MUMBAI: Nikhil Advani and Mukesh Talreja’s film production company Orion Pictures has undergone a name change. The company has been renamed as People Tree Films following a notice from Hollywood studio Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM), which owns the copyright of the brand name – Orion Pictures.

Speaking exclusively to Businessofcinema.com, Talreja says, "We had received a notice from MGM regarding the use of the name – Orion Pictures. The brand is owned by them and we thought it was only right to change the name of our company. Moreover, if tomorrow we were to open an office in the US, we would not have been able to operate under the same name. So in order to avoid legalities, we changed the name of our company."

Explaining the logic behind the new name of the company Talreja says, "The business of film making involves a lot many people who act like different branches of a tree handling different responsibilities. It is from here that we derived the name People Tree Films."

Pertinent to note here is that Anupam Mittal’s People Group revived its film production activities last year under the banner People Pictures. People Group operates brands such as Shaadi.com, Mauj Mobile, Fropper.com and Makaan.com amongst others.

MGM’s Orion Pictures, which was founded in 1978 as a joint venture between Warner Bros. and three former executives of United Artists, produced movies like The Silence of the Lambs, Dances With Wolves, Academy Award winner Platoon, Woody Allen’s Hannah and Her Sisters and the Robocop series amongst others. However, the company filed for bankruptcy in 1991 and was acquired by MGM in 1997. Orion Pictures operates as an in-name-only subsidiary of MGM.