Cut the Rope maker ZeptoLab has inked a deal with India-based game publisher Nazara Technologies to publish 'Cut the Rope' series games in the Indian subcontinent.

The deal between the two will see Nazara Technologies exclusively publishing the game series in the Indian market for the next three years with tweaks and features appealing to the Indian audience. The game publisher will also own its intellectual property, the software code and game engine for the series, reported The Economic Times.

Commenting on the partnership deal, Manish Agarwal, CEO of Nazara Games, said, "At Nazara, we are excited about this partnership with Zeptolab and we are very confident that teams at Nazara and ZeptoLab will work towards giving Cut the Rope loads of local cultural association to make it the most endearing gaming brand among millions of Indians who are going to be playing mobile games in coming years."

The game publisher is targeting 50 million downloads for the Cut the Rope franchise in the Indian subcontinent over next 3-5 years, reported Venture Beat.

Denis Morozov, the director of business development at ZeptoLab, said in an interview that "Cut the Rope is a big brand in mobile, but we realize that if you just continue releasing the same games, at some point, the brand will fade away."

"Our strategy with Cut the Rope is to build on its success, bring Om Nom to the physical world with toys and films and TV shows, and address new markets."

"But if you look at our monthly audience numbers, they have declined from 1 million two years ago to 700,000 this year," Morozov added.

"We are solving this problem this year. We will release Cut the Rope: Magic this December, and now we will grow in India. We consider India as the next China. We are looking to get 40-50 million people from India over the next 3-5 years."

According to research by Newzoo and OneSky, the Indian mobile gaming market is expected to grow to around $572 million by 2016.

Cut the Rope has been downloaded more than 750 million times in total, including 10 million downloads in India alone.