MUMBAI: Anil Ambani’s Reliance Big Entertainment is gearing up to announce major Hollywood and Bollywood co-production deals.
At the upcoming 61st Cannes Film Festival, the company’s motion picture arm BIG Pictures is slated to announce 9 – 10 Hollywood film co-production deals with the likes of Julia Roberts, Tom Hanks, Bruce Willis, George Clooney, Will Smith, Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise amongst others.
Sources inform Businessofcinema.com that the company has lined up three – four films with each of these actors, thus taking its Hollywood film slate to almost 35.
The announcement is planned at a press conference in Cannes on 18 May. This is the first time that an Indian studio is going the whole hog on Hollywood. Prior to this, companies like Eros International and UTV Motion Pictures have inked individual deals with the likes of Sony Pictures, Will Smith’s Overbrook Entertainment, 20th Century Fox amongst others.
Apart from the Hollywood announcement, Reliance BIG Entertainment will also reveal the company’s Bollywood ambitions on 16 May.
Besides the 30 odd Hindi and regional language movies that are already in various stages of production under the BIG Pictures umbrella, an additional 30 films are going to be announced with various Indian producers, directors and actors at Cannes. That makes as many as 60 Indian films in the company’s slate.
If all goes as planned, then by the end of it all, BIG Pictures will have a slate of approximately 100 films in the Hindi, English, Bengali, Tamil, Telugu and Malayalam languages.
A battalion of 12 Reliance ADAG professionals will be present at the festival this year. Amongst the top brass that will be present are Amitabh Jhunjhunwala, Amit Khanna, Rajesh Sawhney, Prasoon Joshi, Sunir Khetrapal and Kulmeet Makkar. Producers Vidhu Vinod Chopra and Ritesh Sidhwani and their team of directors will also be a part of this delegate as each has a deal inked with the company.
It may be recalled that Businessofcinema.com was the first to report on the company’s entire slate of films in March this year.
In the regional cinema space, BIG Pictures has trained its eyes on Bengali films and has at least 12 films in the pipeline. Directors like Rituparno Ghosh, Buddhadeb Dasgupta, Shwopan Shah and Haranath Chakraborty will be directing films for Ambani’s banner.
Apart from Bengali cinema, BIG also has two- three Tamil films, a Telugu film, and two Malayalam films in its kitty.
As far as Hindi films are concerned, BIG Pictures has a five film deal with Ritesh Sidhwani and Farhan Akhtar’s Excel Entertainment, a three film deal with Vidhu Vinod Chopra and a two film deal with Sudhir Mishra.
Other films include Don 2, Rock On, Luck By Chance, Voice From The Sky, Idiot, Dulha Mil Gaya, Good Soldier, Who’s Speaking, Love Story 2050, Halla, Sultan, Banda Yeh Bindaas Hai, Paathshala, 13 B and a Punjabi film Mera Pind – My Home.
Post these deals, BIG Pictures will have the highest number of films in its slate.
