Reliance Big Pictures to release 18 films in 2009

MUMBAI: Reliance Big Pictures has chalked out a 18-movie slate for 2009 release, defying scale back plans announced by some other big film producers.

Being part of the mega plan to produce 70 movies over three years, Big Pictures will roll out 11 Hindi films in 2009 while the other seven films will be in five regional languages.

“We are in course with our targets and there is no slowdown from our side. We will be releasing 18 movies in 2009,” Big Pictures COO Mahesh Ramanathan tells Indiantelevision.com.

To set the ball rolling on the Hindi front, Big Pictures will release the big budget Hindi film Luck By Chance, a co-production with Excel entertainment slated to hit theatres on 30 January. The film marks the directorial debut of Zoya Akhtar starring Farhan Akhtar, Juhi Chawla, Konkana Sen, Rishi Kapoor, Dimple Kapadia and Hritik Roshan in a special appearance.

This will be followed by releases like Sikander, 13 B, Mirch and Chaloo Movie. “We will have two movies – Chaloo Movie and Sikander – in the low-budget (below Rs 100 million) category,” says Ramanathan.

13 B, a supernatural thriller with Madhavan and Neetu Chandra as the lead protagonists, will be made in both Hindi and Tamil. The film is being directed by Vikram.

Directed by Piyush Jha, Sikandar has Sanjay Suri, R. Madhavan, Ayesha Kapoor and Parzaan Dastur.

“We will additionally have six Hindi co-productions for the year 2009 which we will announce over time,” says Ramanathan.

On the regional front, the production arm has a slate of three Bengali films- Shob Choritra Kalponik, Abohomann and Janala. While Shob Choritra Kalponik and Abohomann are being directed by Rituparno Ghosh, Janala will be directed by Buddhadeb Dasgupta.

The other movies that belong to the Big Pictures regional basket include Shaji N. Karun’s Kutty Srank (Malayalam), MS Sathyu’s Ijjodu (Kannada), Amol Palekar’s Samaantar (Marathi) and Simerjit Singh’s Chak Jawana (Punjabi).

Reliance Big Pictures, the motion pictures brand of Reliance Big Entertainment, is currently busy in releasing the Aamir Khan starrer Ghajini internationally across 300 cinemas in 22 countries on 25 December.