The man who has moved more than 2,500 films into living rooms is now moving into movie entertainment industry at Ooty with blockbuster movies.

Sajid Qureshi, founder of Inbox Pictures, has acquired Mowbray Heritage Resort in Ooty through Fodxpert NextGen Pvt Ltd. It is the group’s first hospitality property. The resort is being torn back to its bones and rebuilt as a luxury heritage boutique, and it is set to reopen soon. In one stroke, a cinema-rights veteran has crossed from selling stories to owning a piece of the hill station’s own story.

For more than two decades, Inbox Pictures has been the quiet machine behind Indian cinema’s second life. The company has exploited the rights of over 2,500 films across satellite, OTT and theatrical windows, spanning Hindi, Telugu, Tamil, Kannada and Malayalam. It has also produced Hindi films including Bad Boy and FryDay. Qureshi built a business on knowing exactly where audiences spend their time. Fodxpert Ally puts advertising on digital screens inside restaurants. Buzzzooka runs entertainment media and digital portals. B3 Hospitality runs restaurants. Mowbray is the leap from feeding a guest for an hour to keeping them for the night. What began as a rights desk in Mumbai now ends, for the first time, at a front door in Ooty.

The property is not a new build wearing an old name. Mowbray is house No. 2 in Ootacamund’s official 1858 house register, owned that year by Mrs. Havelock. The register is reproduced in Sir Frederick Price’s Ootacamund: A History, published by the Government of Madras in 1908. In that record, Mowbray stands next to Fern Hill, later absorbed into the Maharaja of Mysore’s palace. It was still carrying the same name in 1905, after several neighbouring houses had already been pulled down. Few addresses in the Nilgiris can claim a continuous name in the official record for nearly 170 years.

The 1.4-acre estate already runs as a hotel, with 14 rooms and a restaurant. Both are being restored to a new luxury standard without losing the feel of the 1850s. Around 25 more rooms are planned on the adjoining land, built in the same look and feel as the original house. Together they are being shaped as a luxury heritage boutique resort.

“For me, Mowbray isn’t just a property. It’s a piece of Ooty’s living history, recorded in the official government register of 1858,” Qureshi said. “We’re restoring it completely: bringing back the charm of that era, with every luxury of today.”

A film-rights veteran who spent twenty years selling stories is now buying one of the oldest houses still standing in the Queen of Hill Stations. Mowbray Heritage Resort, Ooty, is set to reopen soon.