While UTV offers contemporary and popular films and steers clear of the “world cinema” tag and NDTV Lumiere possesses a mixed bag, Palador with its kitty of nearly 900 titles promises to be a treat for world cinema junkies with its classic collection.

“We are likely make an announcement regarding our channel in June. We have the rights of these titles for 10 years. So we aren’t in a hurry,” says Mohan Palamor, co-founder of Palador.

Palador has tied up with Moser Baer DVDs to market 50 films (priced at Rs 399) and plans to release five more in theatres in 2008, apart from providing content to satellite players like Tata Sky and Zee Studio (which has got 26-film package for their world cinema slot on Sunday afternoon).

In the war to grab eyeballs, all the players seem to have chalked out their brand positioning strategy. UTV, which is proclaiming its venture to be “India’s only international movie channel”, is clearly targeting the youth. “We’re looking at an audience between 18 and 34 years. We’re going to show sub-titled films which are contemporary, entertaining and box-office hits, from across the globe,” says Dilshad Master, COO of UTV Entertainment Television Limited on ‘World Movies’. The channel has Three Colours: Blue Legend of Lucy Keyes, Eye In the Sky, Cleopatra, Minoes and The Hidden scheduled for this month.

NDTV Lumiere, which has started making ripples even before going on air thanks to its presence on the festival circuits, calls itself a “movement”.

“We want to follow the whole cycle—start with a theatrical release, air it on 24-hour TV and then release the DVD. There will also be pay-per-view across DTH platforms and internet downloads,” says Vidyut Bhandari, general manager.

Lumiere, a joint venture of NDTV Imagine, Manmohan Shetty of Adlabs and film producer-activist Sunil Doshi, lent three films to the French film festival held in Mumbai in January. At the 10th International Film Festival, Lumière chipped in four, including Nadine Labaki’s Caramel.

Before these television launches, the market for world cinema was a niche one, exploited only by the neighbourhood DVD parlour or the random film fest. But those marketing them seem to be confident of building a craze for it.

As Palamor says: “A child may not like sushi. Once familiar with it, he might love tucking into it.”