Ahmad Golchin

Ahmad Golchin (born 1942) is an Iranian-born film distributor and cinema executive based in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. He founded Phars Film in 1964 and co-founded Gulf Film in 1989. A University of St Andrews study described him as one of the early distributors of foreign films in the Gulf region.

Early life

Golchin was born in Iran in 1942. He told the Khaleej Times that he sold books as a child to help support his mother and later became a publisher, producing approximately 140 books. The business expanded into cinema exhibition in the early 1990s and operated theatres under the Grand Cinemas name. In 2013, Screen Daily reported that Phars Film, run by Golchin and his daughter Mahi Golchin-Depala, distributed about 350 titles annually from India, Iran, the Philippines, Europe and the American independent-film sector.