Irrfan Khan in demand
Having quietly made his way into the 'A' league of actors, Bollywood star
Irrfan Khan is now finding himself in demand for overseas movies, which he thinks are much more realistic and technically sound than those made back home.
"There is more realism in films made abroad and their technique is better," Irrfan, who has received huge acclaim for his performance in the recently released American production
The Namesake, said.
Besides the
Mira Nair directed film, that is based on a
Jhumpa Lahiri novel by the same name, Irrfan also figures in the international project
A Mighty Heart that was recently premiered at the prestigious Cannes Film Festival.
"The international filmmakers focus on making things look authentic. A lot of money and a lot of effort is put into the films for this purpose. Over here, the emphasis is on creating a fantasy. This is the basic difference between our films and their films," Irrfan said.
While in
The Namesake he played an Indian who has migrated to the US, in
Angelina Jolie starrer
A Mighty Heart, that is based on the kidnapping and murder of Wall Street Journal correspondent
Daniel Pearl, Irrfan has essayed the role of a Pakistani Anti-Terrorist Squad officer.
Irrfan's first international exposure came through the British film
Warrior that was even chosen to represent the UK in the Best Foreign Language Film category in the Oscars in 2003.
Irrfan is now looking forward to a probable role in the Mira Nair film
Shantaram whose shooting is slated to start later this year. The movie will star Bollywood mega superstar
Amitabh Bachchan and Hollywood icon
Johnny Depp.
Irrfan has also acted in
Migrate, another film made by Nair and is now in the post-production stage.
And Irrfan feels there is a whole new interest in Indian actors and they can hope to get more opportunities in films made abroad.
"Mexican and Chinese actors have been getting roles in Hollywood films. And there is definitely the possibility for Indian actors getting more work there. In the near future, people will be working here as well as there," Irrfan said.
Hockey Hall of Shame to Gold via SRK
For years, Indian fans have been unable to shut out two traumatic sporting memories of the ‘80s.
Chetan Sharma’s last ball low full toss to
Javed Miandad who hit it for a six in that 1986 Sharjah game against Pakistan is the more famous Hall of Shame nominee. But old timers still think that hockey goalkeeper
Mir Ranjan Negi’s porous defence, in India’s humiliating 1-7 loss to Pakistan in the 1982 Asian Games at New Delhi, was a bigger heart break.
Twenty-five years after those 70 minutes at the jam-packed National Stadium and subsequent unsubstantiated allegations of match-fixing, Bollywood is ready with a film that captures Negi’s life and game. Yash Raj production’s
Shah Rukh Khan-starrer
Chak de India, due for an August 10 release, isn’t just about the angst of the troubled goal-keeper but also about his redemption.
Produced by
Aditya Chopra and directed by
Shimit Amin of
Ab Tak Chhappan fame, the bio-pic also captures Negi’s hour of glory that ensures a typically Bollywood happy ending. As coach of the national women’s team, Negi helped the team capture the gold at the Manchester Commonwealth Games, exactly two decades after the game where he let in seven goals.
Negi, who is part of the usual pre-release contractual oath of secrecy that goes with every big banner films, is tightlipped but does confess that King Khan’s character is based on him. “The film captures my life story,” he said.
The Yash Raj website’s one-line synopsis of
Chak de India is: The film follows a coach who is fighting his personal demons as he takes a motley group of girls to the pinnacle of world hockey.
Pre-release film material shows Shah Rukh sporting a slight stubble, a look that resembles Negi. Cine magazine sneak previews talk about the protagonist whose only aim is to see the Indian Tricolour hoisted with flags of all other countries.
John in Deepa Mehta's next
It's official. Bollywood hunk
John Abraham who said he wouldn't ever tom-tom his prospects abroad until a project crystallises in Hollywood, has done it. He's all set to play the male lead opposite the
Constant Gardner, Constantine and
Mummy actress
Rachel Weisz in
Deepa Mehta's
Luna.
The deal was finalised just a few days ago. John flew to Cannes last week on Saturday ostensibly to support his film Goal. "I informed John about the Hollywood project with Rachel and he was very excited," said Deepa on Sunday afternoon from Cannes before flying back to her home in Toronto barely 24 hours after she landed in Cannes.
"I had no intentions of coming to Cannes. But my producers decided to announce the project. The real-life inspiration for the female lead is
Julia Hill and she also came to Cannes. However, Julia won't be participating in the making of the film," she said.
John will be the first mainstream actor from Bollywood to play a culture-unspecific role opposite a huge Hollywood actress. Said Deepa, "John, who plays an environmentalist in Luna, is not an Indian, nor an American in the film. His culture origins aren't specified. Unlike in
Water, in this film, he won't be a man in a dhoti playing the basuri. This makes him Bollywood's first actor to crack the West without playing an NRI or some exotic creature. He has a full-fledged role opposite Rachel."
Two-time Oscar winner
David Ward will write the script for the film. Deepa specifies that the film is very eco-friendly. "The true-life inspiration for the film, Julia Hill, just loved John. Her approval was very important. She thought he looked like
Antonio Banderas."
John-Bipasha face racism in London
The actors and the crew of
Vivek Agnihotri’s movie
Goal faced racism while shooting the film in London.
For more than two months now, Agnihotri has been shooting
Goal in London with the movie’s stars
John Abraham, Bipasha Basu and
Arshad Warsi.
Since the movie’s story revolves around football, the unit has been shooting the film in long and physically stressing schedules that usually began in the evening and continued till the wee hours of the morning.
While most of the shooting of the film went without hiccups, there were some unsavory incidents.
Reports quote Agnihotri as saying that during some shootings the white Londoners used to make comments about the skin color of Indians and called some members of the shooting team "bloody Indians".
Agnihotri, who had had similar experience while shooting his previous film
Chocolate in London, did not respond to any of these racist remarks.
Even the movie’s actors John, Bipasha and Arshad Warsi were not spared of racism. Some whites allegedly made fun of John while he was shooting for football match sequences (John plays a footballer in the film).
On a different occasion when Bipasha and Arshad were waiting on a traffic signal, two white guys began singing a rap song that made fun of Indians. The two actors did not respond them back.
Agnihotri says he will respond to such racism through his film in which some sequences deal with this issue.
Junior B may play Rajiv Gandhi
Abhishek Bachchan might play
Rajiv Gandhi, who was also a very good friend of his father
Amitabh Bachchan, in a movie that will expose the plot behind 1991 assassination of former Prime Minister.
Notwithstanding the fact that the Gandhis and Bachchans are at the moment at loggerheads, especially politically, the film becomes even more exciting as it will feature Abhishek (or
Sanjay Dutt, who again is in the inner circle of the Bachchans and was one of the select film industry invitees to the Abhi– Aish wedding last month) in the lead.
The film is slated to be made by
Anubhav Sinha, who last directed
Tum Bin, Dus and
Tathastu.
Sinha with a small team has reportedly been researching the assassination for months and claims to have come across some startling and so far unknown facts.
It may be recalled that Rajiv Gandhi was blown apart by an LTTE suicide bomber at Sriperumbudur near Chennai.
Sinha calls his film a "celluloid investigation of Rajiv Gandhi's assassination, tackling questions that were never asked, let alone answered." He hopes to complete the film by the end of next year.
The pivotal role of Aishwarya Rai in Sarkar 2
The gorgeous
Aishwarya Rai reportedly has a pivotal role in
Sarkar 2.
After marriage, Ash will face the camera for
Ram Gopal Varma’s ambitious sequel of
Sarkar. Reports are that Ash will be playing the pivotal role of a manipulative daughter-in-law of the Nagre family.
The plot of
Sarkar 2 will have
Abhishek Bachchan assuming the position of the patriarch, while an aged and feeble
Amitabh Bachchan keeps himself to the house.
Varma shifts the focus to the daughter-in-law – played by Ash – who eventually, evolves as the matriarch in the family.
The film will have Ash masterminding strategies to retain the family’s monopoly in different underworld businesses. Abhishek will be shown falling back on his wife in times of crises.
The reports quote a source from the production house as saying, “Aishwarya’s character holds a lot of importance in the sequel. Amitabh Bachchan will be reduced to being a helpless old man who has only his experiences to share with his son, the new godfather. Abhishek, along with his wife, will run the business and sort out problems of the people. Aishwarya will be seen as a shrewd woman.”
Another source added, “She is not an out-and-out negative character. She strikes a balance between her household work and the family business. She loves her family, at the same time she can be ruthless when it comes to dealing with wayward characters.”
Reportedly, Ash will sport minimal make-up in the film.
Another source said, “She is quite excited about the film. The plot is quite close to real life. She will play bahu to the family.”
Now, Rajesh Khanna in a romantic role
Veteran actor
Rajesh Khanna is acting in a movie about romance between a 60-yr-old man and a 25-yr-old girl.
The film, titled
Wafaa, is being directed by
Rakesh Sawant (
Rakhi Sawant’s brother) and has south Indian actress
Laila cast opposite Rajesh Khanna.
Though the film’s story seems pretty similar to
Ram Gopal Varma’s
Nishabd (with
Amitabh Bachchan in the lead), the movie’s director insists that similarities are superficial.
Sawant reveals that
Wafaa is the story of an old man who marries a young girl. The film has Rajesh Khanna playing a rich businessman. Laila plays the young girl who marries him but then has extramarital affair with another man, a younger one.
The film is a crime thriller with a shocking twist in the end.
Wafaa will also have some intimate scenes. But such scenes don’t feature Rajesh Khanna. They have been shot on Laila and her young co-star. The film also has an item song shot on
Kainaaz.
Francis Ford Coppola coming to Mumbai
Francis Ford Coppola, maker of the memorable
Godfather movies, will soon be coming to Mumbai.
Coppola is one of the most celebrated filmmakers of Hollywood. Films made by him have inspired many Bollywood flicks,
Ram Gopal Varma’s
Sarkar being one of them.
Coppola will be visiting Mumbai soon on an invitation by Bollywood producer-director
Subhash Ghai. The Hollywood director will be giving lectures to film students at Ghai’s acting school Whistling Woods.
Though the date of Coppola’s Mumbai visit has still not been fixed, sources say it will happen before July when the new batch of students will be enrolled in Whistling Woods.
Apparently, Coppola will give lectures to the students of the outgoing batch.
Besides lecturing at Whistling Woods, Coppola is also expected to meet a couple of Bollywood filmmakers and visit a few studios in Mumbai.
Ranbir to romance four heroines
If things go as planned, newcomer
Ranbir Kapoor might be seen romancing four girls in a Yashraj Films presentation. Lucky guy!
Ranbir,
Rishi Kapoor’s son, will be making his acting debut in
Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s movie
Saanvariya this year.
The buzz now has it that the young star has been signed by
Aditya Chopra for a Yashraj movie that will be directed by
Siddharth Anand, whose
Tara Rum Pum hit the theatres last Friday.
What is interesting is that Aditya Chopra is reported to be signing as many as four heroines opposite Ranbir in the film.
Although there is no official confirmation, the grapevine says the four heroines may be
Preity Zinta, Priyanka Chopra, Katrina Kaif and
Amrita Rao.
If such a cast ensemble indeed takes place it will be nothing short of a casting coup.
Desi Lolita
Filmmaker
Shashilal Nair is making a Hindi film on
Vladimir Nabokov’s novel
Lolita.
While
Ram Gopal Varma’s
Nishabd turned out to be far from Lolita, Nair is making a proper adaptation of Nabokov’s book about romance between an old man and a young girl.
Nair’s Lolita has
Jackie Shroff playing the old man. A new girl, whose name has not been revealed, is playing the young Lolita.
Dimple Kapadia plays Jackie’s wife in the movie.
Nair unabashedly reveals that his movie will have lots of sexual undercurrent and steamy scenes between Jackie and the young girl. In fact, Jackie was quite apprehensive about shooting some of these scenes. But Nair had already got Jackie’s consent on these scenes in contractual agreement. The actor had to shoot them eventually.
Saif performs dangerous stunt
Actor
Saif Ali Khan will be seen doing some very risky stunts in
Abbas Mastan’s thriller
Race.
We haven’t seen Saif doing much action in films. But that will change with
Race. One sequence in the film shows Saif jumping off a skyscraper and landing on the roof of a car.
Apparently, Saif was not comfortable while doing the stunt with cables. He was required to jump from 24th floor of the building and cables are not 100 percent safe in doing such stunts.
To be on the safe side, Saif asked his action director
Allan Amin to perform the stunt for him first. Amin reportedly used very reliable Dynex ropes (which are more flexible and stronger than cables) to do the stunt. Assured of safety, Saif then did the stunt himself. And the actor liked the adrenalin rush that the stunt gave him.
By the way, Saif has said that he will be working out to develop a properly chiseled physique for his upcoming films.
