After Anil Ambani and Ronnie Screwvala, now it’s Yash Chopra making his Hollywood debut. The four-decade-old Yash Raj Films will produce and finance the Nicole Kidman-starrer Grace of Monaco.
The studio will partner with Pierre-Ange Le Pogam for the venture. The movie tells the story of the efforts of the late Princess Grace of Monaco, former Grace Kelly (played by Kidman), to make peace between her adopted country and France. The film will be directed by Olivier Dahan and its production work will begin this autumn in Southern France.
“Grace of Monaco is a movie that has the perfect blend of talent and sensibility that YRF Entertainment is proud to be a part of. We look forward to a great partnership with Olivier and Pierre-Ange,” YRF Entertainment CEO Uday Chopra said.
YRF Entertainment, a Beverly Hills-based production and financing company, is a subsidiary of Indian studio YRF that is to develop, finance, and produce English language films for the US and global market.
At present, the company is overseeing the post-production work of Peter Glanz’s upcoming comic feature, The Longest Week, starring Jason Bateman and Olivia Wilde, and has a slate of films in development.
A few years ago, YRF had changed its strategy and decided to go for lower budgets, a youth focus and long-term actor contracts, like a corporate entity.
YRF’s entry into foreign films comes even as Anil Ambani’s Reliance Big Entertainment still awaits its Hollywood gamble to pay off.
Earlier, UTV Motion Pictures had tied up with Hollywood studio Fox Searchlight to co-produce Mira Nair’s Namesake for $9 million. Also, Reliance had made its big-bang Hollywood entry by buying out Steven Speilberg’s Dreamwork Studios for $325 million.
Meanwhile, parent banner Yash Raj Films — whose creative head is Yash Chopra’s elder son Aditya — will continue to produce mainstream Bollywood films. At present, it has in its pipeline movies like Ek tha Tiger, starring Salman Khan; Dhoom 3 with Aamir Khan; and an untitled project starring Shah Rukh Khan and Katrina Kaif that will be directed by Yash Chopra.
