Reliance Entertainment on Thursday, admitted that it financed 15 per cent of the total budget of French film Tout La-Haut, produced by Julie Gayet, partner of then French President Francois Hollande.
According to The Indian Express report, Reliance Entertainment paid 1.48 million Euros through its partner VisVires Capital, a French financing company, towards the production of Gayet’s film.
The company said in a statement, “Reliance Entertainment had paid the aforesaid only EUR 1.48 million to Visvires Capital on 5th December 2017, as customary only about two weeks before the release of the film on 20th December 2017.”
VisVires Capital is founded by a Singapore-based French businessman Ravi Viswanathan, who is a close friend of Anil Ambani.
“Besides films, the Reliance Group has made several other successful co-investments with Visvires Capital, including inter alia in Sula Wines and Grover Vineyards, prior to the film co-financing,” the statement read.
The statement added, “Reliance Entertainment has not signed any agreement with Ms. Julie Gayet or her company, Rouge International, and nor has any payment ever been made by Reliance Entertainment to either of them in relation to the film, nOmber One.”
The film first titled nOmber One was later released under the title Tout La-Haut.
In August, The Indian Express had reported that Ambani’s Reliance Entertainment entered into a deal to produce a film with actor Julie Gayet then French President Francois Hollande’s partner and — the announcement was made on January 24, 2016 — two days before India and France signed the MoU for the purchase of 36 jets in flyaway condition.