The floodgates are opening and more Hollywooders are going slumdogging:
The Lifestyle is a Bollywood movie that will be managed by an Indian production house and produced by first-time writer and director Santosh Kumar Jain. “I really liked her performance in Charlie’s Angels and decided to cast her in my film. Fortunately, she liked the script and agreed instantly,” director Santosh Kumar Jain told the Times of India.
The Lifestyle will talk about three women who are all trying to find their identity. “The film is about three women from different walks of life, trying to assert their identities. Drew plays the role of a foreigner in the film. The other two will be top Indian actresses. The river Ganga is in the backdrop throughout the flick,” Santosh Kumar Jain added.
The flick is set to start shooting in November and will probably only hit theaters in 2012. The Lifestyle’s cast and crew will travel to Haridwar and Benaras, but will mainly work in the U.S. So who will be the lucky B-town artists who will get to work with the popular Hollywood star? [Link]
I still can’t decide. Is there really a profit motive/viable business model here or is this just a novelty such that some of these Hollywooders can have a chance to put on nice Indian clothes? Someone convince me it’s the former.
drew does weird stuff, like her role in grey gardens.
Not sure, but I would like to think that people in the acting world realize that Hollywood isn’t the only thing out there. She was asked by this director to play the role, and she said yes. What would the reaction have been if she said no? “Drew Barrymore is too good for Bollywood” ? Isn’t this how big-name stars are generally cast, only this time we’re crossing an ocean?
There have been some really great “Bollywood” films produced in the last few years (and some not so great, yet interesting ones.) No one would think twice if Barrymore played an American in a French film. Maybe Indian cinema is finally getting some respect?
Well the problem here is that you are relying on the west to give you respect. That should not be the goal. Just because a few people in the western media like a film doesn’t mean it is good. It just means that you fall for the idea that these people speak as tastemakers for the whole world. That is just rubbish.
Do not look for respect externally. First, find self respect, then you will get the respect of others.
Here we go again. I think that I liked male version of this film better. It was called the “Darjeeling Limited.”
I bet that she comes back with bindhis and crap.
She is used to working with many skinny guys. She worked with the very skinny E.T. back in ’82. So she should be fine in India.
Well I for one am intrigued. It’ll be interesting to find out who else is joining the cast and what the reaction to the film is when it comes out. I’ll definitely be following.
(The linked article indicates that Lata Mangeshkar is attached to the project.)
My money says it’s the former, there’s been a move for quite some time by the big studios such as Warner Brothers (who now have an India division) to make a move into the subcontinent.
The reasons why are pretty simple too – huge population, growing middle class with disposable income who, better still, have cinema going habits.
Of course, that desire to cross the boundary swings both ways with a film like My Name is Khan being distributed by Fox Searchlight, who in turn paid for journalists from mainstream film publications such as Empire Magazine in the UK to fly into India and interview Shah Rukh Khan (also the reason he got onto Britain’s biggest talk show with Jonathan Ross).
No one would think twice if Barrymore played an American in a French film.
really? does this happen? i used to watch french films when i was younger and the non-french often seem to be british actresses who could speak french. but then i tended to focus on art-house fare.
Kristin Scott Thomas has starred in many French films–she’s English but she speaks French beautifully and no one would ever think her to be anything but a French actress, unless they already knew better. She “passes” very easily.
And of course there are films (let’s use French films as an example) where Americans play…Americans. And where other nationalities play characters of other nationalities. Look at L’Auberge Espagnole, for instance. A French film but featuring an American, a few Brits, an Italian, a German, a Belgian and a Dane playing characters from those countries, respectively.
It is worth noting that out of all the thousands of Bollywood films churned out by Indian directors none made anywhere near the global impact that the two films directed by white Brits did: Gandhi and Slumdog Millionaire.
Give it time; Bollywood is getting more and more interesting as it is and we have a pretty large desi community in Britain that’s getting pretty savvy. So in time Bollywood will definitely break out into the Western scene; it already has globally. Nigerians and Russians definitely love it don’t know about Chinese and Brazilians but I guess they would too.
Perhaps they need more editing to make a “desi” version of a Bollywood version and a “Western”/”Global”, where the film is 1.5hrs. That could be a start.
Kristin Scott Thomas was married to a Frenchmen for 20 or so years.
It sounds less Slumdog and more Eat Pray Love…
Not sure what Drew’s impact would be. Who knows. I hope it all is positive. Anyone see the akshay kumar film with Sly Stalone and Denis Richards? Kambakkht Ishq.
Now that’s a well good bollywood hollywood crossover. Genuenly love this film. 🙂
Drew Barrymore is v.atypical as Hollywood actresses go with her buxom Asha Parekh like proportions. Reminds you of what was said in Parekh’s time about her penchant for dancing, “Asha Parekh doesn’t do Bharat Natyam. She does Bxxxxxxs Natyam”
As much as I like Drew Barrymore and her quirky taste in the roles she chooses (thought she was adorable in 50 First Dates and Music & Lyrics), and the public persona we see when she’s on programmes like Oprah or David Letterman, I kinda groan on the inside at the thought of her in the role of yet another either disenfranchised and/or slutty firang searching for “meaning” by visiting Holy Spiritual Places in India (cue the incense, the saffron scarf, the rudraksh beads, the bearded guru and the cows).
Hasn’t that horse been flogged into several lives beyond death already?
I’d find it a bit more interesting to see her as, say, an unemployed gringa journalist or corporate type who leaves the US and strikes out to seek her fortune in Delhi or Bombay, and see her establish herself in her new home town and interact with contemporary Indian twenty- and thirty-somethings in the office and after hours.
I’d totally watch the movie you described. 🙂
lol! He is casting her cuz he like Charlie’s Angels. lol
RIGHT?! Is he creating a goofy comedy? If so, she’s a great pick.
If Lata’s really on this, I’ll at least check the soundtrack.
Overall, I’m torn. Bollywood’s in the sh!tter. Ranbir Kapoor is the hottest young male talent and that’s downright depressing. Maybe external talent is the way to go.
we have a pretty large desi community in Britain that’s getting pretty savvy”
savvy has nothing to do with it. Movies are a POWER game. You either have it or you don’t….now ‘hug it out bitches!’
On the topic of American actors in French films.
Coco Avant Channel has an American actor (Alessandro Nivola) playing a Brit who was half French. He mostly speaks French in the film.
un autre exemple: Jodie Foster dans Un long dimanche de fiançailles (A Very Long Engagement)
Drew Barrymore is v.atypical as Hollywood actresses go with her buxom Asha Parekh like proportions.
huh? turn google “safe search” off.
“un autre exemple: Jodie Foster dans Un long dimanche de fiançailles (A Very Long Engagement)”
Chaitan est très sexy!
I hope it doesn’t turn out as lame as other movies where an Indian from India directs a mix of casts. I usually find western actors looking awkward in Indian and Chinese productions. BTW, I saw Mistress of Spices recently on TV. What a joke. I saw some Bollywood movie on regular cable (COMCAST had some free preview). Forget the name. It was about a stuntman. Kareena Kapoor was the actress. Stallone, Brandon Routh, Denice Richards had tiny roles and all of them looked awkward. Richards was especially awful. Stallone looked so stiff that his Expendables role looks oscar worthy by comparison.
The movie was Kambakkht Ishq. On the plus side, Akshay Kumar did get to hook up with Denise Richards in it–making Indian men everywhere now think they have a shot with her…
I sincerely hope Bollywood does its utmost to propound the stereotypes of white western women, and puts them down as well of course. It’s only fair given that the western media has been doing that to foreigners for so many decades, no? She should be made a background character, who yearns to be more like the Indian characters.
Bollywood – now is your chance to pay back the western media for all those years of stereotyping, miscasting and denigrating of foreign characters – don’t waste this golden opportunity!
I’m not kidding, or am I?