Just saw this over on Beliefs, Blackness, and Bollywood…apparently Mira Nair has signed on to direct the big-budget film Shantaram, with Johnny Depp as the lead and Brad Pitt’s Plan B as producer. Shantaram — for those of you unfamiliar with the title — is based on a Gregory David Roberts novel of the same name. The story revolves around an Australian heroin addict who escapes prison, sets up a medical clinic in the slums of Mumbai, and finds himself immersed in the city’s underworld, which consists of smuggling, gun running, and working in the Indian film industry.
I haven’t read the book yet (I’m just going by what I read in wikipedia and elsewhere on the internet), so I’m withholding judgment on the project for now. However, the details of this film so far are quite fascinating.
Take, for example, the story of how Johnny Depp managed to snag the lead role. According to this article, both Russell Crowe and Johnny Depp wanted the part, but Gregory Roberts ultimately chose Depp. Apparently it came down to the fact that…
“Johnny Depp has a lot of Indian friends,” Roberts said. “The way he spoke about them has made me realise that he was the best actor who could bring that love to the film.”
I can just picture all these struggling actors now trying to emulate Johnny Depp, re-writing their resumes so that they read: John Doe. Film, television, and theater actor. Also knows people who are [insert relevant minority group here], and holds them in very high regard. Similarly, according to Variety, Shantaram’s producers are excited that Nair has agreed to direct the film, because she brings an “authentic eye” to the project. As in, she’s a brown person who knows the difference between a real Mumbai slum and one that’s been manufactured for tourists, unlike the rest of us clueless people. According to this interview, Nair seems very optimistic about the film:
Unlike the movies where the white man comes to the dark continent and teaches how to light a candle, make electricity or whatever, this is a film about a man who is ashamed, guilty, who has no self esteem at all, who is a convict, heroine addict and he discovers what honour is. He meets very very important desi characters who instills in him what honour is,” said Nair.
Ok, enough cynicism. I really should read the book. In any case, Mira Nair’s work is hit or miss for me. I loved Salaam Bombay! and Monsoon Wedding, but I wasn’t impressed by either Mississippi Masala or Vanity Fair. It’s too soon to tell whether Shantaram is going to uphold the cows-caste-curry-dowry stereotypes we often see in other Hollywood films, or whether Johnny Depp’s Indian friends will help him win an Oscar. Still, I’m curious to see what the end result will be.
I really should read the book.
It is an amazing book, little over the top but very enjoyable.
I read the book ages ago and how interesting that it got picked up for a movie. It’s quite a story. I think Johnny Depp would do it a lot of justice. He is dark enough and prolific enough to pull it off. When I think sady/drug addict/mafia connection etc I don’t think Russell Crowe, I mos def think Johnny Depp. Besides I’ve been crushing on him since 21 Jump Street days.
I think her Namesake was an interesting take on the Ganguly family before and after moving to the US, without exoticism for the white audiences. Just a very matter-of-fact treatment of the parents preferences and characteristics compared to their US-born son and daughter. I’m curious to see how this one is received in India. Tabu and Irfan Khan own the film, much moreso than Kal Penn.
Funny to see two separate posts about the two filmmakers who are regularly taken to task by audiences and critics back in India.
i read this a few days ago when it was posted on sm’s new section. can someone explain to me what this means?
Filmiholic: We planned it that way. But in all seriousness, I think this is a sympton of these two directors being amongst the most successful desi filmakers in the west. (I think M. Night gets taken to task quite often as well).
I haven’t had the fortune of seeing The Namesake yet, but after witnessing Penn’s lackluster performances last week in both 24 and Law and Order, I am not surprised by your observation.
nice story… horrid pictures 🙂
it’s being produced by brad pitt’s production company, plan B
It’s not a great novel, but it is a great big read and story, it could have done with some more editing, but maybe if it was Greg Roberts voice might have been muted, after all prior to this he was not a writer.
As for Crowe v Depp? I empirically base this on who has a record of throwing telephones at brown people behind service counters. Crowe leads that metric 1-0 so it has to be Depp all the way.
Yeah imagine he was a criminal before writing the best seller. I think it’s a fascinating tale for that time especially the Mumbai angle. And howdy down under Phil 🙂
He is dark enough and
Shantaram is not dark at all. He is white Australian. Here are some pictures of Gregory Roberts aka Shantaram.
Johnny Depp is a perfect choice.
thanks. didn’t know that.
Mira Nair, along with other directors such as Santosh Sivan, Vishal Bhardwaj and Farhan Akhtar will be making short films about HIV/AIDS this year. This work will be funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Hopefully it will be good stuff and will successfully address some education, stigma, prevention issues.
Actually, Johnny Depp paid for the rights for the film ($2 mil) about 2 years ago, so he was always the lead choice for the character. [Reporting from LA, that is…]
Is that what Mira Nair looks like? I saw the picture and thought it’s Queen Latifah.
haha… btw latifa supped a couple of months back in my local coffee spot, as did measha brueggergosman … of course out here nobody cares.
hey… where you at in Cali? vant to meet up ?
That brief description of the book made it sound like another one reviewed at SM recently, Siddhartha’s take on Sacred Games. I’m tempted to get my friend who worked for a Mumbai nonprofit for a year to write HER story — as far as I know, no gangsters will be involved.
of course i realize now san jose is not really a sneeze shake away from san francisco. i am such a pindoo
That would have been great AND awesome :B. SJ-SF is a sneeze as far as I’m concerned and would be glad to do it. I have to cover 10 times that distance almost every week. However, I’m in Shrutipuri, CA, which is great, but it’s almost a pind. So, I’m the pindoo.
Perhaps I can catch you in TO which is one of my favorite cities (been there only once) for many reasons. Or maybe even before that in NYC/SF since I’ll be moving to one of these cities soon.
Cool! Do you remember to carry your camera with you when you visit this ultra cool coffee shop?
hush! where we come from, they dont like plastic and chrome gadgetry. someone walked in with a daguerrotype the other day. the owner throttled him with his intestine pulled out of his anus. the menu is a mishmash of glyphs on a dried cowpie – and i’m so tired, even i find myself unfunny. so i shall sleep and dream of little bald girls whose hair is golden brown, baked in the sun. baked so that the skull shines through and when the girls smile, the mouths open in unison as bright red gashes in the stretched alabaster skin and sharp pointy teeth with metalic tips glint through. good night.
[threadjack] Hey, now that you guys mention it, SM’ers in the Bay meeting up to watch and talk about movies focusing on the South Asian and Sikh diaspora sounds like a great idea! If the weather permits, I might even be throwing down some bhangra/Asian Massive beats. How does Feb 3rd work? From 10 to 5? Sounds good? Everyone can make it? hairy_d has room for 4 in his autorickshaw? Perfect! I expect to see all of you there! [/threadjack]
Oh yea, Johnny and I used to kick it all the time. We’re real close. I always used to bring him to bhangra parties and the ladkes were always like: “Dayamn, who’s that fair-skinned desi with the long hair and pirate patch? And who’s that disgustingly hot MIT grad-turned-underwear model-turned-DJ who’s dripping sexiness all over the dance floor? I better get that dowry ready! Because that’s what we do because we’re Indian!”
Yea, I’m kind of a big deal too. And White people love me.
You should watch her Kamasutra. I only managed to sit through it because of Shubha Mudgal’s vocals and Rekha’s small role. It was really T-E-R-R-I-B-L-E. Frankly, after that I refused to watch any of her films until I was coerced into watching Monsoon Wedding which was quite brilliant.
one of the worst movies ever.. mira nair was there presenting her film when i saw it at ucla eons ago, and she was getting eaten alive at the question/answer session…
monsoon wedding: it was alright. mississippi: liked it due to the uganda factor… salaam bombay: her masterpiece..and that is where she really learned what slum living was like..
johnny depp: fabulous….hot since the days of 21 jump street..and sets fires from then on.. long term career mr. depp..
dont really think mira nair can do justice for a movie like shantaram if they really wanted to pick a desi director should have gone with shekhar kapur
As if I don’t miss my pind of san hojey enough, now you have to talk about it on SM! Sigh.
http://chandare.blogspot.com/2005/05/shantaram-and-sri-lanka.html Shantaram gave me comfort during dark days of Tsunami.(since the manuscript was once destroyed ,it has been re-written.I wouldn’t mind the 900 pages).Hope the movie will be enjoyable as well.
Get down with brown…all the cool kids do it.
ooohh Tabu…
You know what? It’s a little like the novel. I liked the novel, but one thing that stood out for me was that I didnt want to leave the parents so soon. It’s like I wanted the whole novel to be about them. And then there could be a second novel about Ganguly.
chick pea
Kamasutra was cringeworthy. It’s that it was so obviously designed and marketed as a wank fest for the western market. When they start speaking in English in ancient India, all these British-Indian actors speaking with subtle Apu phrasing, I just crack up with laughter. And the camera’s gaze is just a little too voyeuristic on Indira Varma to be taken seriously. Fake fake fake.
God knows we need a cinematic celebration of female Indian sexuality, written and directed by an Indian filmmaker (as long as it’s not by Gurinder Chadha! Just kidding….or am I?) but that was not it — and coming from a credible director like Mira Nair it’s even more embarassing.
Hahahahah KT you’ve been embroiled in these light skin dark skin discussions so long that you thought that is what I was talking about. I was alluding to Depps ability to play dark characters as in emotionally dark not physically dark 🙂
I’d like to see a desi version of this.
I think Kamasutra was a good movie, it had a very rustic feel to it like Bollywood’s Omkara, granted there was a lot of erotica in the movie, but considering its title I would think its appropriate.
That was really funny! btw, what would you like to see…desi playing black or desi playing white?
It’s a great adventure story with the potential to be a riveting movie. However, the main character is quite introspective. If that internal dialog isn’t translated to film, it could become the tall white guy walking around brown land. That said, I’m rooting for Johnny Depp to pull it off. I can’t wait until comes out. Really, I don’t even know what to do with myself until the film comes out:)
Yeah, I knew Johnny Depp was going to do this for awhile now – I think Mira Nair is the news.
I haven’t read the book, but have heard the same thing about it people have said here — Roberts’ life is amazing, but he’s not a writer so it could be tedious read.
I think “Monsoon Wedding” can really grow on you, and I enjoyed “Vanity Fair” with the exception of that horrid Bollywoodesque dance number.
So, what happened to “The Namesake”? Did it come out yet? Is it gone?
I really enjoyed Monsoon Wedding. It had slivers of reality from my own experience and family so it resonated with me and the fact that it was just earthy and I fell in love with Dubey. I loved Vanity Fair too and ignored the Bollywood dance but I really enjoyed the character of Becky played by Reece who I really adore.
It does..one liners from Dubey were hilarious,
“gaand me goon nahin, aur chale suar ko daawat dene”
Eh… Depp is a good actor but he is too physically slight when compared to Roberts. Depp apparently needed a “hand double” for Pirates of the Carribean as his were too feminine looking in the closeups. Crowe seems a better match. Anyway, Depp will probably be a better box office draw.
Monsoon Wedding is brilliant. It’s a very real portrait of a certain section of Indian society. One of my favorite parts is when Naseeruddin Shah’s character is upset about his son wanting to be a chef, and he says “mere beta khansama banega??”–it was so typically Indian dad. I loved the son–he was hilarious with how enthusiastic he was about the dance, and then refused to do it in the end. She had all the little personality quirks captured perfectly.
Janeofalltrades, I agree, Depp is great for this role. If anyone could pull it off, I bet it’s him. Of course, this is my biased opinion since I too have been crushin on him since his Jump Street days.
I know some have mentioned that since Roberts is not a writer by initial trade, the book was potentially tedious–which in certain parts it can be. I almost enjoyed it just because of that. It was kind of refreshing to just hear a story the way a guy on the street would tell it–a new perspective on Bombay because obviously most non-desis who are in the city don’t exactly get embroiled in the underworld. I can’t wait to see what Nair does with this, i agree with rp_note that the internal dialouge has to be voiced somehow. There is a lot of potential with this one.
P.S. Speaking of Monsoon Wedding, which I adore, wasn’t the australian-indian cousin a hottie?
Shantaram is a brilliant book.
More than worth a read, whatever the outcome of the movie
Yeah hello who was he and is anyone offering him to be in movies again? There was something very Gael Garcia Bernal about him.
Ashi, The Namesake comes out in NY and LA on March 9th, and I think right around the same date in the UK and India, then goes on wider release a bit later in the US.
Red Snapper, I don’t remember having the same impression when reading the book, but I definitely agree with you vis-a-vis the film; the parents were just much more compelling to watch, a bit like the Naseer-Lilette couple in MW (though more low-key), in that it was just interesting to get these glimpses into the lives of this “normal” couple and their day-to-day to-and-fro.
That was Randeep Hooda, after that he is been in a bunch of Bollywood movies starting D
This is exciting! I love me some Mira Nair (sans Kamasutra, which as mentioned, is one of the worst movies ever made EVER), and how can you not fall down into a spineless bone-melted puddle at the sight of Johnny Depp? That man is hot on a whole other planet of hotness.
As for Monsoon Wedding…
I think the first thing that made me fall in love with Dubey was his name. My family was giggling madly just at the pun within his name.
Hahaha, also in February is the infamous DHOL DI AWAAZ! Seriously, tell people you’re Punjabi and everyone wants you to take them. Out of curiosity, how many Bay Area mutineers (still in the bay) are around?
Makes sense 🙂 a lot of the book’s action takes place in the same underworld as Salaam Bombay. The vibe is the same…Mumbai will have to be shot raw and scorching..Mira is a logical hire.
All I ask is that they include at least one song and dance sequence.
Read the book a few months back….absolutely loved it, more so cause I grew up in Bombay I guess.
I think Depp’s a much better choice compared to Crowe, given that the book spans various phases in the protaganists life (cant picture russell crowe as a battered prisoner)
And I agree that if Mira Nair can recreate her ‘Salaam Bombay’ sensibilities, she would probably be able to do much better job with the story than any other gora director.
Guess you haven’t seen “Gladiator” then 🙂
Depp got real down and drrrty and multi in Before Night Falls He plays louche , as I understand the shantaram protagonist is, real well.
I canÂ’t say enough about the hotness that is Johnny Depp. Hope this turns him on to brown girls! Johnny Babe, the French just invented the kiss, the IndiansÂ…. well letÂ’s just say its a bestselling book 😉
I ran into Mira Nair in a bookstore in Cape Town, where she use to live, spent the entire time embarrassing myself by gushing over her. She comes across as a pretty down-to-earth sort of person.