LONDON -- UTV, the Indian film and TV conglom topped by ambitious media
maven Ronnie Screwvalla, is set to release a new edit of its BAFTA
nominated "Rang de Basanti."
The
new cut will be 130 minutes, half an hour shorter from the first
version that helmer Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra delivered. New version will
preem June 7 at the International Indian Film Awards in Yorkshire,
England.
Pic will then be released theatrically in the U.K. during the summer and subsequently Stateside.
"Rang"
redux will be released with an English title, "The Color of Sacrifice,"
in an attempt to make it more commercial to Western auds.
Move is
latest in a string of initiatives launched by UTV to expand its profile
beyond that of a purely Indian film studio to an global player.
UTV
is listing its movie subsidiary on the London Stock Exchange's second
tier Alternative Investment Market. Screwvalla hopes to raise $75
million-$80 million in fresh equity.
Some $28 million of that sum
will go toward paying for UTV's co-productions with Fox, "The Namesake"
and "I Think I Love My Wife, as well as other completed pics such as
Shilpa Shetty starrer "Life in a Metro." The remaining coin will go
toward UTV's forthcoming slate, including M. Night Shyamalan's "The
Happening," set to start shooting in August.
"We're the only
studio model in India," said Screwvalla. "We're moving out of an Indian
profile and moving toward getting an international profile."
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