MUMBAI: Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Industries is looking to acquire film czar Karan Johar’s Dharma Productions, if media reports are to be believed.  Apparently, the changing clime in the entertainment business with rising talent and production costs, theatrical  releases bombing left and centre,  and evolving consumption habits of viewers towards streaming  services are making life financially difficult for India’s mostly family-owned studios.

As is the case with Karan Johar which is almost wholly owned by him  and his mother Hiroo Johar. With no massive box office hits under his belt for a couple of years, and his getting on in years, Karan is believed to be looking at corporatising his studio by bringing in a corporate strategic investor.  Earlier reports were that he was in conversation with Saregama – a part of the RPG Sanjiv Goenka group – which the latter later denied.

Reliance which has invested in Balaji Telefilms, owns Jio Studios, Studios, and Colosceum Media, could find adding Dharma to their portfolio of content creators  an interesting proposition. Johar is known to be pretty close to Nita Ambani. Additionally, telecom player Jio, and Viacom18’s streaming service JioCinema needs partners to constantly feed it with films and shows. Acquiring a stake in Dharma would help bring in a celebrated story teller like Johar in its fold.

The Reliance group has been partnering strategically with fashion designers such as Abu Jani and Sandeep Khosla, Satya Paul, Raghavendra Rathore, Ritu Kumar, Anamika Khanna, Manish Malhotra, Rahul Mishra and Abraham & Thakore to grow its retail fashion segment. Could it follow that in entertainment too?

However, with neither Johar nor Nita Ambani confirming or denying media reports, one can only wait until a deal is announced – or denied. 

Picture courtesy Karan Johar's instagram account