|
|
May 16, 2008
Reliance Big
Entertainment
to Spend $1 bn on Films
By N. Vidyasagar
Cannes
Reliance BIG Entertainment, the media and entertainment arm of the
$75 billion Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani group, Friday announced
that it would spend $1 billion on the Indian film and entertainment
business over the next 12-15 months.
This is by far the biggest commitment made by an Indian
entertainment company for show business.
Amid the glitter and glamour at the 61st edition of the Cannes Film
Festival at the French Riviera, Reliance BIG Entertainment also
revealed that 69 films in nine languages would be ready for
distribution over the next 18 months. Over a dozen films will be
released this year.
"India is uniquely positioned in the global economic order. We
believe this is the right time to make this commitment of $1 billion
for the film entertainment business," said Amit Khanna, chairman of
Reliance Entertainment.
"We believe we are creating 21st century's truly integrated media
and entertainment company. Our $1 billion spend is bigger than the
cumulative investments of all other Indian players put together in
this space. We will continue our aggressive expansion plans in film
exhibition and leverage synergies to our growing production and
distribution pipeline."
The Indian entertainment business is a $4 billion industry, growing
at 18 percent annually.
Reliance Big Entertainment will be working with the best of Indian
directors including Vidhu Vinod Chopra, Farhan Akthar, Shyam Benegal,
Shaji Karun, Sudhir Mishra, Rituparno Ghosh, M.S. Sathyu, Madhur
Bhandarkar, Buddhadev Dasgupta, Girish Kasravalli and Amol Palekar.
"We have one of the best creatively differentiated slate of movies,"
said Rajesh Sawhney, president of Reliance Entertainment.
"Our biggest challenge is to get our content and distribution to
work in harmony. We believe digital and home entertainment will be
unique for our growth."
Reliance Big Entertainment has appointed senior ad man and well
known lyricist Prasoon Johsi as its advisor to evaluate scripts and
products.
"People love good cinema and hate bad cinema. Our whole idea is to
create good cinema from Reliance," said Joshi. He will evaluate
scripts received by Reliance from independent filmmakers.
Ace filmmaker Vinod Chopra is excited to have formed a production
partnership with BIG Entertainment.
"This alliance will ensure that our films will reach every corner of
the world and take Indian cinema to the next level," Chopra said.
The first of the feature films under this deal is a mainstream
English language film "Broken Horses" directed by Chopra. The second
film is based on a classic Indian tale, to be directed by Ram
Madhvani.
Reliance also announced a strategic tie up with Excel Entertainment,
run by Ritesh Sidhwani and Farhan Akthar.
The six films covered under this alliance include Abhishek Kapoor's
"Rock On", Zoya Akhthar's "Lucky by Chance", Farhan's "Voice of the
Sky" and "Don II", Abhinay Deo's "7 Minutes" (working title) and
Reema Kagti's "Accident Spot".
"It is a noteworthy collaboration," said Sidhwani.
Reliance Big Entertainment business arms include Big Motion
Pictures, Adlabs Films, Big ND Studios, Big Animation, Big Music and
Big Entertainment.
The company has also forayed into Big Broadcasting, Big 92.7 FM and
Big DTH and IPTV. Its new media companies include Zapak (India's
number on online gaming portal), Big Adda (social networking site),
Jump Games (moble games) and Big Flix (movie rental and download
service).
Reliance Big Entertainment is set to open offices in Southeast Asia,
the Middle East and Australia and also in major cities in India.
The Reliance group, which also has 160 operating screens in India,
is likely to increase the number to 400 screens by end-2009.
Early this year, the group made its foray into the US film
exhibition market with agreements to operate 250 screens covering 28
cities in the key markets in the east, mid west and west coast.
The company has also entered into an agreement to acquire
controlling stake in Lotus Five Star Cinemas and operate 51 screen
exhibition chains in Malaysia.
May 16, 2008
IANS | Top
|
|
