Anil Ambani meets Spielberg; to provide Rs 4,000 cr for films

Anil Ambani meets Spielberg; to provide Rs 4,000 cr for films

Anil Ambani meets Spielberg; to provide Rs 4,000 cr for films"
NEW YORK: In one of the largest deals in global cinema in recent years, Anil Ambani's Reliance Big Entertainment
and noted Hollywood filmmaker
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Steven Spielberg Wednesday announced $825-million funding for their Los Angeles-based production house Dreamworks Studios to make six films a year for the global audiences.

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.
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.

Spielberg said he was looking forward to films produced by Dreamworks as also to visit India soon to meet with filmmakers, scriptwriters and actors to see how they can all collaborate.

"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.