India gets star role in Hollywood deal

Indian billionaire Anil Ambani, the world’s sixth richest man, has taken advantage of the effects of the US credit squeeze in Hollywood – where producers are struggling to raise finance for even commercially-minded movies – to sink $1bn into American production companies owned by A-list stars such as Tom Hanks and George Clooney (pictured). At Cannes yesterday, Ambani revealed that Reliance Big Entertainment, part of his £50bn Indian conglomerate, will invest in the development funds of eight production companies, owned by actors including Nicolas Cage, Jim Carrey and Brad Pitt as well as Hanks and Clooney.

The investment in Hollywood will offer the stars a foothold in India. But Rajesh Shawney, president of Reliance, insisted that the movies would not in any sense have an Indian flavour (it is well known that Cannes, and other European festivals, are sniffy about Bollywood movies). He said: "We want to make Hollywood movies that have a global audience. I think Indian movies get stereotyped as all singing and dancing in the same way Hollywood gets stereotyped for sex and violence. We are looking for good content regardless of genre."

The agreement was signed as Michael Douglas prepares to shoot what is believed to be the first American co-production filmed in India. Racing the Monsoon, a sequel to Romancing the Stone, will be about a diamond robbery in India, and will also star his wife, Catherine Zeta-Jones, and Matt Damon.