The Great Trade-Off

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The Great Trade-Off

Bollywood and Hollywood stars have managed to blur the boundaries, as more and more Indian stars engage in the international arena, and American stars realise the significance of the Indian market

By Khalid Mohamed

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Published: Tue 4 Oct 2011, 3:14 AM

Last updated: Tue 7 Apr 2015, 3:02 AM

News is that Tom Cruise will speed-dash to Mumbai, mid-December — a little before X’mas — to promote the worldwide release of Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol. After a day in Mumbai, he will jet to Dubai as part of the worldwide publicity campaign.

Dubai has been a strong market for Hollywood blockbusters down the decades. Evidently, Mumbai now also figures seriously on the global map, as a growing source for films from the US. And to think, there was a time when the megapolis as well as other Indian cities, were believed to merely yield a drop, if at all, to Hollywood’s revenue. The Asian market was essentially associated with Hong Kong, Djakarta and Singapore. American films reached India months, even years, after they had made waves elsewhere.

The leap in the nation’s financial status, leading to the coinage of the term ‘India Shining’, has altered the scenario dramatically. Moreover, the enormous success of such special effects extravaganzas as the Spider-Man, Batman and Harry Potter series, on Indian shores have obviously made Hollywood’s studio honchos sit up and take notice.

Acknowledging the fact, practically every film from the US is now premiered in India simultaneously. And A-list celebrities including Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, Julia Roberts, Madonna, Paris Hilton, Judi Dench and Lady Gaga have opted to woo the Indian market. There is also news that the next James Bond adventure Carte Blanche will be shot in Goa, Ahmedabad and Delhi’s Daryaganj district, with Daniel Craig performing daredevil stunts in zig-zagging bylanes, railway tracks and trains.

Meanwhile, Indian actors are now being increasingly signed on for high-profile international projects. The gung-ho portrayal of a TV reality show host in the multi-Oscar-winning Slumdog Millionaire as well as a key role in widely-watched episodes in the tele-series 24, have made Anil Kapoor the most-visible Bollywood actor abroad. In Roger Donaldson’s Cities, currently in the works, he will share acting credits with Owen Wilson. Yesterday’s Mr India is in discussion for more American projects, explaining his frequent trips to Los Angeles.

The young Slumdog Millionaire twosome aren’t doing badly for themselves. Freida Pinto was seen in Woody Allen’s You Will Meet A Tall Dark Stranger and the simian spectacular Rise of the Planet of the Apes. Dev Patel is in the company of the redoubtable Judi Dench in The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel. Freida is still shaky as an actress, but she has a publicity machine backing her, proclaiming her to be the next best thing from India since its masala cuisine.

Amitabh Bachchan has been pencilled in by the stylish Moulin Rouge director, Baz Luhrmann, for the part of a mysterious gambler in The Great Gatsby, sharing screen space with Leonardo DiCaprio and Toby Maguire. Bachchan was to make his international debut with Mira Nair’s adaptation of the best-selling novel Shantaram, but the project has been placed on the back-burner. Similarly, a prominent appearance in Ridley Scott’s Kingdom of Heaven didn’t quite work out. The Great Gatsby, then, will mark the 68-year-old actor’s debut in a zone which practically every Bollywood star dreams about.

Till recently, Naseeruddin Shah and Om Puri were intensely wooed by international film agents. Om Puri has been directed by such stalwart directors as Mike Nichols (Wolf) and Stephen Hopkins (The Ghost and the Darkness). Of late, he appears to have been outpaced ever since Irrfan Khan appeared in the much-feted art-house film, The Warrior, a stepping stone for a rock-firm global film career. Evidence: the hosannas he has earned for his versatile acts in Mira Nair’s The Namesake and Michael Winterbottom’s A Mighty Heart. Currently, he is filming for Life of Pi and will fetch up in The Amazing Spider-Man. If he hadn’t shifted gears towards international cinema, Irrfan Khan may still have been trapped in Bollywood cinema which has typecast him a psychologically twisted baddy.

The powerhouse actress, Tabu, was in danger of being ghettoised in thankless roles in Bollywood. Not surprisingly, she has charted out an international career, too. After being featured in the glossy film magazines Premiere and Entertainment Weekly for her bravura performance in The Namesake, she was sought out by none other than Ang Lee, and signed up for Life of Pi, which will premiere next year.

Clearly, there is a new wave of cross-fertilisation between Bollywood and the West. Whether this wave will ebb or swell depends considerably on the stability of the ‘India Shining’ image. Since the last five years, top studios 20th Century Fox, Warner and Columbia have entered the arena of Hindi language film production and distribution. Plus, there have been reports of gazillion dollar deals between an Indian film production corporate and Steven Spielberg’s Dreamworks Films.

Bollywood is buzzing. It’s no longer insular, it has been following an open-door policy. The cautionary aspect is that the bubble could burst. What if the ‘India Shining’ status dims? In a knee-jerk business like cinema, boom time can be transitory.

(The writer has been reviewing Bollywood since he was in diapers. He has scripted three films and directed three others. Currently, he is working on a documentary and a book of short stories.)


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