Ticket to Hollywood (Outsourcing to India)

[OhioChick]

June 29, 2008

The fast-globalising Hindi film industry’s forays are no different from India Inc’s efforts to secure a place in the global sun. Anil Ambani’s impending deal to bankroll Steven Spielberg’s Dream Works SKG, thus, is similar to Tata Motors snapping up the iconic British car brands of Jaguar and Land Rover. Just as Bollywood has found a growing appeal for its films globally, it has attracted megabucks from Hollywood. Walt Disney’s controlling stake in UTV Software Communications Ltd, thus, is also akin to Daiichi Sankyo taking over the promoter’s stake in Ranbaxy Laboratories Ltd.

Ambani’s efforts to secure a foothold in Hollywood so far include only financing possibilities. At the recent Cannes Film Festival, he made waves with plans to provide development funding to production houses owned by Jim Carrey, George Clooney, Tom Hanks, Brad Pitt and Nicolas Cage. Here again, Hollywood is no different from Wall Street in its need for outside money, thanks to the US subprime crisis. The studios are having more luck with Ambani while West Asian sovereign wealth funds have obliged troubled firms like Citigroup.

The big question is how far will Ambani go? Throughout its history, Hollywood has always secured funding from outside but has never ceded control over creativity. He joins a long list of billionaires including Howard Hughes, commodity speculator Marc Rich, Australian media tycoon Kerry Packer, Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, among others. During the 1980s, Japanese investors took over studios like Columbia and MCA-Universal, followed in the 1990s by the Germans. The money trail is again shifting towards Asia.

The temptation, of course, is to get besotted by the glamour as most others did. But Ambani has ambitions to be a strategic partner of Dream Works SKG to make half-a-dozen films a year. The tie-ups with other Hollywood production houses could also yield up to 30 scripts, at least 10 of which will be green-lighted to go into production. Besides securing the rights for these films in India, Ambani also intends to expand in the US and has acquired more than 200 theatres. The issue is how long can he last in Hollywood that has only required capital but with no interference on creativity.

http://www.hindustantimes.com/StoryPage/StoryPage.aspx?id=1da5df4b-54fd-44d5-ba72-a307b5576e2f&MatchID1=4745&TeamID1=4&TeamID2=1&MatchType1=2&SeriesID1=1196&PrimaryID=4745&Headline=Ticket+to+Hollywood

Snip~A high point of sorts of India’s growing stature as a preferred outsourcing location for animation was the making of The Chronicles of Narnia that incorporated the creativity of 50 Indians. This same firm has also been responsible for special effects for The Incredible Hulk. Around 30 per cent of work for this film was done here. Economics clearly is the driver of this process: when the cost of producing a half-an-hour animated programme in the US is $2,50,000 to $4,00,000 when compared to $60,000 here, the differentials are attractive enough for Hollywood to head to India.Walt Disney Pictures, Time Warner’s Cartoon Network Enterprises and Sony Pictures Entertainment have begun outsourcing work to India’s inexpensive but top quality computer programmers and animators or set up local operations. Co-production agreements are steadily on the rise. Walt Disney has partnered with an Indian studio, Yashraj Films, to make an animated film Roadside Romeo. Sony made its own debut in 2007 when it released Saawariya, Hollywood’s first made-for-India film.