India “happening” in LA
Folks,
Article in Variety indicates that India is no longer “flavor of the month,” for LA, but is on the way to becoming Londonisque, where the curry is now a British “national” dish.
Read on – Choice of films though is dissapointing methinks —READ ON!!!
Warner Bros. on Tuesday unveiled its first India production, the action comedy “Made in China,” for which it will hold worldwide rights.
With the film — helmed by Nikhil Advani (”Salaam-e-ishq”) and produced by Indian shingles Ramesh Sippy Prods. and Orion Pictures –Warner joins Viacom, Sony and Disney in the accelerating Hollywood race to make movies in India.
Though Hollywood fare flourishes overseas, it accounts for a small percentage of the box office in India –the world’s second most populous nation. For example, Hollywood fare accounted for 85% of Spain’s B.O. in 2006 but only 8% in India.
Since new multiplexes mean the Indian B.O. pie is growing, Hollywood is determined to increase its share — and rather than bringing Western influence into the movie biz, the plan is to get into the Bollywood game.
Local fare, such as Hindi-language Bollywood pics, rules the box office and also define entertainment in India. Film scores and song-and-dance tunes from Bollywood movies dominate the musical landscape, while local stars rule the advertising market through their product endorsements.
In the wake of these realities, Hollywood is changing its India game plan. In the past, the studios gave lip service to the notion of acquiring remake rights or the possibility of exporting local foreign-language films to wider international audiences. Those notions have largely been dropped.
The Hollywood studios now expect their Indian movies to earn the majority of their revenues from the India market. Sony, News Corp., Disney and Warner have been working in the local TV sector in this way for several years.
Comparisons with China are enlightening. While filmmakers in China must submit to central government requirements for a focus on Chinese culture and local talent as a condition for co-production approval or local release, Indian helmers and producers are being given effective creative control because it makes financial sense.
WB’s Hindi-language “Made in China” will star Bollywood action hero Akshay Kumar as a lowly Mumbai cook who is mistaken for a martial-arts master as well as Indian model-turned-actress Deepika Padukone. Pic was scripted by Shridhar Raghavan, who penned the Ramesh Sippy hit “Bluff Master.”
The Hindi-language film, it is said, will be the first ever to lense in China when production begins in January, and Chinese casting is under way.
Budget was not disclosed but is believed to be substantial by Indian standards. (”Devdas” holds the record at $11 million, but $4 million-$6 million is considered pricey.)
“At the turn of the century, there was a lot of promise in the air about globalization in Indian cinema, and now, with this venture, RSE and Orion are joining hands with Warner Bros., bringing that dream closer to reality,” said producer Sippy.
Hollywood’s other projects in India:
- Sony Pictures is backing “Saawariya,” a Bollywood meller being helmed by a master of the big spectacle, Sanjay Leela Bhansali (”Devdas”).
- In June, Disney pacted with Bollywood powerhouse Yash Raj Films to take both companies into India’s increasingly muscular CGI animation biz. Strategic alliance sets “Roadside Romeo” as its first picture and commits the pair to making one toon budgeted at $4 million-$10 million each year thereafter.
- In an even bigger move unveiled in May, Viacom tipped the bulk of its Indian businesses into a joint venture with the Network-18 group. While deal initially focuses on smallscreen ventures, part of that pact sees Viacom became an equal partner in the Indian Film Co., a new shingle that raised $112 million from a London Stock Exchange flotation and has greenlit development and production of 22 movies with start dates skedded over the coming 18 months.
(Indian Film Co. committed on Tuesday to two pics from Sohail Khan Prods., both set to star Salman Khan.)
Still investing in Bollywood isn’t without its risks for outsiders. Twentieth Century Fox’s plans to produce three Hindi films from director Ram Gopal Varma, including “Ek hasina thi” (There Was Once a Beauty), fell apart in 2002 over difficulties between the studio and Varma’s production company (Daily Variety, March 22, 2006).
Hollywood has gone local in other places around the globe. Warner was a backer of Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s “A Very Long Engagement” in France, while Sony was key to “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon,” often held up as the epitome of local production combined with Hollywood distribution strength.
The U.S. studios have had a very strong year so far in India, with “Spider-Man 3,” “Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix” and “Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End” all turning in boffo numbers. But that success has highlighted what a small share of the Indian movie biz Hollywood currently enjoys.
“We are excited and proud to be working with such respected partners as Ramesh Sippy and Orion,” said Blaise Fernandes, country manager, Warner Bros. Entertainment India. “We’ll count on our partners’ expertise and will do everything in our power to make a well-crafted, popular and successful Indian film.”
Sincerely,
Vivek “ok here comes some serious competition to the desi production houses…ahem BOUNCED CHECK issuers listening???” Kumar
Anurag Kashyap
Abhay Deol
Dibakar Banerjee
Hansal Mehta
Khalid Mohamed
Kundan Shah
Anish Kuruvilla
Jaideep Verma
Manish Gupta
Navdeep Singh
Bhavani Iyer
D. Santosh
Onir
Ashvin Kumar
Ramu Ramanathan
Sudhir Mishra
Pankaj Advani
Revathy
Saurabh Shukla
Shilpa Shukla
Sujoy Ghosh
Suparn Verma
Santosh Sivan
Shashank Ghosh
Shivajee
Pavan Kaul
Partho Sen-Gupta
Prroshant Naryannan
Sam Langoria
Satish Kasetty
Its funny, we were just discussing this today, about how there’s never been a time where Indian cinema is getting noticed in a bigger way than now. This also means more opportunities for those interest in crossover projects and even for those who are interested in making Indian films with international appeal.
Could the latter also be the reason behind why so many recent films have had either English taglines or out and out English titles? (Black Friday, Cash, Partner, Red, Darling, Honeymoon Travels, Just Married, etc etc).
Call me old-school, but I miss the days of “purebred” Indian films (the ones that weren’t made with western sensibilities kept in mind).
Take Yashraj from example, whatever one thinks of the films themselves everything from “Daag” to “Dilwale Dulhania Lejayenge” was extensively “Indian” at heart. I can name tons of other examples but you all get my point I’m sure.
Even for those us us going up outside of India, those films were the mainstream films of our country, they were OUR films…
I hope, somewhere in this mix, we don’t end up losing that very personal identity…
Hi Tony,
Couldn’t help replying to your comment about ‘Losing our Personal Identity’. Movies are always a reflection of society, bringing up issues and mindsets that are either true or believed to be true. Now when people like us speak English most of the time, when village kids learn English in the hope of reaching the beautiful places they see on TV, when larger and larger numbers of families have members ‘abroad’, doesn’t our personal identity include bits of the US/UK/whatever?
Identity is something that keeps changing with the times – as it should. There’s nothing wrong about Ash or Kalpen or Irrfan becoming a part of Hollywood, so I’d guess there’s nothing wrong about Hollywood studios taking interest in India.
Reminds me of something else: Notice that though Mumbai is the hub of the ‘Bollywood’ (sorry intelligentsia) industry, most of the movies have been produced by Punjabi/Bengali/Tamilian folks. This enriched the industry, no doubt. It was a cross-pollination that was happening within India, and no one except Bal-Thackeray types saw anything wrong with that. Now the same thing is happening, on a larger scale. Can we really feel threatened by it?
Surdarshan, I’m not at all threatened by it. I welcome it. Its great that the so-called giants of Hollywood are taking such a keen interest in our films, their makers and the unique culture that exsits within our cinema.
And yes, being born and brought up outside of India I completely understand that North America, Europe, Australia, South Africa and other places where the Indian diaspora exsist has become a huge part of our cultural identity as Indians. That should be reflected in our cinema, no doubt.
But it should not take over our cinema.
Let’s call this foreign invasion/movement the present, our traditional filmi culture the past and the experimental cinema movement we’re witnessing the future.
The only place where all three worlds can, and should, co-exsist simultaneously IS in our land of cinema.
For every “Dil Chahata Hai”, “Dhoom 2″ or “Cheeni Kum” there should be a “Paheli”, “Dor” and “Chak De India” as well as a “Manorama” & “Johnny Gaddar”.
We should also remember, honour, and watch our classic cinema to stay connected to those great cinematic personalities that built and brought to glory the industry we’re so damn passionate about.
Thankfully we’re living in that day and age today. I just hope that it stays this way for many decades to come.
I can see where Tony is coming from. When I was in India I literally had films all over me, enough opportunity to become a part of it, yet all I yearned was a tennis camp in the US, Bruce Springsteen and Manhattan with an Investment Bankers job. The moment I set foot in this continent, first in Canada and then the US and actually even before that when i came here on a tennis camp in 1986, I suddenly became totally connected with Bollywood films…I guess where I am going with this is, as an NRI, which probably Tony has been all his life and me for part of it, our movies become our connectivity, as filmmaker Piyush Pandya put it, ” growing up in Long Island, I had no indianness in me, then movies happened…now New Jersey is home.” So actually both you guys have a valid point, it is just that your environment is different and your experiences growing up are distinct, so one yearns for the part that was probably not that much there in his surrounding and the other one also……yearns for that, which was probably not there in his surrounding, just that the surrounding is different and hence the movies will be different….but both are movies, solid Bollywood or indian movies…that’s the bottom line…
We have seen this happen before. The Big Music Labels came to India with money bags & released so much music & lost everything & closed shop. I am predicting the same thing would happen. BecauseI don’t see the quality of films changing because of these studio guys from Burbank. They are there purely to make money. Infact now the money will leave India & end up in banks in Wilshire Blvd instead of Lokhandwala.
I was looking at the movies that are being produced – one stars Akshay Kumar & 2 stars Salman Khan. That says it all.
They tried to make money out of their own hollywood films but could not breakthrough beyong that 8%. Now they figured lets take over the rest of the 90% with our money bags.
God I sound so cynical.
**************
Last Film – Pretty Percuasion (7.5/10)
Book – A Brief History of 21st Century
Music – DJ ChEBE’ E Sabah
coming of hollywood is a great change not just for the bounce chequers.. [ha ha i remembered our debate on it] but also more heathy competition and churning out scripts which are original. no more place for the inspirations or ripp offs as I am sure hollywood wouldn’t like to back the versions of its own scripts unless its been paid for..:d:o
Vivek,
Your article calls for a caveat. It could be seen that all the big fours of H’wood are eager to work with people who churn out the regular potboilers (the K-Jo,Bansali clan),but guys like Anurag Kashyap will always be left behind. Nowhere we see Weinstein Bros/Miramax is coming to india to support the other genres of movies what they did with movies of Takashi Miike or Hideo Nakata or Ang Lee in recent past.
And now I can not expect Warner to be playing their cards as they did in sixties to open roads for Yankee audience to ride movies of guys like Piere Paolo pasolini or Jean Luc Goddard.
So, the bottomline is we shud be ready for Jhoom Barabar Jhoom part 2 with Cameo by Angelina Jolie and CGI provided by IL&M. Someone please tell me where is that support for the other cinema , the inspiration and that money for those directors who want to make a progress from fifty years old Indian elongated musical by giving it a more universal language? Who would finance the next Black friday(yes, I am worshipping the man again, sue me)? Harvey Weinstein , are you listening?
Regards,
Cubicle Bound Misfit
Mainak/Cubicle- I share your fears but also have hope that the studios are doing what we call an etnry via a “risk averse” (as percieved by them) entry, but I can bet you that once here and they see the impact that movies like Black Friday can have, they will begin to get Anurag, etc on their roster of directors.
But I do share the optimism expressed by Suchita that it will make things way more professional now…I mean I’ll be honest…I think 10 times before working for a desi company here and in India, but you can call me whatever, I find the foreign companies to be way more professional and yet get a lot of work done and now of course our desi companies have taken than professional culture and made it even better than the folks whom they took it from….expect a similar reaction from the ADLABS/Studio 18, etc…..and while I can’t go more into it for now….you’ll be surprised how aware and eager the Winsteins/Miramax are to find the right project….believe me on that….more shortly…but I have EXTREMELY STRONG reasons to believe that…and they are looking for the Anuraag’s of India,a s are ADLABS and as are Studio 18…to me that is a win/win for Anuraag/Rajat, etc.
Vivek, have you met anyone at the miramax/weinsteins? I think it will be a great step ahead.. Imagine being able to make something like a lord of the rings [not a rip off.. ha ha] something as strong and a great story telling like that in a budget like that in India..
Suchita will answer that in detail after Aug 31st since it is linked to my own project…but short answer YES, India figures quite promenently with the Weisteins who also like to do their own thing as oppossed to go with “public” or “general” opinion…so don’t be surprised if they think even in the reverse, cause we even generalize what is “good” but pretty much if the project is good, then all are game, not necessarily the perceived “good”….I know that sounds vague, but will write about it shortly and then expect the ususal brickbats:d
ha ha, waiting to know more about it and your film…..and brickbats are part of the game am waiting for my share:-?
What it this, PassionforSuspense? First all this hoopla around 1 (weren’t we supposed to know by now?) and now Vivek goes on about…
“..and while I can
definitely there will be no check bouncing and more professionalism. :d/:d/:d/
Hey Suchita… Not sure if anything the scale of Lord of the Rings will be made in India anytime soon… totally different economics… the biggest will likely be one of these Ramayan or Mahabharat type films… at least in the near future…
While on the topic, personally I’m not sure how many will be interested to see that kind of period/religious/mythological film… especially considering the vast majority of audiences are familiar with the story (at least at a general level which can fit the format of a 3 hour film or 3-3hour films forming a trilogy)… Ramanand Sagar & BR Chopra did a pretty good job with the serials they’ve made as it is…
Tony, Ram Madhvani is making a film , which I believe is in scale with LOTR… PRODUCED BY Vidhu. People who have seen the promos are ranting about it And I hope we get to make and see something of that scale sooon here… besides brushing up our technological skill which I believe we are doing, we need to more concentrate on our stories… which I am not sure many people are doing…The ratio is really less…but the future looks bright.. i am very positive
Suchita the film is called talisman – i read somewhere that it is based on chandrakanta.
talisman stars Amitabh Bachchan and is based on Chadrakanta
YEah thanks its called TALISMAAN.
yeah yeah yeah, I remember reading about Talisman around when Eklavya was being hyped. Thanks for the reminder! Should be awesome…