amitabh Bachchan, Mr. Rishi Kapoor, Mr. Sanjay Leela Bhansali, Mr. Aditya Chopra (YashRaj Films), Mr. Karan Johar (Dharma Productions), Mr. Ronnie Screwvala (Disney UTV), Mr. Uday Shankar (STAR India), Mr. Punit Goenka (Zee TV), Mr. Sanjay Patel (BCCI), Ms. Sharon Pereira (Hindustan Unilever Limited), Mr. Uday Kotak (Kotak Mahindra Bank), Mr. Rakesh Jhunjhunwala, Mr. Chandir Gidwani (Centrum), Mr. Nainesh Jaisingh (Standard Chartered PE), Mr. Ravi K Chandran (Cinematographer), Mr. Tinnu Anand (film director), Mr. R Balki (Lowe Lintas & Partners), Mr. Manmohan Shetty (Adlabs), The Chadha family (angel investor in Prime Focus) and Mr. Rahul Rawail (film director). The family of late Mr. Bittu Anand (film producer) was also present to receive the honor.

The celebratory evening was hosted by renowned actor and model Sameer Kochhar while the Shiamak Davar Dance Company enthralled the audience with their high octane performances.

Performing the honors Mr. Amitabh Bachchan spoke about how life has come full circle and how heartening it was to be part of the 16th anniversary celebrations of Prime Focus. The Prime Focus foundation was built off the blockbuster success of the 1988 Bollywood film, Shahenshah, produced by Naresh Malhotra, Chairman of Prime Focus, written by Mr. Bachchan's wife and starring, Mr. Amitabh Bachchan This year Shahehshah celebrates 25 years.

Speaking at the event, Naresh Malhotra, Chairman, Prime Focus, said, "It has been an exciting journey, with definitely more ups than downs. Prime Focus is the first M&E company from India to enter overseas markets, drive inorganic growth and through sheer talent and business acumen establish a strong foothold in Hollywood." He added, "We dared to dream with nothing else but confidence in our vision, a unique business model and a great team of people. Luckily for us our investors, employees and clients have always reposed faith in our strategy and today we are where we are."

Today, Prime Focus is the world leader in media and entertainment industry services, spanning both creative and technology domains with a global presence across 3 continents and 10 facilities, and a workforce of 4,300 personnel.

Prime Focus has brought its expertise to many wide release Hollywood films recently including The Wizard of Oz, The Great Gatsby, 2 Guns, World War Z and White House Down as well as previously released Men in Black 3, Star Wars: Episode One - The Phantom Menace, Dredd 3D, Total Recall, Tim Burton's Frankenweenie, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2, Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, Resident Evil: Retribution, Green Lantern, Immortals, Wrath of the Titans, Mirror Mirror, Transformers: Dark of the Moon and Avatar. In the last one year Prime Focus also contributed to prestigious Bollywood projects like Kai Po Che, Dabangg 2, Jab Tak Hai Jaan, English Vinglish, Oh My God, Ek Tha Tiger, Cocktail, Housefull 2, Paan Singh Tomar, Agent Vinod and Agneepath.

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