Trinity Pictures, the film production arm of India’s distribution giant Eros International, has struck a deal to co-produce two franchise movies with Chinese partners. Both films will shoot in the two countries and be made in dual language versions.
With China’s Peacock Mountain Culture & Media and state-owned Huaxia Film Distribution, Trinity will produce Kabir Khan’s travel drama, “The Zookeeper” and Siddharth Anand’s, “Love in Beijing.” Han Sanping, former head of China Film Group, is set as the pair’s creative producer.
"The Zookeeper” is a human drama that, tells of the journey of an Indian zoo keeper who travels China to find a panda to return to India with, in order to save his zoo. The budget is set at $25 million. The cast will include a leading Indian star and a top Chinese actress. A significant portion of the shoot will be in Chengdu.
Anand’s cross-cultural romantic comedy, “Love in Beijing,” about an Indian girl who falls in love with a Chinese man, will feature an A-list Indian actress and a leading Chinese male actor. The production budget is $15 million. Both films are set for delivery in the 2018 fiscal year.
"The original stories were developed by the Trinity Pictures Writers’ Room, creative teams from both Trinity Pictures and the Chinese film companies worked closely on the scripts to create storylines that blend Sino-Indian culture,” Trinity said in a statement.
The deals are in addition to the Chinese agreements Trinity struck last year. Last year, Eros International signed memorandums with leading Chinese state owned film companies, China Film Group Corp, Shanghai Film Group and Fudan University for the exploitation of intellectual property rights as well as to develop, co-produce and distribute Indo-China films across all platforms in both countries.
"With Trinity, we also want to tell stories that transcend the language barrier and have mainstream appeal. We believe our Indo-China co-productions will be game-changing as we pave the way to open up one of the largest film markets in the world,” said Jyote Deshpande, CEO of Eros International.
"Getting the right and the organic story was one of the most important aspect for both the teams from beginning. Hope the movie shapes up to be a true co-production,” said Allen Liu, partner, Peacock Mountain, in a statement.