Why are there multiple releases from different studios?

[xradman]

I noticed that UTV is now releasing Johdaa Akbar. Big Home Video released this title earlier this month. Same sort of thing happened with Wanted (Eros and T-Series) and Race (Moser Baer and UTV) This is something that is very strange for non-Indian consumer to see the same film released by multiple Indian distributors. Why is this done? Isn't there an exclusive agreement for Blu-ray releases in India or is this routine? Does this happen for most titles or only for some titles?

[xradman]

Sanjay answered this question for me on another board.

Originally Posted by Sanjay

Actually the same happens in the case of Hollywood titles too. That is, when the rights for different territories are held by different companies. For eg. Titanic in the US/Canada was a Paramount release, whereas outside the US, it was a Fox release. I am sure if you look on this site itself, you will see almost all Hollywood titles have separate releases for the UK and the US and this is even in the case where the same company has rights in both US & UK. Similiarly, 'UTV' owns the overseas rights to 'Jodhaa Akbar', whereas in India they sold the rights to 'BIG Home Video'. In the case of 'Wanted', Eros owns the overseas rights, whereas T-Series owns rights in India. Similarly, 'Race' is distributed by UTV overseas, whereas MoserBaer released it in India. BIG Home Video, T-Series, MoserBaer, Eagle Video & to some extent Shemaroo, generally only own rights for distribution in India.