UTV readies "Rang" redux for the West Print E-mail
Written by Ali Jaafar   
Monday, 04 June 2007
Story Categories: Awards, Bollywood, Festivals, Film, India, Mira Nair, People,

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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