MUMBAI: Anil Ambani‘s Reliance ADA Group is set to participate in the biggest gamble yet played by an Indian company in Hollywood.
Reliance ADA Group is close to signing a joint venture deal with Steven Spielberg-led DreamWorks Movie Studios wherein Reliance is said to be investing between $500 to $600 million equity into the new movie enterprise.
DreamWorks, which seeks to make approximately six films per year under this new endeavour, will be raising a further $500 million as debt.
This move will provide director Spielberg with an important source of funds for his planned move out of Viacom Inc‘s Paramount Pictures.
When contacted, Reliance Entertainment president Rajesh Sawhney, however, declined to comment.
Viacom bought DreamWorks in 2005. However, when relations between the two parties started getting edgy last year, DreamWorks began sending public signals that they might leave the studio as soon as the contracts Spielberg and co-founder Geffen terminated, which was in 2008.
Post Spielberg exodus, while Viacom will continue holding on to the rights to all the films the company jointly created with DreamWorks, the latter will be allowed to retain their DreamWorks SKG name.
Furthermore, DreamWorks chief executive and former Universal Pictures head Stacey Snider is expected to join Spielberg in this new undertaking.
DreamWorks, which operated within Paramount as a quasi-autonomous unit, has produced some of Paramount‘s biggest hits like Transformers.
According to media reports, Spielberg has been aiming to raise over $1 billion in third-party financing to recreate DreamWorks as a separate company that reacquires ownership of films as Spielberg wants to reestablish DreamWorks as a studio that owns the movies it makes.
Last month, Reliance Big Entertainment had announced a number of Hollywood project investments at the Cannes Film Festival. This included providing funds to a handful of Hollywood stars with production houses like Jim Carrey, George Clooney, Tom Hanks and Brad Pitt.
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