The Ranbir Kapoor-Priyanka Chopra- Ileana D'Cruz-starrer Barfi! recently won the Grand Jury Award for Best Film at this year’s (2013) Okinawa International Film Festival, Japan. The film, directed by Anurag Basu was featured in the competition section along with last year's most acclaimed critical successes from across the world including <em>Beasts of the Southern Wild</em> (USA) that had received four Academy Awards nominations and has already won three awards at Cannes 2012.

It was meant to be a huge marketing coup, with Salman Khan opening up the hitherto dormant Japanese market for Bollywood with a nationwide release in Japan of Yashraj Film’s <em>Ek Tha Tiger</em>. Director Kabir Khan flew excitedly into a 4-city tour of Japan last week at the invitation the Japanese distributors Nikkatsu Corporation and the release date was fixed for April 20 in Japan.

If Yash Raj Films (YRF) takes a lead, can Eros International stay behind? Seeing YRF successfully releasing its Salman Khan, Katrina Kaif-starrer <em>Ek Tha Tiger</em> in Japan on 8 March with much fanfare, Eros International Media Ltd. (Eros International) is making necessary arrangements to release its 2007 blockbuster <em>Om Shanti Om</em> in Japan on 16 March. The release of the Farah Khan-directed Shah Rukh Khan and Deepika Padukone-starrer has been planned across an unprecedented 15 screens, one of the biggest ever for an Indian film in Japan.

Yash Raj Films has made a major breakthrough in Japan, a significant territory that has eluded the presence of Indian cinema presence in a big way until now. But not anymore, as things are about to change. This change has been made possible by YRF tying up with Japan's oldest major movie studio and entertainment company Nikkatsu Corporation which released the Salman Khan and Katrina Kaif historic blockbuster, <em>Ek Tha Tiger</em>, directed by Kabir Khan on 7 March with a grand premiere in Tokyo.

Six years after its release in India in 2007, Farah Khan’s Om Shanti Om is being readied for a wide release in Japan on 16 March (2013). Confirmed Farah in a statement, “I am thrilled to know that OSO is releasing in Japan. I have seen the trailer (dubbed in Japanese). When the film hit theatres in 2007, I was pregnant and couldn’t travel to the Berlin Film Festival (where it was screened) and for its London premiere. Now I’m set to tour.”