Anurag Kashyap, Zoya Akhtar, Imtiaz Ali and Nagesh Kukunoor will helm films and series for Indian-origin producer Ashok Amritraj’s new company Hyde Park Entertainment Asia, a Deadline report said. Kashyap will steer a set of films based on Maximum City, Suketu Mehta’s acclaimed 2004 non-fiction study of Mumbai. Zoya Akhtar will be in charge of the series Paradise Towers, based on Shweta Bachchan Nanda’s recently published novel, the report added.
Hyde Park Entertainment Asia, which will have an office in Chennai, will also produce an animated musical based on Nidhi Chanani’s graphic novel Pashmina. Gurinder Chadha will direct the film, the report said.
Imtiaz Ali will direct the pilot episode of and be the showrunner for The Conch Bearer, based on Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni’s 2003 young adult fantasy novel of the same name. Nagesh Kukunoor will direct Deb, an eight-part series that will be a “modern-day, edge-of-your-seat thriller rooted in ancient Indian mythology,” according to the publicity handout.
American director Paul Feig is also developing a 30-minute comedy series about Indian-Americans titled Break with Room with Paul Feig.
Hyde Park will “invest strongly in the projects with production budgets for the series averaging at around $1.5 million per episode, and the features starting in the $5-7 million range”, according to Variety.
A former tennis player and the brother of Vijay Amritraj, Ashok Amritraj has been producing films in Hollywood since the 1980s. His credits include Double Impact, Bringing Down the House, Get Carter, Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance, Original Sin, Machete and 99 Homes. “I look forward to collaborating with wonderful Indian and Asian talent long into the future to tell unique and authentic stories that reflect our global world,” Amritraj said in a statement.
