Ashok Amritraj Chairman and CEO of Hyde Park Entertainment, is a Hollywood producer and a former tennis player. His brothers are also tennis players, Vijay Amritraj and Anand Amritraj.
Amritraj has produced over 80 films, including, Jeans and hit hollywood films such as Antitrust, Walking Tall, and Bringing Down the House (film), which starred Steve Martin and Queen Latifah.
Among his upcoming movies are projects based on Lee Falk's characters Mandrake the Magician, directed by Chuck Russell, and The Phantom, The Ghost Who Walks.
Amritraj is also making The Other End of the Line in collaboration with MGM Studios and India's Adlabs Ltd.
As Chairman and CEO of Hyde Park Entertainment, Ashok Amritraj is one of the most successful producers in Hollywood today, and recently produced the box office hit, Bringing Down The House, starring Steve Martin and Queen Latifah. Bringing Down The House is the first in a long line of high-quality, star-driven features being produced by Amritraj in the upcoming year including: Raising Helen starring Kate Hudson and John Corbett, directed by Garry Marshall and Shop Girl starring Steve Martin, Clare Danes and Jimmy Fallon, both to be released by The Walt Disney Studios; additionally, Amritraj is producing Walking Tall starring The Rock, to be released by MGM. Amritraj has grown Hyde Park Entertainment into a cutting-edge option to the traditional Hollywood studio system for filmmakers by making it one of the few progressive independent companies that encompasses most elements of a full-fledged studio. The Company is capable of developing, producing and co-financing projects as well as handling their international sales and marketing. Hyde Park Entertainment has a first look deal with MGM, a second look deal with The Walt Disney Studios and a long-term pan-European deal with the powerful European media consortium, Epsilon. Because of this, the Company successfully operates as a studio partner, aiming to produce four major films per year at budgets that range from $20 - $90 million each. Through The Walt Disney Studios, Amritraj recently released the critically acclaimed drama/romance, Moonlight Mile, directed by Brad Silberling, starring Academy Award winners Dustin Hoffman, Susan Sarandon and Holly Hunter. Through MGM, Amritraj also produced the Golden Globe nominated, Bandits, directed by Barry Levinson starring Bruce Willis, Billy Bob Thornton and Cate Blanchett and Original Sin starring Angelina Jolie and Antonio Banderas. Amritraj's film, Jeans, was selected by the Film Federation of India as the country's sole nomination for Best Foreign Film in the 1998 Academy Awards. The nomination earned him the title of "Spirit of India's Man Of The Year". Amritraj also received the "Pride Of India" Lifetime Achievement Award. Over the last twenty years, Amritraj has produced or executive produced over eighty films. Amritraj has offered an interesting perspective to the Hollywood community by coming from a unique background in professional sports. He came to the U.S. from India to play professional tennis with Jerry Buss' L.A. Strings, with teammates Chris Evert and Ilie Nastase, winning a World Team Tennis Championship in 1978 and the Most Valuable Player Award. Amritraj has played in every major tennis tournament during his nine-year career including Wimbeldon and the U.S. Open. Part of the Amritraj tennis dynasty, he was also a finalist at the 1974 Wimbledon Junior Tournament. He is on the Foreign Film Board of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, a member of the British Academy of Film and Television Arts and is on the International Council for the Emmy Awards.
