Reliance BIG Entertainment - the entertainment arm of Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani group, announced on Friday that it would invest $1 billion on Indian film and entertainment industry over the next 12-15 months. This is the far biggest commitment ever made by an Indian entertainment company and is bigger than the cumulative investments of all other Indian players put together in their bussiness.
Amit Khanna, chairman of Reliance Entertainment, said that Reliance Big Entertainment would be working with the best of Indian directors including Vidhu Chopra, Farhan Akthar, Shyam Benegal, Shaji Karun, Sudhir Mishra, Rituparno Ghosh, M.S. Sathyu, Madhur Bhandarkar, Buddhadev Dasgupta, Girish Kasravalli and Amol Palekar.
Reliance BIG Entertainment 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. The first of the feature films under this deal is an English language film Broken Horses directed by Vinod Chopra.
The second film is based on a classic Indian tale, to be directed by Ram Madhvani. Other six films under the 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 and Reema Kagti’s Accident Spot.
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.
