Distribution Obtained!!
Hi Folks,
This post is more for the American Indian audience in this group, or South Asian American. For those of you who are involved in the Independent Filmmaking process and business here in North America, you guys and gals, probably know that getting distribution is about as hard as obtaining the funding (actually sometime more, you can always, part work and self fund your way to a movie evenutally, YOU CAN NEVER EVENTUALLY OBTAIN DISTRIBUTION, self distribute by renting theaters yes, REAL distribution, very, very hard.
Hence it gives me great pleasure to announce that a film I had been involved with almost from the day the first thought of making it occureed to the filmmakers (it is to be noted I am not an investor in this film, more emotional/moral/bouncing off ideas kind of support), has OBTAINED DISTRIBUTION, as announced officially over the weekend.
With this a NEW CONCEPT BEGINS, an Indian Distribution company takes a film to India (dh-uhh!!), but also for GLOBAL (except North America) distribution. Not to say it does not have North American distribution, it does, through a different company.
I can write on this blog on what it took to get the idea conceptualized, the struggles, the mountains and then the eventual triumph, since it has been a battle against the mightest of odds and negativity.
Anyway- AMERICANIZING SHELLEY OBTAINS DISTRIBUTION— Read on
MAY 2007 – BIG MONTH FOR AMERICANIZING SHELLEY!
Hollywood based independent entertainment studio, American Pride Films Group has just inked a deal with U.K. and India based iDream (Bend It like Beckham, Monsoon Wedding) for the “India and International release” of their upcoming comedy feature “Americanizing Shelley”.
The PG rated film touted as the first “homegrown” Hollywood film with Bollywood elements that also features never-been-done-before “Country music meets Bollywood” style duets will open in the United States on 4 May 2007 premiering the film’s North America release, through APFG’s newly formed distribution arm and in a co-distribution deal with Rocky Mountain Pictures (Distributors, “One Night with The King”, “Redline”).
The film, fast garnering positive critical acclaim and outstanding audience response, will initially platform release in select U.S. markets and also showcase three screenings as part of its World Premiere at Cannes 2007. iDream Statement
“We are interested in representing high concept, story driven films and we discovered that Americanizing Shelley is a perfect fit for us. This cross cultural blend of films is now going mainstream in the US and other developed markets and “Shelley” I believe has the potential to ring the box office register the way Bend It Like Beckham did 3 years ago”, explained Rohit Sharma, President, iDream Independent Pictures (IDIP).
Rohit is excited about bagging Shelley, considering it a big coup, as he managed this from under the watchful eyes of many US sales agents and distributors in Hollywood . He believes that IDIP with its aggressive marketing and distribution of films like ‘Monsoon Wedding’ and “Bend it like Beckham” in India , is the right company to partner with American Pride Films Group for “Americanizing Shelley”.
About iDream Independent & iDream Production (IDIP)
U.K. based iDream Independent Pictures, is part of the iDream team which aggressively marketed films like ‘Monsoon Wedding’ and ‘Bend It Like Beckham’ to achieve cult status in India , under their India based arm called iDream Production. iDream Independent is now marketing a slate of top class films to mainstream audiences worldwide with an ambition of breaking unique commercial success.
About Rocky Mountain Pictures (RMP)
After 17 years of distributing films as RS Entertainment, Ron Rodgers and Randy Slaughter created Rocky Mountain Pictures. RMP (formerly known as RSE) has released in excess of 120 theatrical titles in North America including The Omega Code 2, Highlander 2 (w/ Sean Connery, Virginia Madsen) and the more recent One Night with the King (w/ Peter O’ Toole, Omar Sharif), Luther (w/ Joseph Fiennes) and End of the Spear. Besides “Americanizing Shelley”, upcoming 2007 North American Theatrical releases include multiple titles including Redline (w/ Eddie Griffin, Tim Matheson).
Detailed release info AND TRAILER (yes, it’s up!) at:
www.americanizingshelleythemovie.com
JOIN US AT MYSPACE – ADD US AS A FRIEND TODAY:
www.myspace.com/americanizingshelley
American Pride Films Group Statement
“We had multiple offers on ‘Shelley” from some extremely well known Hollywood and U.K. based Distributors and Agents. Our decision to proceed with iDream was based not only on their in-depth knowledge in the international marketplace for films like Bend It Like Beckham, Monsoon Wedding and Americanizing Shelley but also the fairness and passion that they seem to dedicate toward projects that they acquire.”
“Our decision to go with Rocky Mountain Pictures was for reasons not that different. Good work; good guys…what else do you need?”
“We are blessed and thankful that “Shelley” got so many offers but content in the knowledge that the film has found its true home. The only downside is refusing proposals from wonderful companies, some of them our good neighbors, right here in Hollywood , but of course this is the kind of problem every producer wishes to have! ”
Joe Cooper, Exec Producer, Americanizing Shelley / CEO – American Pride Films Group
Studio site:
Sincerely,
Vivek ”strategy and business plan is for MBA’s, passionate battle against all odds, all the time, every time, is my type” Kumar
Anurag Kashyap
Abhay Deol
Dibakar Banerjee
Hansal Mehta
Khalid Mohamed
Kundan Shah
Anish Kuruvilla
Jaideep Verma
Manish Gupta
Navdeep Singh
Bhavani Iyer
D. Santosh
Onir
Ashvin Kumar
Ramu Ramanathan
Sudhir Mishra
Pankaj Advani
Revathy
Saurabh Shukla
Shilpa Shukla
Sujoy Ghosh
Suparn Verma
Santosh Sivan
Shashank Ghosh
Shivajee
Pavan Kaul
Partho Sen-Gupta
Prroshant Naryannan
Sam Langoria
Satish Kasetty
Congrats Vivek…
Great news guys, a heartfelt congrats from a bunch of your Canadian counterparts!
So when/where will the US Premiere of the film be?
Om – thanks.
Tony- US open on May 4, 2007. Am also pushing them to open in Toronto and Vancouver.If I remember from a prior post you are from the big V, so look out for that day, or else Seattle is also on, so on a worst case may have to take that 2 hr ride across the border
awesome vivek.. congrats to you, namrata and the entire team =D> look forward to watching it!
Hi Vivek, We missed the Sharmishta Roy’s panel Discussion last week. Is there a way we can find out what happened and get a report on it from somwhere?
No worries Vivek I’ll keep my eyes out, will definately be there to show support man.