The Bollywood Jack Warner
By Behind The Scenes TV on Dec 5, 2007 in Hollywood, International Cinema, Producers
Ronnie Screwvala is the front runner in the race to become Bollywood’s Jack Warner—the man who transformed parochial American cinema into its modern global form. Yet Screwvala is rarely picked out of a crowd in India, let alone in the United States. Still, Hollywood insiders know him well for producing the “The Namesake,” the groundbreaking hit about Indian immigrants, and for coproducing a Chris Rock comedy (”I Think I Love My Wife”).
Now he’s coproducing “The Happening,” a sci-fi thriller coming out in June starring Mark Wahlberg and directed by M. Night Shyamalan (”The Sixth Sense”) that could vault him into the big leagues. With a budget of $57 million, it will cost as much as 10 Indian blockbusters, setting a new bar for Bollywood. “Our ambition is to be a global Indian entertainment company,” Screwvala says. “There’s no reason we can’t make big-budget Hollywood movies too.”
(Source: Newsweek)
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