Hyde Park Entertainment Launches Division for Indian and Asian Filmmakers

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Los Angeles-based Hyde Park Entertainment, which is headed by Ashok Amritraj, is opening a new division Hyde Park Entertainment Asia, bsed in Chennai, to film and TV projects from Indian and Asian filmmakers.

The company, which also has offices in London, also said in a recent press release that it’s long-term film financing partnership with Image Nation Abu Dhabi will continue.

Among the new Asia Division’s initial slate – which focuses on Indian stories for English- and local-language audiences – is an animated feature from Bend It Like Beckham director Gurinder Chadha, a comedy series in development with Paul Feig and a TV series from writer-director Nagesh Kukunoor.

It also includes Pashmina, an animated musical feature for Netflix, with Chadha on board to direct; Break The Room, an Indian-American half-hour comedy series in development with Paul Feig’s Diversity Initiative Powderkeg and ShivHans Pictures; Maximum City, a planned series of films about the Mumbai underworld, with Anurah Kashyap set to direct; and Paradise Towers, a drama series with Zoya Akhtar directing from scripts based on the Shweta Bachchan Nanda novel.

Also on the slate are The Conch Bearer, a YA fantasy series based on the books by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni, and Deb, an eight-part thriller series rooted in Indian mythology from writer-director Nagesh Kukunoor, whose Dhank was a prize-winner at the Berlin film festival.

“Now more than ever the Hollywood dream needs to be multicultural and all inclusive,” Amritraj is quoted saying in the press release. “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,” he added.

The Hyde Park Entertainment Group is one of the leading independent entertainment companies in Hollywood today, its website says. An internationally renowned award-winning producer, Amritraj has made over 100 films during the span of his 35-year career, with worldwide revenues in excess of $2 billion, according to his biography.

Having partnered with virtually every major studio in Hollywood, Amritraj, a Wimbledon tennis player in his former life, has produced films starring top film actors including Bruce Willis, Sandra Bullock, Sylvester Stallone, Angelina Jolie, Cate Blanchett, Dustin Hoffman, Andrew Garfield, Steve Martin, Antonio Banderas, Robert De Niro, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, Jennifer Aniston, Nicolas Cage, and many more.

Amritraj’s career from Wimbledon tennis player to billion dollar Hollywood producer (chronicled in his autobiography Advantage Hollywood) also includes being a United Nations India Goodwill Ambassador for 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals, an engagment he continues, according to the website. He dedicating a significant amount of his time to philanthropic endeavors worldwide.

Among his box office hits is Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance; Bringing Down The House; Premonition; Walking Tall, Blue Valentine, and Shopgirl.

Amritraj serves on the Producers Executive Board of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and on the advisory board for the Dodge Film School at Chapman University.