Neeraj Pandey & Reliance Entertainment join hands

Neeraj Pandey and Anil Ambani join hands, first film to roll is Akshay Kumar's Rustom.

Neeraj Pandey and Anil Ambani's Reliance Entertainment have formed a strategic alliance to launch a studio, Plan C. It will be a 50:50 joint venture to produce movies.

Confirming the development, Pandey said, "Reliance will financially back our development. The discussion has been on since the last three months, we signed the memorandum of understanding (MoU) last week."

This is one of the major tieups Bollywood has seen in the recent times. Neeraj Pandey has received appreciation and acclaim for his three directorials, A Wednesday, Special 26 and Baby. He is also an accomplished writer. The movie rights of his debut novel, Ghalib Danger, has already been sold and will roll next year with an ensemble cast. Neeraj is currently busy with the Dhoni biopic, M S Dhoni -The Untold Story.

Why call the studio Plan C? Neeraj, in his usual witty style quips, "C stands for Cinema and the plan for all the grand designs that we have to make and present cinema."

There are also plans for a Baby sequel. "But after Dhoni I will direct a love story which will roll in June-July. After that it's Baby - 2 and Ghalib Danger," the writerdirector disclosed.

Plan C Studios will get into action with the Akshay Kumar period-drama, Rustom, directed by Tinu Suresh Desai. Other projects include Ghalib Danger and films helmed by Shivam Nair, Chandra Prakash Dwivedi, Anurag Singh, Anvita Dutt and Shree Narayan Singh.

"The combination will benefit from the creative and production strength of our company and leverage the global marketing and distribution capabilities of Reliance Entertainment," says Neeraj's partner, Shital Bhatia.

Reliance Entertainment has partnered since 2009 with iconic producer-director, Steven Spielberg, in the formation of DreamWorks Studios. This relationship has produced several highly successful films like The Help, War Horse, Lincoln, The Hundred Foot Journey and most recently, Bridge of Spies, nominated for six Oscars, including Best Film. In December 2015, Reliance Entertainment, DreamWorks Studios, Participant Media and Entertainment One formed Amblin Partners, a new film, television and digital content creation company.