Leading entertainment company Adlabs, a part of the Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group, has become the first motion picture services facility in Asia to be certified by the UK's industry body Federation Against Copyright Theft (FACT).

The certificate, issued to Adlabs in London Sep 5, will enable studios and film makers know they are dealing with a secure facility when availing its services.

In the 25 years of its existence, FACT has given accreditation to a large number of film service companies in the UK and Europe.

But it is for the first time that it has issued a certificate to an Asian film facility.

"The certification is a major recognition of the efforts by Adlabs to protect and safeguard films that it handles from piracy, " Adlabs CEO Anil Arjun told Monday.

"Security is a serious issue for the film entertainment business. In Asia-Pacific alone, on a conservative estimate, pirates eat up revenues of $1.2 billion annually, " Arjun said.

"Protection of software is a prime concern for filmmakers. We are happy that our security concern has been acknowledged by a prestigious industry body."

The FACT certification applies to Adlabs' film processing and print lab, digital lab, digital cinema mastering facility as well as its preview theatre, all housed within its Film City premises in Mumbai.

The accreditation comes at a time when Adlabs has significantly grown its portfolio of film-related services, expanding from motion picture lab processing and replication, to include post-production and digital cinema mastering facility, besides enhanced distribution services worldwide.