RICHARDSON, Texas--(BUSINESS WIRE)--One of the world’s biggest movie theater operators today said it has acquired a Texas company that offers a unique, Bollywood-based multimedia entertainment format appealing to the booming population of affluent South Asians in the United States and Canada. It has also acquired a theater and radio presence in Chicago with plans to expand rapidly to other major North American cities.

Pyramid Saimira Entertainment America, Inc. - the North American unit of Pyramid Saimira Theatre, Ltd. (NSI: PSTL) (MUMBAI: 532791) (SGX: XS0306488890) - acquired FunAsiA of Richardson, which operates Bollywood multimedia entertainment venues in Houston and suburban Dallas, for an undisclosed amount of cash. At the same time, Pyramid Saimira acquired an existing cinema and radio drive-time hours in Chicago and radio time in Houston, its first steps in taking the FunAsiA multimedia entertainment concept across the United States and Canada.

“South Asians are much more visible in North America today,” said Saminathan P. Subramanian, Pyramid Saimira’s managing director. He cited the election of Louisiana’s new governor, Piyush "Bobby" Jindal, whose parents are Indian immigrants, as an example of the group’s rising profile and clout.

“We have an aggressive timeframe for bringing the FunAsiA name and entertainment concept to major U.S. and Canadian cities,” Saminathan continued. “We are bringing state-of-the-art screening technology to every North American cinema we operate and plan to add services like video conference matchmaking to help South Asians stay in touch with their extended families and cultural roots.”

Pyramid Saimira also plans to introduce to North America its prepaid movie card, offering filmgoers unlimited showings for a set fee.

South Asians are persons of Bangladeshi, Indian, Nepali, Pakistani and Sri Lankan origin or descent. Both in Canada and the United States, South Asians are one of the fastest-growing ethnic groups and are more educated than the populations as a whole.

In Texas, FunAsiA operates Bollywood theaters in Irving and Richardson, plus two in Houston. Films are shown in Hindi, Malayalam, Tamil, Kannada, Telugu, Kannada and Urdu, most with English subtitles. Going forward, all FunAsiA theaters in North America will be retrofitted with completely digital screening equipment.

FunAsiA complexes include a South Asian music dance floor, Indian-Pakistani concessions, a community banquet and event hall, and seminar and meeting rooms for weddings, receptions, concerts, and other community events.

Pyramid Saimira’s video matchmaking service enables couples located thousands of miles apart to see and speak with each other while not divulging private information like telephone numbers or e-mail addresses. This is a popular service among South Asians, who are often paired in arranged marriages. New video booths will be added to the FunAsiA complexes in Chicago, Texas and elsewhere as the expansion proceeds.

On top of that, Pyramid Saimira has acquired drive-time hours from two radio stations - WCEV-AM 1450 in Chicago and KGBC-AM 1540 in Houston - to add to the existing FunAsiA-owned radio, KHSE-AM 700 in Richardson, which is broadcast across the entire Dallas-Fort Worth area.

FunAsiA will acquire additional radio programming hours in the other markets it enters as well as expand to these cities the existing FunAsiA DesiPages, a glossy, thick monthly magazine currently distributed free throughout South Asian communities in Dallas-Fort Worth and Houston.

“FunAsiA truly is a multimedia, one-stop venue for ethnic and mainstream advertisers to reach the booming South Asian market across North America or in one particular city,” said Prasad Thotakura, FunAsiA’s chief marketing officer.

“We extend our gratitude to South Asians in the Dallas-Fort Worth and Houston areas for their patronage of FunAsiA,” said Shabnam Modgil, senior vice president, FunAsiA. “We dedicate the success of our expansion to the South Asian community in the great state of Texas.”

The brothers who founded FunAsiA - Dr. Farrukh, John and Shariq Hamid - remain as executive advisors, assisting the new owners with taking the multimedia entertainment concept coast to coast.

“In addition to film exhibition, Pyramid Saimira plans to produce roughly 100 new films next year in facilities in Chennai, India,” Dr. Hamid said. “We’re delighted that these South Asian movies will now be playing on FunAsiA screens across North America.”

About Pyramid Saimira

Publicly traded (NSI: PSTL) (MUMBAI: 532791) (SGX: XS0306488890) and based in Chennai, India, Pyramid Saimira Theatre Ltd. at present operates 44 multiplexes with 703 screens across India, Malaysia, Singapore, and North America. By 2010, the company plans to operate 175 multiplexes with 2,000 screens in India alone. By its own estimates, Pyramid Saimira ranks as the world’s third-largest cinema operator based on its number of seats and admissions with nearly 435,000 seats as of October 2007. Admissions for the period between July and October 2007 were approximately 53 million.

Pyramid Saimira has formed a North American unit, Pyramid Saimira Entertainment America, Inc., which is based in Richardson, Texas, with an office in Los Angeles, for the purpose of acquiring the FunAsiA multimedia entertainment concept and expanding it rapidly to major cities in the United States and Canada. Advertisers interested in one multimedia stop to reach the South Asian market in North America should e-mail Reach@FunAsiA.net. More information is available at www.FunAsiA.net and www.pstl.in.

Note to editors: This release, photos, a media FAQ and backgrounder are available at: https://promotesuccesspr.sharedwork.com/sr/ 9UUUFJTeCxWMpNUd9AnJhlGZl1WP1ZyN3AzMx0Ta

(Due to its length, this URL may need to be copied/pasted into your Internet browser's address field. Remove the extra space if one exists.)