Febuary 29 , 2008

On February 29th Ashok Amritraj, CEO of one of Hollywood’s largest independent production houses, Hyde Park Entertainment, conducted an interactive session with students. Having started life as professional Tennis player he has since gone on to produce over 80 films with some of the biggest names in the industry including luminaries such as Bruce Willis, Sylvester Stallone, Steve Martin, John Travolta and Queen Latifah.
Ashok was one of the first guest speakers at Whistling Woods in August 2006 and has recently been spending considerable time on campus for the Gateway shoot. He was impressed with the rapid development of WWI declaring that has been, “Such a joy to witness the growth of Whistling Woods International from its beginning to a wonderful institution. A great opportunity for Indian Filmmaking.”

In the talk Ashok gave the students a unique insight into how the industry in Hollywood works and what happens when Bollywood and Hollywood combine to produce a film. As an example of this interaction he spoke about his current project The Other End of the Line, which will be co produced in conjunction with Adlabs and MGM. Ashok was impressed with the increasing level of professionalism in India and the large number of women who are now involved in the industry.
In an unusual end to proceedings Ashok took his opportunity with the students to start quizzing them on what they have been learning and how they were coping with the challenges of their courses. Students from Screenwriting, Business of Television and Direction enthusiastically filled him in on the day to day life of a Whistling Woods student.