Reliance BIG inks deal with Hollywood filmmakers

Los Angeles, Dec 2: Reliance BIG Entertainment, the media and entertainment arm of the Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group, has signed a development-production financing deal with Hollywood filmmakers Brian Grazer and Ron Howard's Imagine Entertainment.

Their first project, titled "Mofos", will be a comedy revolving round a group of youngsters who are unemployed, strapped for cash, down on their luck and decide to start a business as Los Angeles' most unlikely male escorts.

"Ron and I are very pleased to have signed this deal with our friends at Reliance," said Grazer.

"With their huge expertise in one of the most exciting film industries in the world, they bring a wholly different global perspective to our Hollywood-based industry and we welcome the extra independence their financing will give us," he added.

Titled Creative Partnerships, the deal was brokered by Creative Artists Agency, a prominent entertainment and sports agency headquartered in Los Angeles.

"Brian Grazer and Ron Howard have forged Imagine as a major powerhouse in Hollywood and I'm delighted to have been able to close this deal," said Reliance BIG Entertainment chairman Amit Khanna in a statement.

"We are now looking forward to moving into the filmmaking stage on several projects. These creative partnerships will lead to Reliance's co-financing with the US studios where existing first-look deals are in place," he added.