Red Chillies Entertainment

History

2002–2004

Red Chillies Entertainment was founded in 2002 by husband and wife Shah Rukh Khan and Gauri Khan. It was launched as a film production company as well as film distributor and visual effects company. It has its roots in Dreamz Unlimited, a defunct film production company that was owned by Khan, Juhi Chawla, and Aziz Mirza. Red Chillies Entertainment launched its visual effects studio Red Chillies VFX in 2006.

In 2008, Red Chillies Entertainment formed a sporting subsidiary alliance with the Mehta Group and established its the sporting subsidiary Knight Riders Group, holding a 55 percent stake in the group. The Knight Riders Group owns the Indian Premier League cricket team Kolkata Knight Riders (2008), the Trinbago Knight Riders (2015) cricket team of Caribbean Premier League, the Trinbago Knight Riders Women's (2022) cricket team of Women's Caribbean Premier League, the Abu Dhabi Knight Riders (2022) cricket team of International League T20 and the Los Angeles Knight Riders (2020) cricket team of Major League Cricket.

In 2015, RCE started a Color Grading studio known as Red Chillies Color. In 2018, RCE started a Motion Control studio known as Red Chillies Motion Control. In 2018, RCE started a Digital Imaging Technician(DIT) studio known as Red Chillies DIT.

2004–2010

The production house released Main Hoon Na in 2004, which did well at the box office, becoming the second highest-grossing film of the year. Khan also starred in the company's 2nd release, the 2005 movie Paheli, belonging to genre of Indian Parallel Cinema, the film was critically acclaimed and was selected as India's official entry to the 78th Academy Awards in the Best Foreign Language Film category.

The third film produced by the company was Farah Khan's mega-budget Om Shanti Om, which was released in November 2007. The film was set in the 1970s and 2000s and paid tribute to the Indian film industry of both these eras. Upon release, it broke many box office records, grossing over 1.49 billion, and thus became the highest-grossing Hindi film of all time at the time of its release. The 2009 film Billu starring Irrfan Khan and Lara Dutta was the company's next release, the film opened to good reviews, but was a failure at the box office. The film made by Roshan Abbas, Always Kabhi Kabhi, did poorly.

2010–present

The company continued working on other projects until finally deciding on Ra.One (2011) starring Khan himself, Kareena Kapoor and Arjun Rampal. The pre-production work began in 2007 after the release of Om Shanti Om. The film's crew consisted of more than 5,000 members from India, Italy, and the US, and was pieced together by more than 1,000 people, working in shifts, in around 15 studios across the world. It saw the inclusion of several visual effects techniques being incorporated in the production which were carried out by Red Chillies VFX. With an estimated budget of 1.25 billion, Ra.One was the second-most expensive film ever produced in Indian cinema and the most expensive Bollywood film. The film witnessed a level of publicity campaigning previously unseen in India films, with marketing taking place over nine months and involving major brand tie-ups of a 52 crore (US$9.88 million) which set the record for the largest marketing budget in India. Shah Rukh Khan decided to dedicate Ra. One to his friend and former CEO Sanjiv Chawla, since he stepped down due to ill health.

The film released across 3,100 screens in India and 904 prints overseas in both 2D and 3D, making it the largest Indian cinematic release in the world. The film went on to earn 204 crores worldwide, but against the movie's big budget and the huge sum of money spent on marketing it, the movie underperformed and was a commercial disaster. Their next production was Karan Johar's directorial venture, Student of the Year (2012), which was co-produced by Johar's production company. The company is reportedly targeting a 25 percent annual business growth and is set to roll out four to five films, but the Bollywood superstar says he won't act in them.

"We want to make four to five films without me. As a producer I would like to concentrate on the films and visual effects," Shah Rukh told IANS in an interview.

Badla (2019) was one such film that didn't star Shah Rukh Khan. It featured Amitabh Bachchan and Taapsee Pannu in lead roles and was directed by Sujoy Ghosh. It is a mystery thriller that was produced by Warner Bros. Pictures, Red Chillies Entertainment, and Azure Entertainment, in which businesswoman Naina Sethi (Pannu) hires lawyer Badal Gupta (Bachchan) to clear her name as a suspect in the murder of her lover.

The production house launched its first collaboration with Netflix India, Bard of Blood, in 2019. Based on the 2015 novel of the same name, this espionage thriller starred Emraan Hashmi in the lead role along with Kirti Kulhari, Vineet Kumar Singh, Jaideep Ahlawat and Sobhita Dhulipala. It is a seven-episode series that revolves around the story of an ex-RAW agent. The series premiered on 27 September 2019 on Netflix.

Kaamyaab co-produced with Drishyam Films starring Sanjay Mishra and Deepak Dobriyal was released on 6 March 2020.

Their next upcoming film, Bob Biswas, in association with Sujoy Ghosh's Bound Script Production is currently on floors. Starring Abhishek Bachchan in the lead, the movie is the directorial debut of Diya Annapurna Ghosh. The film is based on a fictional character from Kaahani (2012), ‘Bob Biswas', who is a poker-faced contract killer.

Filmography

Films produced

RC.VFX

Red Chillies Entertainment Pvt. Ltd. has a visual effects studio known as redchillies.vfx which started in 2006. Apart from home productions, the VFX team had been involved with movies like Chak De! India, Krrish 3, Don: The Chase Begins Again, Dostana and De Dana Dan. Some of the major awards won by the team:

• In 2006, Don: The Chase Begins won European accolades for Best Special Effects.
• In 2007, Om Shanti Om won best visual effects from Filmfare, Zee cine, IIFA, Star Screen, Indy's and Apsara Producer's Guild Awards.
• In 2011, Ra.One swept all major awards in Bollywood for visual effects, including a National Film Award and Filmfare Award for Best Special Effects and was nominated for the Asian Film Award as well. The division has the largest manpower among the group companies with a staff strength of over 130.
• In 2016, Fan won best special effects award from Filmfare.
• In 2018, Zero won best visual effects award from Filmfare and Zee Cine.
• In 2023, Jawan won the best visual effects award from Filmfare.

RC.COLOR

In 2015, Red Chillies Entertainment started a color grading studio known as redChillies.color. It is a color grading division that provides color grading and end-to-end post-production services for feature films, series, and news media. The movies on which red chillies.color has worked on have won many accolades for its cinematography.

Television

An extended five-episode miniseries version of Aśoka aired on Star Plus from 28 May 2002 to 25 June 2002.

A TV production arm Red Chillies Idiot Box was launched in 2009. The unit produced 10 shows, 2 Television films and 1 Theatrical film Men Will Be Men before it was shut down in 2012.

In 2017 it was announced that Red Chillies Entertainment will produce Bard of Blood, an eight-episode series for Netflix based on the novel The Bard of Blood by Bilal Siddiqi. The series premiered on 27 September 2019.

A horror mini-series Betaal premiered on 24 May 2020 on Netflix.

Sports

In 2008, Red Chillies acquired ownership rights for the franchise representing Kolkata in the Twenty20 cricket tournament Indian Premier League, for a price of US$75.09 million, and have since named the team Kolkata Knight Riders. KKR is the richest team in the IPL and it has been ranked as the most valued with a brand value of $42.1 million. Financially, KKR is the most profitable franchise in the IPL. The home of the Kolkata Knight Riders is Eden Gardens.

In 2011, they introduced the Mumbai franchise in the motorsport racing league i1 Super Series. In 2012, SRK showed his interest to buy a 50& share of Dempo S.C. Indian football club of I League. He also has a 50% stake in the Caribbean Premier League franchise Trinidad and Tobago Red Steel from 2015 onwards. The team had many popular former players and the current coach of Kolkata Knight Riders, Jacques Kallis and other well-known players like Kamran Akmal, Dwayne Bravo, Johan Botha, Darren Bravo and Cameron Delport, etc.

The team clinched their maiden Caribbean Premier League title in 2015, right after Shahrukh Khan became the owner of the franchise. He changed the name and logo of the team the very next season to Trinbago Knight Riders, with the name and the logo being almost identical to KKR.

In 2022, Knight Riders Group (KRG) acquires Abu Dhabi Knight Riders (ADKR) franchise in UAE International League T20. KRG had also acquired a franchise in Cricket South Africa's T20 Global League, but the league was eventually scrapped and replaced with Mzansi Super League due to the absence of the board to secure a broadcasting deal. Other Indian Premier League Franchises have followed KRG's path and have franchises in T20 Leagues outside India, or have shown interest for the same. In 2022, KRG announced the construction of a 10,000-seater stadium in Los Angeles, in partnership with Major League Cricket, for their franchise (Los Angeles Knight Riders) and is designated as the venue for 2028 Summer Olympics being the sole stadium in Los Angeles, other than the inferior Leo Magnus Cricket Complex.

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