Is Hollywood's 'Walk of Fame' Stepping Towards India?

For many decades the name Hollywood has been synonymous with film making and the home of the stars. The name, itself, is magical. One tends to conjure up thoughts of people bigger than life.

As the film industry begins to "tighten its belt" stars like Tom Hanks, Jim Carrey, Brad Pitt and others have signed deals with India's Reliance Entertainment to develop and finance films. Over the next two years the company plans to spend one billion dollars on this effort. Since the US is now undergoing credit crunch while the upper has appreciated it appears this Hollywood-Indian tie may have the right glue to hold it together. "India is a country with a large middle class driving a tremendous amount of consumption," says Jon Feltheimer, CEO of Lionsgate Entertainment. American studios want a piece of India's 2.1 billion dollar a year film industry. The strategy is to finance films and ideally receive the big-bucks while hoping for even more financial gain by distributing the back home. Will Smith's Overbrook Entertainment Production Company is planning to make films with Director Ronnie Screwvalla who wants to secure American programming for a Hindi-dubbed-cable television channel. Actions like this are causing Hollywood producers to be treated like royalty in old TinselTown. If you are an aspiring in India you can take a giant step into Hollywood by being on a game show appropriately titled, "Gateway." This is a reality show which filmmakers compete for a chance to work on a movie in Hollywood.