Bollywood takes over Hollywood?

Interesting report from The Hindu:

Anil Ambani plans a takeover of the Metro-Goldwyn-Meyer Hollywood studio in an attempt to become one of the world’s most powerful film bosses, the Daily Telegraph reported on Saturday.

When contacted, a spokesperson from the Anil Ambani Group declined to comment.

Anil Ambani already owns a controlling stake in Steven Spielberg’s DreamWorks studio and has struck a series of deals with stars including Brad Pitt, Jim Carrey, Julia Roberts and George Clooney to develop their films.

Anil Ambani-led Reliance Big Pictures produced two most successful films last year while its current blockbuster ‘The 3 Idiots’ has broken Indian box office records.

According to the report, he hopes to expand his influence with an ambitious bid for MGM, the Hollywood studio which owns the James Bond franchise.

Sources close to Ambani confirmed his interest in acquiring MGM and it would help him achieve his ambition to become the world’s most powerful film mogul, the report said.

It also happens that Anil Ambani's wife is a former Bollywood star, Tina Munim :)
Here is a clip from an old movie starring Munim:

Bootleggers, baptists, and Indian lobbying

Ever since I came across the metaphor of bootleggers and baptists (was that when I was in graduate school, I wonder!), I have been fascinated with how that shows up in so many political decisions. First, what is that metaphor? As summarized in wikipedia:

The bootleggers and the Baptists both have an incentive to limit the consumption of alcohol, the former with the economic reason and the latter with the ethical justification that people will support, though by their very nature the two groups wouldn't get along. The politician effectively acts as the go-between, taking the bootlegger's campaign contributions and citing the Baptist's morals in speeches.

Well, read for yourself the following excerpt from a news item related to lobbying by Indian companies:

As per the disclosure reports filed by lobbyist firms with the Senate and the House of Representatives, just four Indian entities — RIL, Nasscom, Sun Pharma and Orchid Chemicals — have together paid close to $2,75,000 (about Rs. 1.4 crore) during the first three months of 2009. Out of this, RIL has paid $1,90,000 to Barbour Griffith & Rogers (BGR) Holding, a high-profile lobbyist group that has many Fortune 500 firms and foreign governments as its clients, for providing “strategic counsel on issues related to trade.”

Incidentally, the U.S. Congress and the House of Representatives are currently considering new legislation to penalise, including a ban from doing business in the U.S., companies that supply petroleum products to Iran. RIL is on the hit-list.

I simply love the usage of "incidentally" in this news item :-)

As Shakespeare's Mark Antony said:

For Brutus is an honourable man;
So are they all, all honourable men