Some of the biggest names in the industry, including Yash Chopra, Subhash Ghai, Boney Kapoor and Rakesh Roshan, are involved in the venture and an application has already been sent to the Department of Company Affairs (DCA) to register the new company. The draft Memorandum and Articles of Association of the proposed company says: ``One of the objectives of the new company is to help, stimulate and promote the development of film industry in India or any part of the world connected with motion picture industry and to improve and raise the quality and standards of the film and motion pictures produced in India or anywhere in the world.''

Other film personalities who have lent theirmite to the new company as shareholders are A G Nadiadwala, F C Mehta, Indra Kumar, Om Prakash, J P Dutta, Kamal Kumar Barjatya, Randhir Kapoor, Vinod Chopra and Yash Johar.

Sources said the industry was closely watching the developments and that more people would join as the idea crystallises.

If some industry big-wigs are exercising caution, it's not entirely unwarranted. Bollywood's image in the corporate world took a beating after its earlier brushes with corporate world did not produce encouraging results. While the experience of AB Corp (formerly Amitabh Bachchan Corporation Ltd) is all too well known, Indian Bank too had incurred huge losses on its exposures in film industry.

Although those involved in the new company are quick to point out that Indian Bank had extended loans to film personalities linked to politicians and that there was little accountability, financial institutions can't really be blamed for being sceptical. For them films remain a speculative business, industry status or noindustry status. However, United Producers' Forum, as a shareholder said, would strive to change this perception.

It's going to be an onerous task for an industry which has long lived on easy money and zero accountability. While till early eighties Bollywood films were financed by producers, distributors and exhibitors together, this changed with the arrival of the big-budget mega-productions. With the budgets shooting through the roof in the late '80s, producers turned to the underworld for funds, often allowing them to dictate the script and even the caste.

While the arrangement worked fine for some time, it took a sinister turn recently when the underworld began demanding a bigger piece in the industry pie. Several shootouts and threats later, film industry now wants to stick to the straight and the narrow. They want the government to play an active role in rejuvenating the industry. While they would like to see the heavy doses of entertainment tax go, they are also demanding incentive for export andsome tough action on piracy and intellectual property rights violations.

Industry pundits are confident these measures would not only make the business more lucrative, but will also attract financial institutions.

The Federation of Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) and the Film Federation of India, film industry's apex body, are already engaged in an exercise to give film industry a new investor-friendly profile. Both agree that to set up world-class studios and other infrastructure needed to make Indian film industry internationally competitive, huge investment would be needed. From where the money will come from? United Producers' Forum may just show the way.