Red Chillies Entertainment

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.^[10] Red Chillies Entertainment launched its visual effects studio Red Chillies VFX in 2006.^[11]

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.^[12] 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.^[13]

In 2015, RCE started a Color Grading studio known as Red Chillies Color.^[3] In 2018, RCE started a Motion Control studio known as Red Chillies Motion Control.^[12] In 2018, RCE started a Digital Imaging Technician(DIT) studio known as Red Chillies DIT.^[4]

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.^[14] 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.^[15]

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.^[16][17] 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.^[18] 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.^[19] 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.^[20]

The film released across 3,100 screens in India and 904 prints overseas in both 2D and 3D,^[21] 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.^[22]

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.^[23]

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.^[24][25]

Kaamyaab co-produced with Drishyam Films starring Sanjay Mishra and Deepak Dobriyal was released on 6 March 2020.^[26]

Their next upcoming film, Bob Biswas, in association with Sujoy Ghosh's Bound Script Production is currently on floors.^{[27][28][29][30]} Starring Abhishek Bachchan in the lead, the movie is the directorial debut of Diya Annapurna Ghosh.^[31] The film is based on a fictional character from Kaahani (2012), ‘Bob Biswas', who is a poker-faced contract killer.^[32]

Films produced