Viacom to support two Indian/Australian co-productions
Viacom 18 Motion Pictures has partnered with Film and Casting Temple to make two Australian/Indian co-productions.
The first has the working title Project 18, to be directed by Abhinav Kashyap and set to shoot primarily in Australia. The second will the a thriller directed by Australia’s Bill Bennett, which will shoot in India.
India’s Business of Cinema reported that the two companies have “joined hands to utilise Australian funding and grants as well as to invest in Indo-Australian projects”.
Although there have been negotiations supported by SPAA, there is currently no official co-production treaty between the two countries. Unless a treaty is signed before the projects go into production, these films would have to utilise either the Location Offset (Project 18) or the Producer Offset (Bill Bennett’s film).
Sydney-based Film and Casting Temple is a production, casting, and consultancy company that specialises in Indian/Australian works. It was founded by Anupam Sharma, who is also behind last week’s Australian Film Festival of India – which featured a retrospective of Bill Bennett film’s and counted with the presence in Mumbai of Paperback hero star Hugh Jackman.
Viacom 18 Media is a 50/50 joint venture operation in India between the American conglomerate Viacom (BET, MTV Networks and Paramount Pictures) and its Indian counterpart Network18 Group, (CNBC TV18, CNBC Awaaz, Newswire18, moneycontrol.com, CNN-IBN, IBN 7, Homeshop18 and E18).
