MUMBAI: A Gulf-based billionaire is planning to smash the record for the most expensive Indian movie by splashing out $150 million to make a film of the Hindu epic “Mahabharata.”
The cost of producing the two-part extravaganza is set to dwarf that of “Baahubali,” which is India’s biggest budget film to date at around 4.5 billion rupees ($45 million).
“I believe that this film will not only set global benchmarks, but also reposition India and its prowess in mythological storytelling,” said businessman B. R. Shetty in a statement late Monday announcing the project.
“I am confident that this film will be adapted in over 100 languages and reach over 3 billion people across the world,” added the Indian billionaire, who lives in the United Arab Emirates.
Filming is due to start late next year with the first installment set to hit screens in early 2020, the statement said. It will be released in several Indian languages and dubbed for foreign audiences as well.
The blockbuster, which will be directed by south Indian filmmaker V.A Shrikumar Menon, will be the latest retelling of the “Mahabharata,” an ancient Sanskrit story about a battle between feuding princes.
The announcement comes before the release next week of the second and final instalment of “Baahubali,” a Telugu- and Tamil-language film featuring elaborate battle scenes. The combined cost for the two parts was about $45 million.
While budgets for Indian movies are rising they are still well short of those in Hollywood, where a blockbuster often costs more than $200 million to make.
UAE-based billionaire plans India’s most expensive film
UAE-based billionaire plans India’s most expensive film
Second doctor in Matthew Perry overdose case sentenced to home confinement
- Dr. Mark Chavez, 55, a onetime San Diego-based physician, pleaded guilty in federal court in October
- Judge Sherilyn Peace Garnett also sentenced Chavez to 300 hours of community service
LOS ANGELES: A second California doctor was sentenced on Tuesday to eight months of home confinement for illegally supplying “Friends” star Matthew Perry with ketamine, the powerful sedative that caused the actor’s fatal drug overdose in a hot tub in 2023.
Dr. Mark Chavez, 55, a onetime San Diego-based physician, pleaded guilty in federal court in October to a single felony count of conspiracy to distribute the prescription anesthetic and surrendered his medical license in November.
Judge Sherilyn Peace Garnett also sentenced Chavez to 300 hours of community service. As part of his plea agreement, Chavez admitted to selling ketamine to another physician Dr. Salvador Plasencia, 44, who in turn supplied the drug to Perry, though not the dose that ultimately killed the performer. Plasencia, who pleaded guilty to four counts of unlawful drug distribution, was sentenced earlier this month to 2 1/2 years behind bars.
He and Chavez were the first two of five people convicted in connection with Perry’s ketamine-induced death to be sent off to prison.
The three others scheduled to be sentenced in the coming weeks — Jasveen Sangha, 42, a drug dealer known as the “Ketamine Queen;” a go-between dealer Erik Fleming, 56; and Perry’s former personal assistant, Iwamasa, 60.
Sangha admitted to supplying the ketamine dose that killed Perry, and Iwamasa acknowledged injecting Perry with it. It was Iwamasa who later found Perry, aged 54, face down and lifeless, in the jacuzzi of his Los Angeles home on October 28, 2023.
An autopsy report concluded the actor died from the acute effects of ketamine,” which combined with other factors in causing him to lose consciousness and drown.
Perry had publicly acknowledged decades of substance abuse, including the years he starred as Chandler Bing on the hit 1990s NBC television series “Friends.”
According to federal law enforcement officials, Perry had been receiving ketamine infusions for treatment of depression and anxiety at a clinic where he became addicted to the drug.
When doctors there refused to increase his dosage, he turned to unscrupulous providers elsewhere willing to exploit Perry’s drug dependency as a way to make quick money, authorities said. Ketamine is a short-acting anesthetic with hallucinogenic properties that is sometimes prescribed to treat depression and other psychiatric disorders. It also has seen widespread abuse as an illicit party drug.
