From B-grade to Big league via Bruce Willis

Amritraj, whose years as part of the tennis circuit have given him the name of his new eight-month-old company, Hyde Park Entertainment (which he’s formed with David Hoberman, former president of Disney), is really excited about two other projects he’s working on for next year. Anti-Trust, directed by Peter Howitt of Sliding Doors, is an update on Wall Street. Only it’s set in the world of information technology and casts Tim Robbins as a “Bill Gates kind of guy,” the hot, hot Ryan Phillipe and Claire (Meet Joe Black) Forlani. There’s also Pretty Ugly, which “I’m working on with Disney”.

The 44-year-old who is in Chennai on one of his customary three visits a year has a production deal with MGM and Disney, though Battlefield Earth and Get Carter will be distributed by Warner Bros. “What it basically means is that the big studios share half my financial cost and we split the rights,” he says.

So how did he make the transition from popcorn fodder to the A-list? Amritraj says it had to happen: “The rest of the world has started following America much quicker than it used to. You can no longer make a movie for $5 million and spend $20 million marketing it. It has to be a big product which means a big star.”

He’s not so gung ho about making desi films out of India, though. He’s proud of Jeans which did “terrific business in the South and not too good in the North” but thinks it’s too much of a hassle working out of here. “It’s just so disorganised. If there were five of me I’d have loved to do television and movies here.” What he’d really like to do is a remake of an “old classic” (he won’t say which one) starring either Sean Connery or Mel Gibson to be shot in India. “There’s a great Indian part there as a co-lead and it will be a big film at about $50-60 million,” he says, anticipating none of the trouble for Deepa Mehta’s Water. “It’s not controversial,” he says.

Though he does watch Hindi films once in a while (his wife Chitra is a keen follower) he can’t remember a single one. And yes, he’s proud to be an Indian like Night Shyamalan and Shekhar Kapur, who’s “opened a door in a different way”. For, as he says, Hollywood is one industry where filmmaking cannot be a hobby. “You have to do your homework, pay your dues and spend a lot of time. It’s a tough world out there.”