It would make a passable B movie. Indian billionaire tycoon, daggers drawn with his brother, teams up with perhaps the most popular director of all time to win the hearts of global audiences with the magic of Hollywood. Expect big brother Mukesh Ambani, fuming at Anil’s plans to seize control of African mobile operator MTN, to enter stage left with another attempted spoiler.

Beneath the glamour is a nascent, and probably rather naive, business plan. While Anil will build up a new film-making wing within Reliance Big Entertainment, part of his diversified communications, financial services and energy conglomerate, DreamWorks, Steven Spielberg’s studio, will secure funding, perhaps $500m-$600m from Reliance, that eases its divorce from Viacom’s Paramount.