CineNow Limited has secured more than 60% of its $150 million film fund — roughly AED 551 million — from family offices and ultra-high-net-worth individuals, and will run the vehicle from Dubai. The film-tech company plans to register film intellectual property in the UAE, host 30-plus premieres locally and position Dubai as the gateway for rights-backed entertainment investment.
The fund aggregates a diversified slate of Hindi and regional-language cinema rather than betting on individual films. Returns are structured across the full rights and licensing lifecycle — theatrical, digital, satellite, music, dubbing and franchise — so a flop at the box office does not sink the whole position. The structure is designed to be tokenisation-ready, with early-exit optionality built in for investors.
“Film intellectual property is one of the world’s most valuable yet undercapitalised asset classes… Our ambition is to position the UAE as the global gateway for rights-backed entertainment investments, connecting international capital with one of the world’s fastest-growing creative economies while laying the foundation for the future tokenisation of real-world intellectual property assets.”
— Rohit Dalmia, Chairman and Managing Director, CineNow
In plainer terms: film finance, long the province of family money and handshake deals, wants to be a formal asset class.
India’s industry gives the model its maths. Sector revenues reached about $2.1 billion in 2025 across more than 1,900 releases, with domestic box office at a record $1.4 billion. Regional-language cinema — Telugu, Tamil, Malayalam and Kannada — accounted for 44% of that box office, and 216 million paid video subscriptions point to the digital and franchise streams the fund is built around.
What CineNow plans to do in the UAE
CineNow intends to register and administer film IP through the UAE, run regional contracting and capital flows locally, and require participating producers to establish UAE-based entities. It plans more than 30 film premieres, industry events and talent-led engagements in the country, and says selected productions may be encouraged to film in the UAE where locations, production infrastructure and rebate programmes make it worthwhile.
The company is now courting the wider investor community to close the remaining capital — no closing date has been given. The same framework is due to extend to Arabic content, aviation and real estate in the coming months, with Indian cinema as the proof of concept.
What is CineNow?
CineNow Limited is a film-tech investment vehicle that pools family-office and institutional capital into a fund backing Hindi and regional-language Indian cinema. Returns are tied to the full rights lifecycle — theatrical, digital, satellite, music, dubbing and franchise — rather than box-office performance alone.
What is film-IP tokenisation?
Tokenisation converts a film’s intellectual-property rights into digital tokens that can be bought, sold and traded like securities. CineNow’s structure is designed so those rights can be tokenised later, with the UAE as the legal home of the IP.
When will the fund close?
About 60% of the $150M target is committed. CineNow says it is now building awareness among the wider global investor community to close the remaining capital; no closing date has been given.
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