Indywood Film Carnival Concluded – Indian Billionaires Club Takes Centrestage

  • The third edition of Indywood Film Carnival power packed with entertainment and fun concluded at Ramoji Film City
  • Over 50 billionaires and tycoons from 100 plus countries attended
  • Leading NRI entrepreneurs were honoured with Pravasi Ratna awards
  • UAE-based NRI industrialist Sohan Roy spearheads Indywood
  • Bollywood actress Jayaprada and senior director cum actor K Vishwanath were honoured for their valuable contributions to Indian Film Industry

Hyderabad: Indywood Film Carnival positioned as one of the largest film based events in the world was held from 1st – 4th December at Hyderabad-based Ramoji Film City, the largest film studio in the world.

A grand meet of movers and shakers from over 100 countries was the major attraction of the third edition of Indywood Film Carnival, a flagship event organized by 10 billion US dollar Project Indywood. The event organized to accelerate foreign direct investment in entertainment sector in the country witnessed huge participation of Middle East-based NRI entrepreneurs.

UAE-based NRI industrialist Sohan Roy spearheads Project Indywood which is being promoted by 2000 Indian billionaires and corporates. Sohan Roy who is also the Chairman and CEO of UAE-based Aries Group aims at initiating 10,000 new 4K projection multiplex screens, 100,000 2K/4K projection home cinemas, 8K/4Kfilm studios, 100 animation/VFX studios and film schools conforming to international standards.

Telangana State Film Development Corporation Chairman P. Ram Mohan Rao, Telangana Information and Public Relations Department Commissioner Navin Mittal IAS, Eenaadu Group Chairman Ramoji Rao, Thorir Ibsen, Ambassador of Iceland to India and In Jae Kim, Seoul City Governor, South Korea, P Kiran, President, Telangana Film Chamber of Commerce, Telangana IT Secretary Jayesh Ranjan IAS and FEFKA General Secretary B Unnikrishnan, National award winning Action Director Peter Hein and National Award winning art director Sabu Cyril, Cinematographers S Ravi Varman, Priya Seth and K. K. Senthil Kumar are some of the prominent personalities whom attended the carnival.

Bollywood actress Jayaprada was bestowed with prestigious Icon of Indian Cinema award on the occasion. Noted senior director cum actor K Vishwanath was also honoured.

Indian Billionaires Club launched

The major attraction of Indywood Film Carnival was the inauguration of Indian Billionaires Club. More than 50 billionaires of Indian origin and over 500 investors from across the globe attended the inauguration on 1st December at Princess Hall, Ramoji Film City.

Commenting on Indian Billionaires Club, Sohan Roy who is also the Founder Director of Indywood highlighted that Indian Billionaires Club is a novel initiative to attract tycoons, investors and corporates from across the world to entertainment industry in India.

“India is today home to over 1,00,000 Indian billionaires, each with an asset value of Rs. 100 crore or more. These Indian billionaires are the foundation of a strong tomorrow to help make the value of the Indian rupee equal to one dollar and thus lead the economic transformation of the country,” he emphasized.

He added that in the coming years the volume of foreign direct investment will play a decisive role in conceiving and implementing mega projects. “Indian Billionaires Club is a new step in this direction to educate movers and shakers about the vast opportunities in the sector and how it can be tapped effectively,” added Sohan Roy who is the Chairman and CEO of UAE headquartered Aries Group, a multinational conglomerate with 45 companies having presence in 15 countries across the world.

Pravasi Ratna Awards distributed

On the occasion, Indywood Film Carnival honoured leading NRI tycoons for their business acumen and immense contributions to the overall economic development of the country.

Nawab Shaji Ul Mulk, Founder and Chairman of Mulk Holdings, Rizwan Sajan, Chairman of Danube Group, Dr Roy CJ, Chairman of Confident Group and Honorary Consul of the Slovak Republic to Karnataka and Kerala, Dr. Birbal Singh Dana, Chairman and Managing Director of DANA Group, Harish Kumar Lal Tahiliani, Chairman of Arab and Indian Spices, Dr. Anil Sharma, President and Chief Executive Officer of Global Marketing Systems, Lalu Samuel, Chairman of Kingston Holdings, Dr. Harshad Mehta, Founder and Chairman of 7Cs Group, Tony Jashanmal, Executive Director of Jashanmal Group, Dr. N. Shafi Ul Mulk, Chairman, Global Hawk Diagnostics, Ramesh Hiranandani, Chief Executive Officer of Hira Industries, Manohar Lahori, Founder of Palmon Group, Dr. Sundar Menon, Chairman and Managing Director of Sun Group International, Sudhakar Tomar, Managing Director of Hakan Agro, Sajith Ansar, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Idea Spice, Dr. Khalid Maniar, Founder and Group Managing Partner of Horwath MAK, Ganesh Iyer, Managing Partner of FLC Group, Gaurav Tandon, Founder and Managing Director of K Company, Suresh Pillai, Chief Executive Officer of Mark Technologies, PA Mohammed, Chief Executive Officer of Fayeda Group, Dr. Praveen Singh, Chairman of Geetvam Corporation Limited, Anil Kumar P of UIS, Azerbaijan, Susheel Kumar Saraff, Chairman of Saraff Group of Companies, Dr Freemu Varghese, Chairman of Freedia Entertainment, Dr. Sunny Kurian, Chairman of Dr Sunny Healthcare Group, Dr Rajmohan Pillai, Chairman of Beta Group and Dr. Mohammad Khan, Managing Director of Khans Mediacity were bestowed with prestigious Pravasi Ratna awards.

Impressed by the immense potential of entertainment industry, many NRI entrepreneurs expressed their interest to invest in the sector by setting up multiplexes, home theatres, big budget movies etc in association with Indywood.

The carnival witnessed the Indian launch of Heera T10 cricket league, the new sensation in cricket. In addition to this, panel discussions, workshops and exhibitions for imparting accelerating the growth of entertainment industry and nurturing talents were held.

Top business honchos, professionals and organizations in Marine, Medical, Media, Entertainment, Education, CSR, IT, Hospitality and Built in India were honoured for their constant efforts and innovative ideas to elevate the standards of the each sector.

Baahubali sweeps awards

Indywood Film Carnival also honoured top trade achievers with international trade awards. The magnum opus movie – Baahubali, directed by S. S. Rajamouli, swept five awards including India’s Pride Award which was shared with Dangal for bringing international fame to Indian movies.

Rs 10 crore business enquiries

Indywood Film Market (IFM) expo for networking with major stakeholders in the film industry was also held as part of the carnival. The expo has given a market fillip to Indian Film Industry by generating trade enquiries from foreign and domestic markets worth Rs 10 crore. Leading technology providers, production agencies, distribution theatre owners participated.

Pool of talented youngsters 

More than 2000 youngsters from various parts of the country exhibited their talents at Indywood Talent Hunt. The competitions were held in 22 categories including short film, music, dance, still photography, advertisement, educational video, documentary film, animation character, drama, poster designing, dubsmash, performance art, film quiz, online promotion, music album, DJ, children’s short film, best reporter or journalists, RJ hunt, VJ hunt, film club and model hunt. The winners were rewarded with top-notch 3D tab manufactured by UAE-based Aries Epica, cash prize, a certificate and a trophy.

Former Miss India Simran Ahuja anchored the inaugural ceremony of Indywood Talent Hunt. Eleven juries and guests from various parts of the world were present which included Soo Sung Lee (film director), Axel Stein (Film curator, Germany), Nawaf Al Janahi, K.N.T Sastri, Marianna Borgo, Amir Muhammed (writer and movie maker, Malaysia), Bassam Mohammed Al Thawadi (film producer and director), Nassan Nazer, Laurie Gordon (animation artist), June Robles Lana and Sarath Chandu (film artist).

Fashion TV marked their presence at Hyderabad by conducting a pageant show at the third edition of Indywood Film Carnival. Rushali Yadav and Sameer Qureshi won the prestigious Face of India title after competing against thousands of contestants from various parts of the country. While Muskaan Bisaria and Sachin Hadpad emerged as the first runners-up and Varsha Choudhary and Divyam Budhuri became second runners-up. Face of India title winner will get direct entry to Asia Model Festival to be held in South Korea and stand a chance to win a feature film contract.

For more details, please visit:

For more details, please visit:

Indywood Film Carnival – http://www.indywood.co.in/

Sohan Roy – http://sohanroy.com/

Indywood Film Market: http://www.ifm.co.in/

Indywood Talent Hunt: http://indywoodtalenthunt.com/

ALIIFF: http://aliiff.com/

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Mukesh M Nair, Media Head – + 91 9539008933/+ 91 9846094947