US studio picks up Indian-American brother-sister team's romantic comedy

Alchemy, an American movie studio, has acquired all North American rights to a new true-life romantic comedy "Meet the Patels" from an Indian-American brother-sister team in the US.

Directed by the sibling team of Geeta V. Patel and Ravi V. Patel and produced by Janet Eckholm and Geeta V. Patel, "Meet the Patels" will receive a theatrical release in the US later this year.

It "is a hilarious and universal story about family, cultural identity and the search for love," said Alchemy CEO Bill Lee announcing the acquisition of rights in Los Angeles Wednesday

"We're thrilled to collaborate with the Patel family to help this gem cross over to the wide audience it deserves. It's a true crowd pleaser, and we expect tremendous word of mouth."

"Festival screenings had been selling out with lines around the block, and we couldn't keep up with the demand," added Geeta and Ravi Patel.

"Thanks to UTA and Alchemy, "Meet the Patels" will hit theatres across the country this year. This is going to be fun!"

"Meet the Patels" premiered at the Los Angeles Film Festival where it won the Audience Award and went on to win that same award at Hot Docs and Michael Moore's Traverse City Film Festival where it also won the Best Film Award.

The laugh out loud, true-life romantic comedy centres on the romantically inexperienced, first generation Indian-American Ravi Patel, who's suddenly thrown into the deep end of the dating pool when he reluctantly consents to letting his parents find him a soulmate through traditional cultural means.

The acquisition follows the recent rebrand of Millennium Entertainment as Alchemy, a name that embodies the company's goals of uniting storytellers and their audiences in one dynamic community.

Independent Television Service (ITVS) co-produced and co-financed the project. ITVS is known for supporting films that enrich the cultural landscape with the voices and visions in communities seldom heard through mainstream media.

Additional funding for the film was provided by Impact Partners, Centre for Asian American Media, Tribeca Film Institute, Whitewater Films, Hartley Film Foundation and Chicken & Egg Pictures.

(Arun Kumar can be contacted at arun.kumar@ians.in)