A screenwriter sitting in a hip, Hollywood hotel suite has an idea for a movie. He writes it down. A studio buys the script, green lights it and starts production. Producers rent the equipment, arrange the schedule and handle the money. A year or so later, the red carpet is rolled out and the stars parade at the premiere.
Anil Sharma, a Malibu resident and president of Hollywood Rentals Production Services (HR), wants to have his hand in that entire movie making process, from inspiration to release.
His company is currently the largest provider of electrical and lighting equipment to the industry, with more than $61 million worth of gear, a fleet of 140 trucks and three hubs across the country. HR headquarters reside in two massive warehouses on 33 acres of land north of Burbank Airport. Posters of major motion pictures that rented equipment from HR line the walls of the luxury offices, while the marketing team, a small number of the 100-plus staff, buzzes on the phones with prospective clients.
And Sharma, who just bought the company in January, sits back in his office, running the show. While keeping track of the truck fleet and all the equipment, he’s also keeping his finger on the pulse of the movie biz and trying to push his reach farther and farther, with hopes of opening hubs in London and Portugal.
Even though he picked up the company recently, he’s anything but new to the film industry–his last gig was a stint as chief financial officer at Raleigh Studios, the biggest independent film production house in the world. And his daily reading is now more Variety and less Wall Street Journal.
The way he tells it, with his background in restaurant and hotel management, he was bred for the job. “It’s really customer service, just like in hotels,” he said. “You have a product and your main concern is that the customer is absolutely satisfied with it. [Director] James Cameron called at midnight from San Jose because a light wasn’t working. We have to get another one right out there–that’s what I do.”
Sharma was born in India and educated in England, and later earned his master’s in business in Chicago. His astute business sense is what got him HR. The massive and overextended Hollywood Rentals had fallen into bankruptcy, and serious concerns about writer and actor strikes were scaring off buyers. Sharma and his partners stepped in at the basement and bought the company for a bargain price.
“You have to see things both ways,” he says with a proud smile. “The [expectation of a] strike scared me, but it scared everyone else that wanted to buy the company. That strike (which never happened) is why I was able to get HR.”
And for Sharma, this is just the beginning. He wants HR to be the complete and absolute provider of motion picture services and equipment–from the muse’s moment in the hotel to the red carpet.
In the smash and grab industry where it is not uncommon to do business with 10 or more companies during a single production, HR is already somewhat of a phenomenon. Along with the grip and electric, HR, which can accommodate several dozen major shoots simultaneously, provides full production services: in-house offices, transportation, communication equipment, even coffee services. He already has a coffee shop (with the industry-appropriate name “Buzz”), has run a chain of restaurants and several hotels, and has global plans for the future of HR.
But with sunglasses on, driving slowly in his Jaguar, Sharma is laid-back and laughing, talking about his kids playing T-ball and soccer in Malibu. He talks openly about his projects, present and future. He is excited about show business, with which he has become very enamored.
“I really want to keep everything around, associated with, the entertainment industry.” And he enjoys talking about his hometown and Indian cinema.
Sharma moved to Malibu three years ago and immediately fell in love with the area. His house is perched at the top of Las Flores Canyon.
“It’s such a throw-back to the ’50s — way up there, safe. Who wouldn’t love this?”