Bollywood joins hands with Hollywood

Leading production houses from Hollywood and the Indian film industry formed an alliance in Los Angeles yesterday to promote joint production and commercial cooperation.

Under the agreement, Hollywood and Bollywood would coordinate to strengthen production, distribution, technology and content protection. They’d facilitate the creation of a Los Angeles-India Film Council to encourage Indian film production in Los Angeles. A key objective will be to ensure Indian productions can benefit from the 20-25 per cent tax incentives Hollywood producers get in Los Angeles.

Rajiv Dalal, India head of the Motion Picture Association (MPA) said, “We look forward to continued commercial cooperation with the US film industry on joint investment and co-productions, which will increase economic development and job growth in both nations.” About 4.2 million people work in the film industries in the two countries.

“This declaration reinforces our city’s commitment to attracting international production. In the past year, we have already seen Hindi movies such as My Name Is Khan and Kites filmed in Los Angeles and we enthusiastically welcome further Indian production here,” said Antonio Villaraigosa, the city’s mayor.

The Indian delegation was led by producer Bobby Bedi and Tamil producer and Film Federation of India president, L Suresh, with other representatives from Reliance Big Entertainment and UTV Motion Pictures. The delegation is in Los Angeles for a two-day summit with the Hollywood studios, which include Universal Studios, Paramount Studios, Sony, Warner Brothers, Disney and Fox.

Some recent joint ventures and co-productions between individual Hollywood studios and Indian ones include Atithi Tum Kab Jaoge, Lahore, Jaane Kahan Se Aayi Hain, Khichdi, We Are Family and Do Dooni Chaar, all done this year, Raaz the Mystery Continues (2009), Roadside Romeo (2008) and Saawariya (2007). Upcoming joint ventures include titles like Zokkomon and Dum Maro Dum.

This is the second major step towards economic development and cooperation between Hollywood and the Indian film industry this year. In March, the two came together in Mumbai to launch the Alliance Against Copyright Theft, a Bollywood-Hollywood content protection coalition in India.