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Reliance Big Entertainment, the media and entertainment arm of the Anil Dhirubhai Ambani group is set to spend $1 billion on Indian films. The media group announced on Friday, May 16, 2008 that it would produce, distribute and co-produce 69 films in nine different languages over the next two years. The company made the announcement at the ongoing Cannes Film Festival 2008 in France.
Amit Khanna, chairman of Reliance Big Entertainment revealed that the company has signed several deals with film makers, which includes a two film deal with Shyam Benegal, four film deal with Madhur Bhandarkar, two film contract with Vidhu Vinod Chopra, six film contract with Excel Entertainment promoted by Farhan Akhtar and Ritesh Sidhwani, two film contract with Sudhir Mishra and three film agreement with Vivek Agnihotri.
The company this year has also entered the US exhibition market and has strengthened its film exhibition across India, Mauritius and Malaysia. Mr. Khanna also revealed at the Cannes Film festival that the Reliance ADAG group currently owns 106 operating cinema screens, which is likely to go upto 400 by the end of 2009. The Indian entertainment industry is a $4billion industry. Mr. Khanna remarked that their $1 billion spend is bigger than the cumulative investments of all other Indian players put together in this space.
