Ambani brothers, Salman Khan, Priyanka Chopra among Variety's top 500 leaders

Billionaire Ambani brothers Mukesh and Anil and Bollywood superstars Salman Khan and Priyanka Chopra are among the dozen Indians named in Variety magazines list of 500 most influential business leaders shaping the global USD 2 trillion entertainment industryOther Indians in the list include writerdirector Karan Johar Star India CEO Uday Shankar Essel Group Chairman Subhash Chandra Aditya Chopra of Yash Raj Films Balaji Telefilms Ekta Kapoor Zee Entertainment CEO Punit Goenka and Siddharth Kapur of The Film and Television Producers Guild of India LtdVariety500 is an index of the 500 most influential business leaders shaping the global 2 trillion entertainment industry Variety said on its website Updated annually the Variety500 reflects the accomplishments of its members over the previous 12 months They were selected by the Variety editorial board which conducted extensive research for its selectionsTopping the list is Walt Disney Company Chairman and CEO Robert Iger who has a strong track record for taking savvy risks with bigticket acquisitions like USD 405 billion for Star Wars owner Lucasfilm in 2012 USD 4 billion for Marvel in 2009 and USD 74 for Pixar Animation in 2006 paying off handsomelyWanda Media Group Chairman Jainlin Wang actor producer Bradley Cooper Sony Corp Chairman Kaz Hirai writer J K Rowling Netflix Chief Content Officer Ted Sarandos pop star Beyonce writer and director Patty Jenkins Megal Ellison of Annapurna Pictures and Youtube CEO Susann Wojcicki also feature in the listSalman Khan Variety said is one of the unrelated Khan triumvirate comprising Aamir and Shah Rukh that has been ruling the Bollywood box office for decades Of the top ten grossing films of all time Salman has three as does Shah Rukh while Aamir has fourUnlike his contemporary Khans whose fan bases are staid by comparison every Salman release generates mass hysteria across India a frenzy surpassed only by the fans of South Indian superstar Rajinikanth it saidRichest Indian Mukesh Ambanis USD 30 billion investment in Jio is a big deal there in digital entertainment the fastest growing segment of the Indian media scene Variety said Jio is a data mobile phones and wifi outfitIndia is poorly connected with only some 200 million internet users and more than 800 million mobile connections with slow and expensive data Jio aims to tap into the vast number of people who consume media on their mobile devices by providing highspeed data at costs that are at a fraction of their local competitors it saidJios media services allow users to access HD TV music and news across devices from hundreds of channels in various categories and languages Reliance Industries aims to make Jio available to 90 per cent of Indias 125 billion population Only 61 per cent of Indian households have a television set it saidAmbani has been pushing deeper into media at the same time that his brother Anil Ambani has been slowly backing out of the sector with his rival outfit Reliance Group it saidAfter splitting Reliance Group with his brother Anil Ambani quickly identified media and entertainment as growth areas buying up Adlabs in 2005 with cinemas distribution and film processing as its core businessesThat was complemented by moves further into postproduction TV production and TV and radio broadcasting In 2008 the company paid USD 12 billion to invest in Steven Spielbergs DreamWorksBut lately most of Reliance ADAGs media moves have turned to ashes Focusing increasingly on capital intensive infrastructure projects Ambani has withdrawn in all but symbolic fashion from most of the entertainment positions he took a decade ago Market leading positions in theaters and postproduction crumbled and have been sold TV joint ventures collapsed it saidAmbani and Reliance Entertainments name continues to appear on the credits of a smattering of movies per year thanks to a restructured deal with Steven Spielbergs new Amblin Partners Reliance Entertainment also retains a minority stake in Hollywood sales and finance company IM Global after Ambani sold the majority to Chinas Tang MediaAmbani is currently selling off a wide range of assets beyond the media sector to erase massive debt across his company it addedOn Priyanka Chopa Variety said she had envisioned an engineering career but changed direction after winning the 2000 Miss World PageantAditya Chopra is an enigmatic and influential figure in the Indian media industry that refuses to be voluntarily photographed and yet is responsible for content that influences millions it said As a producer Chopra has the deciding word in the greenlighting process and this has held true for the 60 odd projects that he has producedOften travelling under the initials DSC Subhash Chandra has come a long way since arriving in Delhi age 20 with just Rs 17 in his pocket Variety said adding that in a country where family dynasties are the dominant forces he has made his USD 6 billion fortune on his ownThat has much to do with political connections he cultivated along the way and to reinventing himself several times over He was a rice trader and a leisure park operator before moving into media it saidCatch up on all the latest Crime National International and Hatke news here Also download the new midday Android and iOS apps to get latest updatesThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever