Anil Ambani to invest in Spielberg's DreamWorks

Los Angeles/Mumbai- According to media reports Hollywood film producers DreamWorks SKG are close to a deal with Anil Ambani's Reliance Big Entertainment, one of India's biggest entertainment conglomerates, to form a new movie venture. According to people familiar with the situation, this move would give director Steven Spielberg the cash to finance his DreamWorks team's departure from Viacom Inc.'s Paramount Pictures later this year, reported Wall Street Journal Wednesday, May 18, 2008.

Reliance ADA Group will invest $500 million to $600 million

In a news report Lauren A.E. Schuker and Merissa Marr say "Mumbai-based Reliance ADA Group would provide Mr. Spielberg and company with $500 million to $600 million in equity, moving them one step closer to ending one of Hollywood's most contentious and closely watched battles."

Britain's Financial Times has been carrying a report by By Joe Leahy in Mumbai and Matthew Garrahan in Los Angeles: "The company, which would likely have funds of up to $1.5bn including debt and equity, would be part of moves by Mr Spielberg and DreamWorks co-founder David Geffen to exit Viacom's Paramount Pictures as soon as their contracts permit it this year.

“Mr Spielberg, as you know, has announced his intention to separate from Paramount,” said one person familiar with the talks in Mumbai. “It [the contact with Reliance] is at a very preliminary stage, ” quotes FT Wednesday, May 18, 2008..

'Dreamgirls' by DreamWorks and ParamountThe FT says under the deal, Reliance would likely take a stake in the new joint venture, under which the partners would agree to make a certain number of movies a year. The person familiar with the talks said, however, that it was too early to say how many movies they would make or to give other details.

Earlier, Hollywood Reporter had published a report saying "Steven Spielberg aims to raise more than $1 billion in third-party financing to reinvent DreamWorks as a separate company that once again owns the movies it makes. As for the distribution of the films, Spielberg wants to bolt his roost at Paramount -- which acquired DreamWorks in December 2005 -- for Universal, which would like to land Spielberg and DreamWorks after losing out to Paramount in that quest a couple of years ago.

But on the recommendation of his advisers, Spielberg has allowed a bidding war to begin among studios for the right to distribute future DreamWorks movies."

On May 19, 2008, India-EU Film Initiative reported:

Cannes - India's Reliance Entertainment is on its biggest ever spending spree. After reserving US$ 1billion for making movies, mostly with Indian filmmakers, it has now gone a step further as it announced Sunday it had signed deals with the production houses of top Hollywood stars such as Brad Pitt, Tom Hanks and George Clooney to make films worth about a billion dollars.

The media group has signed separate deals with the production firms of Hollywood stars Nicolas Cage, Jim Carrey, George Clooney, Tom Hanks and Brad Pitt and filmmakers Chris Columbus and Jay Roach, Reliance Entertainment said in a statement.

"With this deal, we hope to develop up to 30 scripts, of which hopefully, 10 will go into production," Reliance Big Entertainment's chairman Amit Khanna told AFP by phone from Cannes in France, where the firm made the announcement.

"The value of this slate of films will be worth a billion dollars," Khanna said. The films will be made in the next two years under different genres and will have a range of budgets, Khanna said.

"We will be dealing directly with top talent," he said, adding the agreements would take India to the forefront of global entertainment.

The company said in a statement: "They are part of (our) long-term strategy for media investments in Hollywood... to build a fully integrated movie company with substantial holdings in production, distribution and exhibition."

Just two days ago, Reliance Entertainment made it known in Cannes, Friday, that it was going to own India's biggest and most ambitious Entertainment company. The company executives confirmed in front of world media that Reliance Big
Entertainment Limited would spend a whopping US$ 1 billion on making movies, including some with Hollywood's top stars.

"India is uniquely positioned in the global economic order. We believe this is the right time to make this commitment of $1 billion for the film entertainment business," said Amit Khanna, chairman of Reliance Entertainment.

Last Friday, it announced 69 films in nine languages, with budgets ranging from $1 million to $40 million, would be ready for distribution over the next 18 months. Over a dozen films will be released this year.
What's Reliance ADA Group?

The Reliance ADA group comprises Reliance Capital Limited, Reliance Communications Limited, Reliance Energy Limited, Reliance Health, Reliance Entertainment and Reliance Power.

Reliance Entertainment comprises of seven entities: Zapak (casual gaming portal), Big Adda (social networking site), recently in the news for Actor Amitabh Bachchan's blog, Big Flicks (Movie streaming and rental), Jump Games (Mobile gaming), Anirights (Animation), BIG Music, and BIG Movies.

The Reliance – Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group is among India’s top three private sector business houses on all major financial parameters, with a market capitalisation of Rs.325,000 crores (US$ 81 billion), net assets in excess of Rs.115,000 crores (US$ 29 billion), and net worth to the tune of Rs.55,000 crores (US$ 14 billion), according to the group.