Anil Ambani makes Hollywood debut with Steven Speilberg

Mumbai: In what could be the biggest movie making deals, industrialist Anil Ambani and Hollywood mogul Steven Speilberg have clinched a multi million dollar movie deal.

In a joint global conference call from here, Ambani and Spielberg also said the movies produced by Dreamworks will be distributed by Walt Disney globally, while the exclusive rights for India will be with Reliance Big Entertainment.

Speaking about the mammoth deal, veteran Hollywood director Steven Spielberg said, “The venture with Reliance opens a new door to our future.” Spielberg, who produced hits like ‘ET’ and ‘Jurassic Park’, said that he would visit India later this year to explore possibilities with Indian film makers and writers.

“We have a golden opportunity to have a better control over our product,” he said, alluding to the strained relationship Dreamworks faced after it was sold to Viacom’s Paramount in 2006 for $1.6 billion.

Ambani said he was “delighted” at the partnership and that the work on the first film would begin by end of this year and its release expected next year.

“Clearly, the outlay of $825 million is what we are aiming at in the next three years – $325 million will be in the form of equity, $150 million will come from Disney, while the rest will come from banks and others,” Ambani said.

“There is no scaling up or scaling down of investment. We will begin with $825 million and this is the largest in recent times,” said the Mumbai-based industrialist, whose aides had earlier indicated an investment outlay of as much as $1.5 billion for Dreamworks.

According to the latest reports, the deal involves $825 with Hollywood production house ‘Dreamworks’ for five to six moies annually for worldwide audience. The production of first film will begin from year 2010 where Reliance BIG entertainment will be carrying out the distribution rights in India.

It is believed that the initial funding for the flick will be carried out by Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani group as equity. However, debt financing will be carried out through banks. Future film projects would involve top Hollywood stars George Clooney, Julia Roberts and Brad Pitt, among others.

Dubbing the deal as a “game-changing event” for a partnership with excellence, Ambani said he was looking at reaching out to the global audience and India’s teeming youth through this venture.

Asked if the deal was the preamble for listing of Reliance Entertainment, which has committed USD 1.5 billion for the partnership with Dream Works last year, Ambani said: “All options are open. We’ll evaluate the options as we go along.”

The partnership is a 50:50 venture between Ambani and Speilberg and Snider. Ambani has nominated his top lieutenant Amitabh Jhunjhunwala on the Board.

Ambani also announced that his associate Amitabh Jhunjhunwala and Spielberg’s partner for decades Stacey Snider, who has been associated with projects like “Eric Brockovich”, “The Mummy” and “American Pie”, would also serve on the Dreamworks board.

He said even though Reliance Big was a private enterprise, he was not averse to listing it on the capital markets at an appropriate time. “All our options are open.”

The noted industrialist also saw a tremendous growth for the cinema business in India, and said that compared with the US, while thrice as many people watched cinema in the country, the box office collection was just one percent.

The Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group ranks among India’s top three industrial houses with interests in areas including telecommunications, energy, finance, entertainment and infrastructure development.

The group’s entertainment business owns 428 cinema screens across India, the US, Malaysia and Mauritius, contributing 11 percent to the domesticindustry’s box office collections and 35 percent from the Hindi movies screened in the US.

Its entertainment business has its presence across several platforms, including FM radio, music, sports, gaming, animation, Internet and mobile portals, direct-to-home TV, Internet TV and mobile TV.

Last year, it also entered into pacts to develop Hollywood projects with firms of such stars as Brad Pitt, Tom Hanks, Julia Roberts, Nicolas Cage, Jim Carrey and George Clooney.