India's Reliance ADAG to make Hollywood movies with big stars

India's Mumbai-based Reliance ADA Group of Anil Ambani, net worth US$ 14 billion, is trying to do in Hollywood what Tatas and Mittals did in the UK- taking over established businesses. Its Reliance Big Entertainment (RBEL) is planning to announce major Hollywood film projects, featuring major Hollywood stars such as Will Smith, George Clooney, Tom Cruise, Julia Roberts and Angelina Jolie. Yes, this will have nothing to do with Bollywood as the company has various outlets such as Adlabs, producing Indian films. Major Hollywood films, worth US$ 300 million, are likely to be announced during the 61st Cannes Film Festival, says a report on India EU Film Initiative site iefilmi.com, citing media reports.

The 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.

Reliance Big Entertainment

Recently, RBEL, which runs cinemas in India through its Adlabs subsidiary, entered the US market under the brand name ‘BIG’. The company has acquired more than 200 theatres across 28 locations in North America, including New York, New Jersey, Atlanta, Detroit, Chicago, San Jose, Los Angeles, Washington DC and Seattle.

These will be used to screen Bollywood and other regional language movies from India and movies from other Asian countries. It has also bought a US-based theatre management company to operate the US chain and has set up a distribution company to license rights, says the Economic Times of India.