Reliance Entertainment, the media and entertainment arm of the Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group, is likely to bid for Hollywood studio Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM), the Economic Times paper said, citing an unnamed person with knowledge of the development.
About a dozen interested parties including Time Warner, Lions Gate Entertainment and private equity firms are among those weighing potential offers for the debt-ridden studio, several sources told Reuters.
Reliance Entertainment was also among the bidders, the paper said on Friday, quoting unidentified banking sources.
Reliance Entertainment, which released the recent Bollywood hit film 3 Idiots, is expected to finalise its bid for MGM next week, the report said, citing another person close to the deal.
The company was raising debt from banks to finance the deal, the report said.
"As a policy, we do not comment on speculation," a spokesman for the Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group told Reuters.
MGM, struggling with debts of $4 billion, first said it was exploring a sale in November last year.
Reliance Entertainment has an equal joint venture with Hollywood director Steven Spielberg's DreamWorks SKG to make five to six films in a year, with the first production scheduled to be released this year.
{{/usCountry}}Reliance Entertainment has an equal joint venture with Hollywood director Steven Spielberg's DreamWorks SKG to make five to six films in a year, with the first production scheduled to be released this year.
{{/usCountry}}It has also signed development and production financing deals with Brian Grazer and Ron Howard's Imagine Entertainment.
In November, it entered into a deal with Brad Pitt's production company Plan B Entertainment, for the film rights of science fiction video game Dark Void.