Reliance Anil Ambani group go Global in Entertainment Industry
Written by Nidhi Tiwari
Sunday, 22 June 2008
Steven Spielberg's DreamWorks SKG film studio may exit Viacom Inc.'s Paramount Pictures as soon as November after securing outside funding.
DreamWorks and Indian billionaire Anil Ambani are in talks for the Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group to invest as much as $600 million in the studio.
The Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group is close to sign a deal with the Steven Spielberg-founded Hollywood studio DreamWorks to invest $500-600 million towards equity, a leading business paper has said.
The agreement is expected to result in a new company that will make six-seven movies every year and give Ambani a foothold in Hollywood, which his group is strongly seeking, the paper reported.
Ambani’s Reliance BIG Entertainment had announced in Cannes last month it would make a major foray into Hollywood and fund production houses run by actors like Brad Pitt, Tom Hanks, Nicolas Cage, Jim Carrey and George Clooney.
Reliance, based in Mumbai, purchased Adlabs Films Ltd., a producer and distributor of Hindi-language Bollywood movies, in June 2005. The group also operates 41 radio stations across India, according to the company's Web site. It operates Internet Web sites, social-networking and game Web sites and an online movie rental business.
Reliance Big Entertainment announced at the Cannes Film Festival last month that it would consider financing films for eight Hollywood-based production companies.
This marked the biggest foray of an Indian entity in Hollywood’s motion picture industry. Thirty films are likely to emanate from Reliance’s co-financing and 10 will go into production, company officials had said.
