Ivanhoe Pictures Boards Priyanka Chopra’s ‘The Sky is Pink’

By Patrick Frater

LOS ANGELES (Variety.com) – “Crazy Rich Asians” producer Ivanhoe Pictures has come on board Priyanka Chopra’s family drama “.” Ivanhoe will co-invest and co-produce.

Fact-based, “Pink” is written and directed by top director Shonali Bose and is based on the life of motivational speaker Aisha Chaudhury. The film is Chopra’s first in India since her U.S. television series “Quantico.”

Production is spearheaded by Ronnie Screwvala’s RSVP and Siddharth Roy Kapur’s Roy Kapur Films. Both men are former heads of Disney in India. Chopra, who has recently dominated headlines with her marriage to Nick Jonas, both stars in and co-produces the movie.

The film features youngster Zaira Wasim, in the lead role. Chopra and Farhan Akhtar appear as her parents. Wasim was the lead of “Secret Superstar,” and before that breakout hit “Dangal.” She will this week be honored by Variety as an Asian Up and Coming Talent in a partnership with the International Film Festival Macao.

The project is already in production, with location shoots in Mumbai, London and New Delhi completed earlier this year. A brief schedule in the Andaman Islands is planned for January, and the film is slated to release mid-2019.

“Partnering with Ivanhoe will help us leverage their strong distribution prowess in non-traditional markets for Indian films, while in turn this collaboration strengthens their association with the Indian film industry,” Siddharth Roy Kapur said in a statement.

In March 2017, Ivanhoe merged with Los Angeles-based production/finance company Sidney Kimmel Entertainment to create SK Global, a new entity that produces and finances film and television projects globally. It has an expanding interest in Asia, a deal with Blumhouse Productions to develop local-language genre content in India, and a three-film slate in Indonesia.