Wednesday, October 3 9:00 AM - 10:15 AM Session A: India: An Expanding Film and TV Producer and Primary Partner to World Technology and Media Industries It is our honor to welcome such a distinguished group of leading figures in the Indian entertainment industry, with expertise covering the entire range of the industry. India is fast becoming an entertainment hub for Asia with its vast technical and creative talent. India, with a population of 1 billion, produces the largest number of feature films in the world, some 750 a year. It has also the highest cinema admissions in the world at 5 billion a year. The decade old broadcasting revolution has resulted in as many as seventy five TV channels today and thirty more are to launch by the end of 2001. In 1992, 50,000 TV-owning families had cable connections, which today has soared to 35 million while the state broadcaster Doordarshan in available in 72 million homes. With Internet connections rising from 650, 000 to 1.5m by the year-end, the India will see a huge growth in convergence of net and TV. Television software revenues are to soar eight-fold in the next five years from $ 300 million to $ 2 billion. TV software exports are expected to rise even faster from the current level of $75 million to $ 1.5 billion by 2005. Recently Indian entertainment Industry has been making an entry into the international markets with Indian films being released worldwide and Indian television programs and channels finding international markets. Bedi A. Singh, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, Sony Pictures Entertainment Ashok Amritraj, Chairman & CEO, Hyde Park Entertainment Subhash Ghai, Managing Director, Mukta Arts Pvt. Ltd Shekar Kapur, Director, Digital Talkies Ken Silverman, CEO, Interactive Teamworks and Director, Pentamedia Graphics, Ltd. (India) Bill Dennis, President and CEO, Toonz Animation, India Moderator: Bhuvan Lall, Executive Director, Indian Broadcasting Foundation and Indian Correspondent, Screen International Bedi A. Singh, Chief Financial Officer & Executive Vice President, Sony Pictures Entertainment: Bedi Singh was named Chief Financial Officer and Executive Vice President of Sony Pictures Entertainment in July, 1999. Mr. Singh is responsible for all of the Company’s financial activities and his duties encompass SPE’s financial budgeting, forecasting, accounting and reporting, as well as its corporate audit, worldwide cash management, financial relationships, foreign exchange, risk management and information systems. He reports to Co-President and Chief Operating Officer, Mel Harris. Mr. Singh brings significant worldwide entertainment industry and financial management experience to SPE from his position as Senior Vice President of Strategic Planning and Deputy Chief Financial Office of Fox Filmed Entertainment, where he was responsible for all finance, accounting and controls, treasury, information systems and strategic planning activities for the business. Before joining Fox in December 1996, Mr. Singh spent five years with its parent, News Corporation, in positions of increasing responsibility. For two years before taking the position at Fox, he was assigned to the Office of the Chairman of News Corporation in Los Angeles, where he was involved in strategic planning and business acquisitions, working closely with members of the corporation’s Executive Committee. Prior to that, Mr. Singh spent three years as Group Financial Controller with News Corporation’s publicly traded News International division in London, where he was involved in a variety of finance and operational activities in newspaper publishing and television. Mr. Singh began his finance career with Arthur Andersen & Co. in London in 1980. He spent 11 years with the global accounting and consulting firm, working in London as senior audit manager, and also in Andersen’s Lagos, Nigeria, office on major consulting and accounting assignments. Mr. Singh is a 1980 graduate of the London School of Economics and Political Science with a B.Sc. (Honors) in Economics. He is also a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales. In 1994, he graduated from the Program for Management Development at the Harvard Business School. Mr. Singh is actively involved as Board Director with Children’s Institute International and the L. A. Youth newspaper, which are both Los Angeles based, not-for-profit organizations. Ken Silverman, CEO, Interactive Teamworks and Director, Pentamedia Graphics, Ltd. (India): Ken Silverman, is President of INTERACTIVE TEAMWORKS, a privately held consulting and creative services organization that specializes in electronic media. He is additionally a nationally prominent media strategist and entrepreneur with more than 30 years experience in the front ranks of the U.S. entertainment and communications fields. He has participated in the acquisition, production, marketing, and distribution of content for motion picture theaters, commercial and public broadcasting, cable and pay-television, home video, satellites, interactive multimedia, and the Internet. A partial listing of his clients and affiliations includes Ameritech Corporation, the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, Black Entertainment Television, the California State Department Education, Cinemerica, Inc., Columbia Pictures, Dow Jones & Co., General Electric, Harvard University, Liberty Media, The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Time Warner, UCLA, and numerous others. Since 1997, Mr. Silverman has specialized in electronic media related to the Indian sub-continent. He has engaged in more than 4,000 hours of R&D linked to the production, importing and exporting of film, television, music, and multimedia to and from this region. Examples of his recent South Asian projects include development of the strategic plan for Sebastian Communications, a US-based Indian entertainment company; early-stage strategy and R&D for The Pakistan Educational Network, on behalf of computer industry pioneer, Safi Qureshey, Chairman Emeritus of AST Research, Inc.; and the development of multiple strategic alliances for Pentamedia Graphics, Ltd., India's largest multimedia company, on whose Board of Directors Mr. Silverman now serves. In 2000 and 2001, Mr. Silverman produced and served as Master of Ceremonies for two major media conferences in India featuring industry leaders from the US, the UK, Canada, China, Japan, Australia, Singapore, South Africa, India, and elsewhere. He also regularly addresses Indian professional groups around the world, is a longtime member of The Indus Entrepreneurs (TiE), and writes for The India Journal. Mr. Silverman is currently Chairman of the Board of Directors of Caritas Telecommunications, a California wireless cable organization, former Chairman of the Board of the Tierra Del Sol Foundation for developmentally disabled adults, and a member of the Boards of Directors of BonTemps Film Capital and the Monrovia Schools Foundation. He is also a Digital Media Advisor to Pasadena City College and to Mt. Sierra College. ASHOK AMRITRAJ is Chairman and CEO of HYDE PARK ENTERTAINMENT and has become one of the most successful Producers in Hollywood today. Amritraj has a first look deal at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and a second look deal at Disney, as well as a long-term pan-European deal with Epsilon, the powerful European media consortium. Hyde Park intends to produce four major motion pictures each year for between $30 - $90 million apiece. In partnership with MGM, Amritraj produced the Silicon Valley high-tech thriller “ANTI-TRUST,” starring Tim Robbins, Ryan Phillippe, Claire Forlani and Rachel Leigh Cook. In his review for the Wall Street Journal, Joe Morgenstern called ANTI-TRUST a “clever paranoid thriller.” “WHAT’S THE WORST THAT COULD HAPPEN?” starring Martin Lawrence and Danny DeVito was released on June 1st. “A crowd pleaser! With such a wealth of comedic talent, the best thing that could happen would be a sequel!” Thelma Adams (US Weekly.) “ORIGINAL SIN,” starring Antonio Banderas and Angelina Jolie, was released on August 3rd. “Like many good thrillers, surprises on top of surprises!” Roger Ebert (Chicago Sun-Times.) The much-anticipated “BANDITS” directed by Oscar-winner Barry Levinson and starring Bruce Willis, Billy Bob Thornton, and Cate Blanchett will be released October 2001. Amritraj was Executive Producer of the action-thriller remake “GET CARTER” starring Sylvester Stallone, which hit theaters through Warner Brothers in October of 2000. In his illustrious career, Amritraj has Produced or Executive Produced over 70 films including Jean Claude Van Damme's breakout action adventure picture, “DOUBLE IMPACT” which was released by Columbia Pictures, the highly-acclaimed Sony Classics release "The Third Miracle" (Ed Harris & Anne Heche,) "The Confession" (Alec Baldwin & Ben Kingsley,) "A Murder Of Crows" (Cuba Gooding Jr. & Tom Berenger,)and "Entropy" (Stephen Dorff & U2.) The Amritraj films have grossed over $400 million and have won critical acclaim worldwide. Amritraj's film, “JEANS” was selected by the Film Federation of India as the country's sole nomination for Best Foreign Film in the 1998 Oscar race. This led to his being voted "Spirit Of India's Man Of The Year." This year, Amritraj is the recipient of the “Pride Of India” Award For Lifetime Achievement. He currently serves on the board for Foreign Films at the prestigious Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences. Formerly a professional tennis player, Amritraj played in every major tournament during his nine-year career, including Wimbledon and The U.S. Open. In 1978, he was a member of the team that won the World Team Tennis Championship and in 1974 he was a finalist at the Wimbledon Junior Tournament. Bill Dennis is the President and Chief Executive Officer of Toonz Animation India Pvt.Ltd and Toonz Animation USA Inc. Toonz Animation, which opened in the fall of 1999 in the city of Trivandrum in the Indian state of Kerala, occupies more than 10,000 square feet of space and offers state- of- the- art equipment, including fully digital ink and paint suites with 20 workstations. Toonz is currently staffed by 300 Indian and international artists and plans to eventually grow to a staff of over 400. Dennis, a veteran production executive with almost three decades of experience in the animation industry, was most recently CEO of UTV International in Singapore and Mumbai, India. For four years, Dennis was president of Fil-Cartoons, a subsidiary of Turner Broadcasting, located in Manila. The studio, the largest television animation studio in the world, was part of Hanna Barbera studios. For twenty years, Dennis was with The Walt Disney Company and prior to leaving, was Vice President of Feature Animation, where he directed all human resources, training and administrative functions for the division. Dennis put together the teams who created and produced such memorable animated films such as; "The Lion King," "Beauty and the Beast," "Aladdin" and "The Little Mermaid."