Moguls on the march

By Simon Watkins for The Mail on Sunday
Updated: 16:04 BST, 12 June 2007

?

They woke up with Bollywood hangovers on Sunday morning in Yorkshire. Sheffield hosted the International Indian Film 学院 awards - its 見解／翻訳／版 of the Oscars.

Along with 物陰／風下d, Bradford, 船体 and York, the city has been hosting the IIFA festival for the last four days and the arrival of Bollywood's glitterati is a result partly of the community links between the UK's northern cities and India, but also of its film 産業's growing ambition to 勃発する of the country and enter the mainstream.

Few realised at the time, but the 外見 of Shilpa Shetty in Channel 4's Celebrity Big Brother earlier this year now looks like 存在 symptomatic of something far bigger.

About £2bn is spent making films in Bollywood each year, a fraction of the world's £150bn film-making 予算, but its 影響（力） and that of the wider Indian マスコミ 産業 is 始める，決める to take a 抱擁する leap 今後.

This year will see a number of Indian マスコミ groups coming to the London 株式市場 and the result is likely to be cross-fertilisation, with UK マスコミ companies 的s of Indian 引き継ぎ／買収s and British 投資家s putting money into India 投機・賭けるs.

One 指名する that 刈るs up in any conversation about Indian マスコミ is Ronnie Screwvala, who runs UTV, which has 利益／興味s in films, television, 風刺漫画s and computer games. Screwvala is 生産者 of most of Shetty's films and is one of Bollywood's 主要な impresarios - though Bollywood is not a 称する，呼ぶ／期間／用語 he likes.

This is hardly surprising. To most foreigners Bollywood still conjures images of the romantic musicals and 宗教的な epics that have 支配するd India's filmmaking in the past.

But Screwvala, born and bred in the 財政上の 資本／首都 Mumbai, is very much a modern マスコミ (n)役員／(a)執行力のある, building his 商売／仕事 abroad by taking over UK and US 商売／仕事s and encouraging British 投資家s into India.

Later this month he will float UTV's film 商売／仕事 on London's 目的（とする） market. Valued at about £110m to £150m, the 客観的な is to raise cash for possible 取得／買収s.

'We will use the money to look at 合併 and 取得／買収 適切な時期s either in the UK or the US,' says Screwvala, whose offices are littered with awards and citations for his 出資／貢献 to India's film 産業.

Screwvala is also helping manage 投資s by another 投機・賭ける soon to join 目的（とする）, The India マスコミ 基金. 設立するd by Johnston 圧力（をかける） chairman Roger Parry, the 基金 目的（とする）s to raise up to £100m to 投資する in マスコミ 商売／仕事s in India.

Screwvala believes there is too much cash chasing マスコミ 利益／興味s in India, but says his 専門的知識 will help The India マスコミ 基金 make the 権利 決定／判定勝ち（する）s.

'We are one of the least 規制するd マスコミ 産業s in the world. We have 事実上 no 制限s on foreign 投資, foreigners can own 100% of a マスコミ 商売／仕事 here except news channels or newspapers, where foreign 投資 is capped at 26%. News is the only thing that is 極度の慎重さを要する.' Screwvala 追加するs: 'The 推論する／理由 there are no 制限s is that the 政府 has seen the growth in foreign money rising at 70% a year.' There are no crossmedia 所有権 制限s.

In cultural 条件 the 50-yearold mogul has already broken out of the Bollywood straitjacket.

Earlier this year, UTV 発表するd it was teaming up with Rupert Murdoch's Fox film 商売／仕事 to co-produce the next movie from Hollywood director M. Night Shyamalan.

Shyamalan, famous for the supernatural film The Sixth Sense starring Bruce Willis, was born in Pondicherry in South-East India but grew up in America.

Screwvala's fortune was made by the sale last year to Disney of Hungama, an Indian 青年 TV channel, for £15m.

未来 事業／計画（する）s 含む the 開始する，打ち上げる of a 範囲 of TV channels 含むing Bindaas (Indian 青年 slang meaning mad or carefree).

Bindaas is ーするつもりであるd to repeat the success with the lucrative teenage market that Hungama had with children.

But UTV also has 利益／興味s in computer games, buying up British group Ignition, which is developing a game for the next 世代 of PlayStation consoles called WarDevil. 'The 開発 予算 is £10m and it is all 存在 done at our Ealing stud io,' says Screwvala.

That is not the end of his London 関係, UTV's next film will be Goal, a tale of an underdog football team. Filmed おもに in Southall, west London, it 審査するd at Cannes last month. It is small wonder that many of India's マスコミ 長，指導者s are keen to 避ける the Bollywood tag.

Helped by the fact that English is the language of 商売／仕事 and much modern culture in India, it may 井戸／弁護士席 turn out that far from 存在 a specialist in quaint musicals, India's マスコミ 商売／仕事 may be one of the few that stands the remotest chance of matching the might of America.