Come April, Reencuentro Con El Destino, the Spanish version of Bollywood blockbuster Kaho Na Pyar Hai, will be released in Peru and Colombia.
The first-ever Indian film to be dubbed in Spanish will be shown in phases across around 20 Spanish-speaking countries.
This will also mark the debut of the Export Import Bank of India (Exim Bank) in film financing.
It has extended credit and advisory support to the Spanish dubbing of the film.
The Pune-based PPL Entertainments has acquired the Spanish theatrical dubbing rights of Kaho Na Pyar Hai from the Rakesh Roshan-promoted Filmkraft Productions (India).
The company has also secured the rights to distribute and exhibit the dubbed version of the Hrithik Roshan-Amisha Patel starrer for five years.
Senior Exim Bank officials said that the Latin American and Caribbean market presents a big opportunity for the Indian entertainment industry.
The combination of 'song, dance, youthfulness and vibrancy' of Indian films can attract the 35 crore (Rs 350 million) strong Spanish-speaking population.
The average ticket price of $3 also makes the market an attractive proposition for dubbed Indian movies.
This is in sharp contrast to the average ticket price of Rs 50 in India.
Exim Bank has extended financial support in excess of Rs 1 crore (Rs 10 million) to PPL.
This covers the costs of acquiring the film's rights, dubbing into Spanish, recording, editing, post-production costs and costs related to promotion and marketing of the film in Latin America.
The bank is reportedly also in talks with Hindi film producer Yash Chopra for financing his films.
Reencuentro Con El Destino will be initially released in Peru and Colombia but later on it will be shown in Ecuador, Bolivia, Venezuela, Mexico, Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic, Panama, Costa Rica, Argentina, Chile, Paraguay, Uruguay, Spain and the United States.
"Dubbing of Kaho Na Pyar Hai was done in Mexico with local artistes. The duration of the movie has been cut down to two hours from three hours. Only two of the seven songs have been retained. Both the songs have been reworked in Spanish and recorded by local artistes," said Parimal Gole, managing director, PPL.
Pointing out that the 'non-ethnic' market for Indian films overseas was big and growing, Gole said PPL will set up offices across LAC so as to establish direct contact with the exhibitors instead of going through the established distributors, who demanded hefty commissions.
While revenues generated from theatres in LAC will be shared between PPL and the exhibitors, that arising from VCDs/DVDs sales and cable TV will be shared between Filmkraft and PPL, he added.
