Indian billionaire industrialist Anil Ambani has joined up with the family of Amitabh Bachchan, the Bollywood actor, to set up a joint venture to make films. The tie-up between Mr Ambani's Reliance Big Entertainment and Bollywood's "first family" comes days after it emerged that the billionaire's group was in talks about a film-making joint venture with Steven Spielberg, the Hollywood director. "This is in line with our strategy to tie up with the leading Indian and international creative talent, which we believe will help our company build a new-age, future-ready global media and entertainment company," said Rajesh Sawhney, president of Reliance Big Entertainment. Mr Ambani's foray into the domestic and global media and entertainment industry through Reliance Big is the first serious attempt by one of India's largest industrial conglomerates to penetrate the sector. This year, Reliance Big made its first splash, announcing in Cannes that it had signed deals with the production firms of Hollywood stars Nicolas Cage, Jim Carrey, George Clooney, Tom Hanks and Brad Pitt and film-makers Chris Columbus and Jay Roach to make films generating revenue of up to $1bn. ... read more »