In an interview with Knowledge@Wharton, Wharton Business School’s business journal, filmmaker and businessman Shekhar Kapur said he expects his newly launched $500 million media and entertainment fund to generate at least a 32 percent return, which is double the average returns of listed Indian media companies. Kapur hopes that the fund, which he plans to launch next quarter and expects to soon be a billion-dollar fund, will become a one-stop shop for anyone wanting to participate in the media and entertainment business in Asia. “Consumption strength is now shifting to Asia,” Kapur said. “I suspect that, in the next five to six years, the international media and entertainment business will have a value of almost $1.5 trillion. Asia’s contribution to this will be 60% to 70%. Many people have not yet accepted that Asia will become as dominant as I believe it will.”

Kapur’s vision for his fund includes projects that wil try to use the best skills that different Asian countries have to offer. According to Kapur, China is more advanced than India in media technology. It has its own Google, etc., because it is more broadband-connected. In Singapore, Japan and Korea, the visual effects shops are better. In India, the movie industry is better structured and institutional capital is now getting in. Some of our imagination, our storytelling, is much better. So Kapur hopes to take an animation company in India, a visual effects company in China, a Manga comic creation company or animation company in Japan—and use these investment dollars in a cross cultural way to pick up whoever is fast.

The filmmaker also sees potential in small 5 minute to 10 minute mobile films and said he is experimenting with a character he has created to make five-minute modules or films that will be fed to a worldwide audience through downloads.