Since we were just discussing the merits (or absurdity) of Brad Pitt in a movie about the life of the Buddha, I thought it would be appropriate to point out Halle Berry’s upcoming role as “Vanita Gupta.” From Apunkachoice.com:

Academy Award winner Halle Berry is likely to play the role of an India-born law graduate in America, Vanita Gupta, whose campaign helped overturning the judicial ruling in one of the biggest drug bust cases in the US.

Vanita Gupta is like the Erin Brockovich for the colored people in the Texas town of Tulia where 10 percent of its African-American population was arrested in a drug bust case in 1999, based on the sole testimony of under-cover narcotics agent Thomas Coleman, who was also a Ku Klux Klan member.

Halle Berry portraying an Indian woman, though? Well a short haired Halle does look a little like Arundhati Roy doesn’t she? Well…the face at least. I am quite sure their bodies aren’t as similar.

Sepia Mutiny’s favorite Desi Playboy never ceases to amaze. His movie “One Dollar Curry” opened up this week in Paris to pretty flattering coverage – Sify reports & graciously links back to Sepia Mutiny

“One Dollar Curry” by France-based Indian filmmaker, journalist and writer Vijay Singh takes a comic look at tolerance while lifting the curtain on an exotic side of the French capital unknown to many visitors. … “One Dollar Curry” is set in the French capital’s well-established home of immigrants from the subcontinent, the 10th district on the northern side, packed with grocery stores, restaurants, clothing stores and video rentals with cheap “phone home” facilities, bringing colour and exotic spicy smells to the grey streets. Its star however is Vikram Chatwal, a New Yorker whose family runs a chain of hotels and restaurants in the United States. He plays Nishan, a young Sikh political refugee who hawks curry from a cart in the streets but claims to be related to a line of chefs who cooked for the great names of the world from the Moghul emperors to Winston Churchill and Michael Jackson.

Word on the street is that Chatwal extensively researched the role by dismissing the maid for an evening and doing his own dishes before going to bed.

The Times of India has more.

Previous SM coverage on Chatwal – One More Dream for Chatwal and ON the Trail of Vikram Chatwal

Naveen Andrews who plays an ex-Iraqi Republican Guard soldier on ABC’s Lost, will be co-starring in an upcoming movie titled Easy (as in Sex is, but Love isn’t). From the movie’s website:

Lately, lighthearted stories about single urban chicks looking for love in a world of noncommittal guys flood our newsstands, televisions, and Cineplex screens. EASY confidently rises above the ranks of these romantic comedies, offering a less glossy, more penetrating vision of lovelorn life. Jamie Harris, portrayed with sparkling intelligence by actress Marguerite Moreau, is a neurotic, bright 25-year-old with a career naming peculiar consumer products. Though she gives them their identities, she’s rather confused about her own. After dating a string of jerks, she’s bewildered about whom to trust or how to find true intimacy. When two seemingly honorable men orbit around her, Jamie must confront what she is most afraid of. As in Shakespearean comedies, writer/director Jane Weinstock’s playful, nuanced script adroitly tosses competing desires up in the air, offering audiences the delicious pleasure of watching characters squirm and wriggle before everything falls into place.

…Marguerite Moreau (“Runaway Jury”) portrays the irresistible Jamie Harris. Naveen Andrews (“The English Patient”) is John, a sexy, sensitive and brilliant Anglo-Indian poet.

…The Production Designer was Aradhana Seth (“The Guru”)

After viewing the clips it looks like the movie has some potential. But then again I am a sucker for movies about angst ridden urban chicks.

The full trailer can be seen here. Continue reading →