Tags: Cannes

Reliance Big Entertainment, the media and entertainment company of Reliance ADA Group, announced a slew of deals with production firms of Hollywood stars including Tom Hanks, Brad Pitt and Jim Carrey.

Reliance Big Entertainment (RBE) Chairman Amit Khanna said at a press conference: "This initiative will yield up to 30 scripts in the next two years. We are confident that at least 10 of them will go into production during the period."

The Hollywood entities involved in the development deals are Cage's Saturn Productions, Carrey's JC 23 Entertainment, Clooney's Smokehouse Productions, Columbus' 1492 Pictures, Hanks' Playtone Productions, Pitt's B Entertainment and Roach's Everyman Pictures.

The deal was brokered by Los Angeles-based Creative Artists Agency (CAA).

Terming this as the beginning of the company's engagement with international film productions, Khanna said, "These deals alone have the potential of creating a slate of films worth USD 1 billion."

RBE president Rajesh Sawhney said, "This is an announcement of the reach and potential of India's steadily growing soft power. Reliance is paving the way and we are sure other Indian companies will also join the charge."

"We respect the first-look deals that each of our partners enjoys (with the Hollywood majors), and we are confident that the respective studios will welcome our development silos and our subsequent co-financing ability," he added.

"We will look at each silo and each film project differently," said Khanna.

The Hollywood partners would be a dedicated amount to develop films that they want to work in and then the films would go into production depending upon how the scripts shape up, Khanna said.

Dismissing suggestion that Reliance Big was aiming to take on the Hollywood majors Khanna said, "We are not here to compete. We are here to collaborate. The global film production space is being redefined and we want to be at the forefront."

Asked whether any of the development deals would yield India-themed films, RBE's creative consultant Prasoon Joshi said, "There would be no preconditions on our partners, but yes, we do hope our association with these Hollywood creative forces will eventually lead to the emergence of India-themed international films as well."

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