The world shrinks for Bollywood
Noreen Aslam

BOMBAY—Pursuing long-nurtured dreams of genuine global conquests, Indian film production outfits have been looking westwards for funds and alliances for quite a while now. But barring the faint scent of a Marigold (a long-delayed Willard Carroll film starring Salman Khan, Ali Larter and Nandana Sen) here or fond hopes of a Paani (a still-born project announced a couple of years ago by Shekhar Kapur in collaboration with Hollywood producer Barrie Osborne) there, Bollywood has little to show for its efforts at the present juncture.
But things seem to be looking up in the wake of a sudden upsurge of Bollywood-Hollywood joint film industry ventures. Announcements of ambitious new films involving active American creative and financial participation have today become more frequent than ever before. More important, a few of these proposed projects have moved beyond mere paperwork and are already on the floors.
The Mumbai-based Percept Picture Company, which has quickly and deservedly built up a reputation for itself by backing films of the quality of Revathi’s Phir Milenge, Madhur Bhandarkar’s Page 3 and Shoojit Sircar’s Yahaan, among others, now also has an impressive slate of international films in the works. A still from Salman Khan’s much delayed film, Marigold. But things seem to be looking up in the wake of a sudden upsurge of Bollywood-Hollywood joint film industry ventures.
Already rolling is Tree of Life, a Colin Farrell starrer directed by Terence Malick. Co-produced by Percept and Sahara One Motion Pictures along with Donald Rosenfeld, long associated with Merchant Ivory Productions, Tree of Life isn’t, of course, the only international venture that the Mumbai company is currently involved with.
Even as its joint venture with Michael Douglas, Romancing the Monsoon, a breezy action film on the lines of Romancing the Stone and Jewel of the Nile, moves ever closer to fruition, Percept Picture Company has unveiled plans to join hands with Ram Gopal Varma to co-produce the producer-director’s first ever exclusively American film, Within.
The English-language film will reportedly be set in a Manhattan apartment peopled only by American characters.
Within will obviously be a significant first for RGV, but it is likely to be quickly followed up with Ek, a sweeping espionage thriller featuring Amitabh and Abhishek Bachchan with a clutch of Hollywood actors.
Varma had announced the big budget production over three years ago only to shelve it in favour of smaller, more manageable indigenous projects. The fact that he is now ready to revive Ek is a clear indication of a marked increase in the confidence levels of Bollywood filmmakers seeking to make global statements.
In yet another extremely significant development, Sony Pictures has decided to produce Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s next film, a teen love story titled Saawariya. Indications available so far suggest that the film will be a typical Bhansali product – unabashedly melodramatic and riotously colourful.
Sony’s strategy is clear: the showbiz major wants to make the most of a marriage of Hollywood production practices and a Bollywood filmmaking style, which has the potential of yielding commercial dividends in India and elsewhere.
If Sony is joining the fray, can other Hollywood studios be far behind? That’s unlikely. In an informal chat, the representative of a Hollywood studio in Delhi recently alluded to his company’s plans to enter the Indian film production-distribution space. “That could become a part of our business in India in a couple of years,” he revealed.
Among the several Indo-US co-productions already in the pipeline, Manish Gupta’s Karma, Confessions and Holi looks fair to be the one that will be the first to hit the screen. Being produced jointly by Saregama Films and Hollywood’s Drena De Niro (superstar Robert De Niro’s adopted daughter), Karma is about four New York couples that meet on weekends to share their innermost feelings with each other as their jaded relationships amble through nothingness.
Karma has three sets of characters – fresh-off-the-boat Indian migrants, born-in-the-US Indians and White resident Americans. Manish Gupta, a New York-based IT software professional-turned-filmmaker who debuted with Indian Fish in American Waters, is of course working with a mix of Indian and American actors on the new film.