‘The Black Prince’ is written, directed by Kavi Raz.
By Deepak Chitnis
WASHINGTON, DC: Brillstein Entertainment Partners, a Los Angeles-based film and television production company that has been in existence since 1969, announced this week that it will co-produce The Black Prince – a biopic of the tragic Punjabi Maharaja Duleep Singh.
The announcement came from Brillstein executive Jai Khanna, reports The Hollywood Reporter, who also revealed that the film’s budget will be in the area of just $5 million. Producers are currently eyeing a September start date for filming, which will take place across both India and the UK, and are presumably hoping to release the film in either late 2015 or early 2016.
The Black Prince is written and will be directed by Kavi Raz, a filmmaker who is based in Los Angeles. He has been an actor for nearly 40 years now, and recently turned towards directing, helming the 9/11-centric filmThe Gold Bracelet. The title role of Maharaja Duleep Singh will be played by Satinder Sartaaj, who is best known around the world as a singer.
Duleep Singh is remembered as the last Maharaja of the Sikh Empire. He was born as the son of Maharaja Ranjit Singh and Maharani Jind Kaur, and during his exile to Britain, became good friends with Queen Victoria, who served as Godmother to several of Duleep Singh’s children.
After the death of Ranjit Singh, the Maharani ran the Empire for some time until the British came in, at which point she was jailed. Duleep and his mother went nearly 14 years without seeing each other, and Duleep only visited India twice, very briefly, in the years following his banishment to Europe. He died in Paris in 1893 as the final heir to the Sikh Empire.
Brillstein Entertainment Partners was originally incorporated as The Brillstein Company in 1969, when it was founded by Bernie Brillstein. Since then, it has gone through a number of name and management changes, and was, for a time, co-headed by Academy Award-winner producer Brad Grey (The Departed), who is now with Paramount Pictures.
Some of the movies that Brillstein has had a hand in producing are the first two Ghostbuster films, The Blues Brothers, Happy Gilmore, The Wedding Singer, and Scary Movie.