Billionaire focused on big picture

For someone who only got into film-making in earnest a few years ago, the scale of Anil Ambani's latest initiative - a joint venture with Steven Spielberg - would normally come as a shock.

However, for seasoned observers, the move was typical Ambani: the billionaire industrialist, like his equally wealthy but estranged elder brother Mukesh, never does anything unless he sees the potential to become the -biggest.

"He's not there just to put in $5m or something," said Bhushan Gajaria, analyst at SSKI Research in Mumbai. "This is very much the kind of thing that Reliance does."

Anil Ambani has become a frenetic dealmaker since he and Mukesh split their family's industrial group, Reliance Industries, between them in 2005. He has expanded his part of Reliance, which he renamed Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group, into a sprawling industrial, infrastructure, media and telecom empire, amassing a fortune estimated by Forbes at $42bn.

His mobile operator, Reliance Communications, India's second-largest, has made global headlines with a planned tie-up with South Africa's MTN. The deal would create an emerging markets giant but faces opposition from Mukesh.

In some ways, the mooted joint venture with Mr Spielberg's DreamWorks is even bolder, potentially taking Mr Ambani in one swoop to the top of a new industry for Reliance.

The challenge, however, as with many of his daring plans that have yet to come to fruition, will be in the execution.