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Shraddha Kapoor dances on stage with Karan Johar during the Arab Indo Bollywood Awards ceremony early on May 30, 2015 in Dubai Image Credit: AFP

Star India and Bollywood director-producer Karan Johar’s Dharma Productions have joined hands to co-produce and distribute nine films worldwide.

Fox Star Studios, a joint venture between 20th Century Fox and Star India, and Johar’s production company will make these films in the course of three years.

“The Indian film industry is an important market for us and this strategic partnership offers us an excellent opportunity to fundamentally change the content quality paradigm,” Uday Shankar, CEO, Star India said in a statement.

Johar, who recently made his acting debut in Fox Star Studios’ last release Bombay Velvet, called it “a visionary 9 films alliance”.

“This partnership will not only be the coming together of two forces who understand the need of the cinematic hour but also work as a unit to increase the footfall strength at the movies and empower other verticals. It’s a new age of cinema and this association is a glorious reflection of the times,” Johar said.

Apoorva Mehta, CEO of Dharma Productions, said the deal was “by far the biggest collaboration that the Indian film Industry has ever seen”.

Johar is likely to direct at least one film and they plan to line up a stellar line-up of titles, directors and actors.