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Crunchyroll Enters Promotional Partnership with Bollywood Actor Tiger Shroff
posted on by Adriana Hazra
Crunchyroll's CEO Rahul Purini made a statement regarding the partnership:
We are excited to welcome Tiger Shroff to the Crunchyroll family. As deeply passionate fans, we all have a shared love and respect for anime – its characters, artistry, storylines and the profound connections it makes with audiences around the world. We are excited to partner with him to share these powerful stories and promote the anime experience with millions more across India and beyond as we make Crunchyroll the ultimate home for anime fans.
Crunchyroll announced its first slate of Hindi and Indian English dubs on November 2 as it introduced subscription tiers for Indian audiences.
The company began streaming several of its anime titles in India on March 1, 2022. Funimation and Crunchyroll announced on the same day that Funimation and Wakanim's anime library and simulcast content had moved to Crunchyroll. The company appointed Rahul Purini as CEO in April 2022 after several years as COO of Funimation.
Sony's Funimation Global Group completed its acquisition of Crunchyroll from AT&T in August 2021. The purchase price was US$1.175 billion, and the proceeds were paid in cash at closing.
Crunchyroll and Funimation first announced the acquisition in December 2020 with a purchase price of US$1.175 billion. The technology website The Information reported in August 2020 that AT&T offered Crunchyroll to Sony for US$1.5 billion and that Sony reportedly "balked at" the price, which effectively valued the streaming service at US$500 per subscriber. Entertainment news source Variety reported that AT&T was shopping the company to multiple potential buyers aside from Sony Pictures Entertainment at that time. Nikkei Asia later reported that October that Sony was in final negotiations for the Crunchyroll acquisition. At that time, the newspaper reported that Sony "could end up spending more than 100 billion yen ($957 million)."
Sources: Crunchyroll's website and Indian Instagram account, LiveMint (Lata Jha)
