Hoping to stick its big thumb in the proverbial pie before there is no more pie left, Warner Bros. announced this week it finalized a three-film production and distribution deal with an Indian production house. The deal compliments a current Warner Bros. production in Bollywood, Chawk to ChiChandi na.

In a reported deal with People Tree Films, Warner Bros. Pictures India will produce Jaane Kahaa Se Aayi Hai, Chandbhai, and Basra. The Indian production house was founded by Mukesh Talreja (producer of Tere Naam) and Nikhil Advani (director of Kal Ho Na Ho).

Director Nikhil Advani

“We will not only co-produce the films but also distribute and market them in India and overseas,” a Warner Bros. spokesperson told reporters.

In a separate deal, a fourth film was added. The Hollywood-based studio also signed a movie deal with Vinay Pathak for a film, starring Shah Rukh Khan, already under production.

The three named movies in the deal have diverse themes. 

Directed by Milap Milan Zaveri, Jaane Kahaa Se Aayi Hai is a romantic comedy about a woman from the planet Venus who crash-lands on Earth looking for love. To be released in summer 2009, the film stars Riteish Deshmukh, Jacqueline Fernandez, and Ruslaan Mumtaz.

Basra is a police drama revolving around the lives of a spy and a cop. Also starring Akshay Khanna, the movie will be directed by Navdeep Singh.

“We are looking at releasing Jaane Kahaa Se Aayi Hai in the summer of 2009, Chandbhai during Diwali 2009, and Basra will hit the cinemas by 2009-end,” Taljera said.

Warner Bros. broke into Bollywood production with Saas bahu Aur Sensex and followed up with the yet-to-be-released $12 million production of Chandni Chowk to China, set to be released on January 16th.

In addition to Bollywood, Warner Bros. Pictures India signed a multi-film deal earlier this year with Soundarya Rajnikanth’s Ocher Studios to produce and distribute South Indian-based Tamil-language movies. The regional movie industry south of Mumbai is known as Tollywood, based on its reliance of the area’s native tongue of Tamil, whereas Bollywood films feature a hybrid of Hindi and English.