Reliance Big Entertainment has signed a further two development deals in Hollywood - with Julia Roberts' Red Om Films and Brett Ratner's Rat Entertainment - to add to the seven similar deals announced last year at Cannes.

As with the other deals, RBE will create a development silo for each of the production entities and has the option to co-finance resulting projects. RBE will also retain Indian rights to the films it co-finances and hopes to attract some productions to shoot in India.

The company previously announced deals with the production entities of Nicolas Cage, Jim Carrey, George Clooney, Chris Columbus, Tom Hanks, Brad Pitt and Jay Roach. (Click here for more)

A slate of more than 20 projects are currently in development from eight of these partnerships and Reliance executives say they expect the first few projects to go into production before the end of the year.

'We're pretty much on track with the first projects from these deals, so we hope to announce further details at Cannes,' said RBE chairman Amit Khanna.

Khanna said the company is also on track with its deal with DreamWorks, despite the global liquidity crunch, and has now acquired the studios' development slate of 17 projects from Paramount.

RBE has also launched its international sales division here at EFM with a slate of 18 projects in various languages, including $30m romantic thriller Kites which stars Bollywood heartthrob Hrithik Roshan and Latin American star Barbara Mori.

'We regard Kites as an international film that is being produced with an Indian sensibility,' said RBE president Rajesh Sawhney.

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