Akshay Kumar set for a date with Salma Ha

MUMBAI: Akshay Kumar may soon be the envy of many Indian stars. There is a dual reason for this. One, he is ready to enter Hollywood and his co-star is in all likelihood will be Salma Hayek. Akshay will achieve this feat due to a $100-million deal between Carving Dreams Entertainment, (CDE) an Indian talent agency and entertainment company, and Hollywood Studios International (HSI), a Los Angeles based entertainment company.

This is the first significant deal an Indian company has signed with a Hollywood studio. The deal will provide Indian stars a toehold in the US. Each of the five films will be simultaneously shot in English and Hindi and mark the Hollywood debut for many stars from Indian cinema.

All the films, currently being developed, will be shot in India, the Middle East and Europe. Each film will have its own finance model. The first film for which the script is ready is budgeted around $25-30 million, including a 10-15% marketing budget. Bunty Bahl, director, CDE, says he is looking at a 1,500 plus print run to be released across India and foreign markets.

Adds Saxton, "For an Independent production house, where low budgets average from $10-15 million and go up to 30 million, this is a significant investment." HSI will also be adding Hollywood stars, having its writers re-write scripts for international audiences. "It has an appeal similar to that of 'The Italian Job', which did very well internationally," says Saxton.

The deal is a 50:50 JV. "Everything will be shared equally, including Intellectual Property across the five films deal," said Bhal. The films will be completed over the next 24-36 months and the first film is likely to be completed by early 2009.

Bahl, who set up CDE along with Afsar Zaidi, has been associated with the film industry for almost four decades across a broad spectrum of roles including that of child artiste, film actor, assistant director and producer of television serials and ad films.

For the last two years, business at CDE was focused on artist representation (with stars like Kajol and Ajay Devgan, Hrithik Roshan, Bipasha Basu and Irrfan Khan) entertainment consulting and marketing. The film production foray had been awaiting a strategic partner.