India's UTV ties up with Will Smith, Sony in co-production deal Mon Aug 21, 8:48 AM ET



MUMBAI (AFP) - Leading Indian entertainment company UTV has said it has tied up with Hollywood star Will Smith's Overbrook Entertainment and Sony Pictures to produce two movies for 30 million dollars.


Overbrook and UTV will jointly produce the movies while Sony will distribute them worldwide, said UTV chief executive officer Ronnie Screwvala on Monday.

"This deal will see UTV expand its presence globally," Screwvala said.

The move comes after Smith's exploratory visit to Mumbai in February this year when he met leading Bollywood stars and production houses.

Smith was then quoted as saying: "I would love to work with Bollywood queen Aishwarya Rai and feel a marriage between Bollywood and Hollywood is required."

Exact details of the movies were unavailable, though one would be live-action and the other an animated film.

"I have always been fascinated with India and its motion picture industry," the "Men in Black" star said in an interview with Mumbai newspaper DNA.

UTV's group company UTV Motion Pictures runs a specialised children's channel Hungama TV and produced the blockbuster movie "Rang De Basanti" (Colour Me Saffron), which has garnered 1.25 billion rupees (27 million dollars) at the box office to date.