Reliance partners Bollywood's Top Film Family

In India there is no greater or more popular actor than Amitabh Bachan (know simly as Big B) and he heads a family that includes his successful-in-his-own-right son Abhishek and his daughter-in-law Aishwarya Rai (Miss Universe 1994), as well as wife Jaya. We learn today that Reliance BIG Entertainment has struck a major deal with them. From THR.com:

Reliance Big Entertainment, the film arm of the Indian conglomerate courting Steven Spielberg and other top Hollywood names, strengthened its Bollywood roots Wednesday by forming a pact with India's "first family" of filmmaking. RBE, a division of Reliance ADA, will launch a production entity with Amitabh Bachchan and his family of actors to produce films and television content, president Rajesh Sawhney saidtold The Hollywood Reporter. "If we want to engage globally, we have to engage with Hollywood. And that means engaging with talent," Sawhney said.

And

The new unnamed RBE-Bachchan entity will see RBE handle finance, marketing, distribution and other management issues while "the Bachchans will focus on creative aspects," Sawhney said. Without providing investment figures, he termed the agreement "long-term and open-ended." The Times of India speculated that the deal could be worth about $300 million, but Sawhney dismissed the figure as "baseless," adding that the investments "really depend on the nature of projects, which are still to be finalized."

So it is Big B meets BIG Entertainment. Quite the suitable match really. Big B writes about it on his own blog:

Because of the announcement of the Reliance Entertainment and our tie up, there was media bombardment from all sections. The phone was filled with queries and requests for answers and talk ins and bites from the electronic community. They are all friends and i consider it common courtesy to respond to them even if I am completely unable to comply with their requests.

Though for all things Bachan, log on to TheBachans.com

Being back in London briefly after Cinema Expo, I was amazed by how many people had read about the Reliance-Spielberg-DreamWorks discussions. It really has put India and Reliance on the world map.

Future of cinema advertising in Cannes

For the fourth year in a row I had the fun and pleasure of moderating the SAWA (Screen Advertising World Association) seminar at the Cannel Lions Festival on advertising, this year called 'Cinema - the Medium where all ideal look big.'

This year we looked at interactive advertising, courtesy of the interactive 'human joystick' game created by Brand Experience Lab. We also looked at 3D advertising in cinemas, including Red Bull from UK and Superbock and Vodafone from Portugal.

All-in-all 470 people attended the session and we had to turn away some 150 unhappy late comers. Once again it was the single most well attended event of the Cannes Lions.



As an extra personal thrill for me the most prestigious award that evening went to an Indian agency in the Direct Marketing category:

The Direct Lions Grand Prix was awarded to JWT India, Mumbai, for the Times of India Newspaper entry 'Lead India'. Seven gold, 13 silver and 17 bronze trophies were given from a total of 1697 entries of which 183 were shortlisted.

We celebrated well into the evening, but still made it up for the meeting of the SAWA Digital Sub Committee (DSC) the following morning to tackle the many challenges digital screen advertising faces in being part of the DCI future.

Trades' view of Ambani-Spielberg / Reliance-Dreamworks

The trades follow the scoop by WSJ that there are serious discussions underway for Anil Ambani's Reliance BIG Entertainment financing Steven Spileberg's break-away of Dreamworks from Paramount. THR.com notes:

Indian business group Reliance is considering a plan to invest $550 million in return for a 50% stake in a new version of DreamWorks, which Steven Spielberg would create after exiting his deal with Paramount.

The Mumbai-based conglomerate was approached as a potential DreamWorks investor by CAA and likely will take at least two more weeks to mull the proposition. Hired by DreamWorks chairman David Geffen, entertainment attorney Skip Brittenham has created a detailed business plan that would give Reliance a key role in the new DreamWorks but grant Spielberg extensive creative control of the reinvented studio.

Details including $500 million or so in accompanying bank debt could take the rest of the summer to sort out, and even the issue of ownership control remains fuzzy. Spielberg has been on the hunt for equity and other financing for several weeks or more. The interest from Reliance was first reported on the Wall Street Journal's Web site.

It is no small irony that the same issue of THR has an article called 'Global media gains will be built by BRIC', which observes that 'Growth in the roaring economies of Brazil, Russia, India and China -- the so-called BRIC nations -- will outpace the more mature markets of the U.S. and Western Europe, with PwC forecasting 13.6% average annual growth in BRIC compared with just 4.8% annual growth in the U.S. media industry and 5.4% in Western Europe.' It is just that the PWC report had not anticipated one of the Indian growth engines to set up a virtual studio in Hollywood.

Meanwhile Variety goes into more detail about the implications of this possible deal:

The emergence of Reliance as DreamWorks' principal new financier marks the latest and most dramatic example of talent -- and their agents -- aligning with outsiders and using other people's money.

Beyond emerging as DreamWorks' principal new financier, the Indian company closed development deals with seven Hollywood heavyweights.

At Cannes last month, Reliance trumpeted deals with seven production companies headed by high-profile thesps (Daily Variety, May 19) and this week pacted to pay each company at least $1.2 million-$2 million to develop projects.

More than one option

• (Co) Daily Variety
  Filmography, Year, Role
• (Co) Daily Variety

And

Reliance's deals with Cage, Carrey, Clooney, Columbus, Hanks, Pitt and Roach will potentially give that talent the opportunity to fashion a finished script that can be shopped to studios along with 50% of the film's financing. That will allow the talent to make the most favorable deal possible, because if a studio doesn't want to pay a star or director's usual gross deal, the package can be shopped to another studio.

While CAA is steering Reliance at a deliberately measured pace, the Indian conglom likely sees the arrangement as getting its foot in the door. Reliance may well finance the films itself and make a distribution deal with a studio.

A very exciting time to be working in India, that's for sure.

Is Anil Ambani the new backer of Spielberg?

Could Steven Spielberg and Dreamworks turn out to be the trump cards in the Ambani/Reliance/Adlabs ambition to expand in Hollywood? It would seem so, based on this report by Bloomberg and WSJ:

June 18 (Bloomberg) -- Steven Spielberg and Indian billionaire Anil Ambani are close to forming a venture that may help the movie director's DreamWorks SKG team exit from Viacom Inc.'s Paramount Pictures, the Wall Street Journal reported.

The Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group will invest as much as $600 million in the studio, the Journal said, citing people familiar with the matter. The venture may borrow another $500 million to finance about six films a year, the Journal said. Reliance and Viacom declined to comment and spokesmen at DreamWorks were unavailable.

As of now it is still only a rumour, though an interesting one.

First photo from our Mastering Theatre

This 3D article makes me sound sooo gay

While I am busy preparing the 2K Keynote for this weeks Cinema India Expo, digital 3D intrudes in the form of AccessIT's latest announcement and an article that quotes me about the prospects of 3D for India's digital cinema. AccessIT first.

Almost a year ago at IBC I met with representatives of International Datacasting Corp. and Sensio, showcasing a product for Live 3D, whose USP was that it could be sent down a single HDTV channel. I knew that they had a winner on their hands, so it is no surprise that their technology will be implemented by AccessIT in their digital cinema network. from the press release:

Access Integrated Technologies, Inc. ("AccessIT") (NASDAQ:AIXD) announced today, its plans for the installation of 150 of its leading edge CineLiveSM product in key markets throughout the United States. The technology, which enables the live broadcast to movie theatres of both 2-D and 3-D events such as sports and concerts, will be added to those theaters that are part of AccessIT’s satellite network, all of which are part of the company’s completed 3700 plus screen Phase 1 digital cinema deployment plan. Installations of CineLive will begin immediately in 50 sites and are anticipated to expand to at least 150 by the end of 2008.

The releases will be handled by AIX's alternative content division the Bigger Picture. Carolyn Giardina's take in THR.com is that, "The move underscores a growing interest in this alternative content possibility," and that , "Deployment is set to begin immediately on the first 50 CineLive systems, which will include installation in key markets including New York, Los Angeles and Chicago. Access IT expects to have at least 150 in place by year's end."

The news brought a smidgen of cheer to AIX's share price, which came dangerously close to touching $2.00 last week, before climbing up to $2.37 in current trading.

Meanwhile 3D fever is spreading to India as well, ahead of talks about it in this week's Cinema India Expo 2008, where I will be presenting a Keynote on 2K Digital Cinema in India. DNA ran a story headlined 'Cricket cheerleaders in 3D? Possible…' that actually pre-empted the AIX announcement. (For those who wonder what 'Cricket cheerleaders' look like, they are American Football cheerleaders flown in for the IPL tournament):

Multiplexes are gearing up for their next leg of digitisation that may see 5,000 3D digital projections being installed by 2009. This means by next year, live-action screenings in multiplexes like IPL matches will promise an altogether new experience for viewers — by taking them as close to the action as is virtually possible.

This will also mean that those live-actions screenings that are hugely popular overseas, such as the U2 Live Latin American concert, may now also enter Indian multiplexes.

Currently, there's only one theatre in the country — Satyam Cinemas in Chennai — that has a 3D cinema or stereoscopic digital cinema projection in place. But by next year, most premier digital cinema chains like Adlabs and PVR will have 3D digital projections installed. Both the companies are currently in talks with digital cinema infrastructure providers like Real Image Technologies for 3D cinema systems.

I got interviewed for the article and got quoted towards the end about the prospects for 3D film productions in India:

No major 3D productions have been announced from India yet. However, Patrick von Sychowski, COO, Adlabs Digital Cinemas, says within the next 1-2 years "there should be some announcements on that front."

When asked if Reliance Big Entertainment has any plans to produce 3D feature films, Sychowski said, "Reliance has been the front-runner in a number of initiatives, so you never know."

Adlabs is part of Reliance ADAG, which acquired Hollywood-based DTS Digital Images, a company that industry observers say will help Reliance Big Entertainment supply technology solutions to the rapidly growing 3D content market.

Then comes the bit where the writer took some creative freedoms in interpreting my comments:

Sychowski said live action 3D films were "about a year or two" away for India and digital animation possibilities in 3D, seem more likely to be exploited. "Shooting in 3D requires two cameras held in close proximity, therefore making it more difficult to shoot SRK's six pack."

I had said that it was more difficult to "shoot Shahrukh Khan" but nothing about his six pack. Seriously. If that had been on my mind it would have been something about the ample charms of Preity Zinta, Bebo or, hell, even Rakhi Savant for that matter.

But I do think that 3D film making will have a considerable impact in India very soon. More about that and 2K at Cinema India Expo. I will post an update after the conference.