Report by Santanu Ganguly, New Delhi: Shri Arjan Lulla, founder of leading Indian film studio Eros International and member of Indian Film Exporter Association was conferred the Dadasaheb Phalke prize for the globalization of Indian cinema at a glittering and prestigious ceremony in Mumbai on Monday. He was bestowed with the esteemed award on the occasion of the 140th birth anniversary of Dadasaheb Phalke on 4th May.

The worthy honour comes to Arjan Lulla in recognition of his successful innings as a visionary who has been instrumental in developing the export market and bringing Indian cinema on the world map today. The seed for the success of Eros and the Indian film industry globally were sown by Arjun Lulla more than thirty years back when he founded the business of Eros in 1977 to explore the opportunity to export Indian films. He was one of the pioneers in acquiring all format rights of films for overseas exploitation catering to the NRI audiences at a time when the overseas market was virtually non-existent for Indian film fraternity.

Under the supervision and guidance of Arjan Lulla, Eros commenced its overseas distribution through setting up offices in UK in the 80s and the company grew multi-fold with the following launch of its operations across the United States (1997), South Africa (2000) and Dubai (2001). Eros commenced operations in Fiji in March 2004 and its Australian business followed later that year. In 2006, Eros became the first Indian media company to get listed on AIM, LSE.

Today, Eros International is a globally recognised integrated studio with operations across 5 continents and over 50 countries with an unmatched distribution network. One of the core competitive strengths that Eros leverages till date is its 1900 strong library that Arjan Lulla accumulated over the years.  Despite his sons - Kishore and Sunil Lulla at the helm of affairs and very successfully fulfilling his vision for the company, Arjun Lulla at 75, with his indefatigable spirit refuses to retire and continues to be an active participant of the company’s businesses.