Reliance, Phantom to remake France’s 'La Famille Belier'

India’s Reliance Entertainment has acquired rights to award-winning French drama La Famille Belier for Mumbai-based production outfit Phantom Films to remake across multiple languages.

Phantom, founded by Anurag Kashyap and fellow filmmakers Vikas Bahl, Vikramaditya Motwane and Madhu Mantena, is currently in talks with directors for simultaneous versions of the film in Hindi, Punjabi, Telugu, Marathi and Tamil, and possibly other languages. Reliance will distribute the films globally.

Directed by Eric Lartigau, La Famille Belier tells the story of a girl who wants to pursue a career as a singer, but whose parents and brother are deaf and rely on her for contact with the outside world. Her family is not happy with her choices, but she is reluctant to give up her dream.

Produced by France’s Jerico and Mars Films along with other co-producers, the film won most promising actress for Louane Emera’s performance at the 2015 Cesar Awards. It also won best actress (Karin Viard) and most promising young actress at France’s Lumiere Awards.

Kashyap is writing the script for the Indian versions. “La Famille Belier is a great story to work on. I really liked the film and feel that with appropriate changes in sensibilities and the tone, it will become a very interesting story for our audiences,” Kashyap said.

Phantom co-founder Vikas Bahl is working on developing the material into multiple languages.

Reliance and Phantom have a 50:50 joint venture through which the two partners plan to develop and produce around five to six films a year, handle distribution in India and overseas, and syndicate rights to the two companies’ combined library of around 175 titles.