Indian actors have continued to be bitten by the Hollywood bug. But starring in English-language films has been the classic case of win some, lose some
Published: Fri 3 Jul 2015, 4:42 PM
Last updated: Thu 9 Jul 2015, 5:36 PM
Consider these facts: Irrfan Khan shows up in the all-time record-breaking hit Jurassic World in a role which doesn’t decimate him entirely to a bystander. Unlike his cameo — for want of a better word —in The Amazing Spider-Man.
In fact, Irrfan Khan is Simon Masrani, the cash-savvy owner of the fictional theme park in which those malevolent dinosaurs go on the rampage yet again in the special effects extravaganza’s fourth edition. Next on Khan’s global plate, count Inferno, adapted from the bestseller by Dan Brown, toplining Tom Hanks.
Meanwhile, Priyanka Chopra is raving from the rooftops about her upcoming American TV series Quantico, in which the promos show her to be a young FBI recruit, who should truly mind her language and attitude. Ms Chopra’s pronounced accent is as American as a martini — extra-dry.
Anil Kapoor is in the throes of picturising the second season of the Indian version of TV series 24. Anupam Kher, who has been stewarded by such famed auteurs as Woody Allen in You Will Meet A Tall Dark Stranger, Ang Lee in Lust, Caution and David O Russell in Silver Linings Playbook, is increasingly casting his eye westwards.
In recent times, Om Puri bantered with the Oscar-winning Helen Mirren in The Hundred-Foot Journey. Earlier, he was directed by Roland Joffe (City of Joy), Stephen Hopkins (The Ghost and the Darkness) and Mike Nichols (Wolf). In addition, he has led the ensemble casts of several film festival-friendly tracts on the lives of Asian immigrants abroad — notably East is East, West is West and My Son The Fanatic.
And Naseeruddin Shah went to the US for The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, to cross swords with Sean Connery, only to be disappointed majorly when his part was shredded to ribbons.
Aah, win some, lose some. C’est la Hollywood, still the ultimate destination point for Bollywood actors. And filmmakers too. So what if Broken Horses by Vidhu Vinod Chopra (he produced the Munna Bhai movies, surpassing their box-office takings with 3 Idiots) proved to be eminently forgettable? His underworld thriller Parinda, which he directed almost two decades ago, couldn’t quite make the grade at domestic or global multiplexes. But James Cameron, of Titanic fame, endorsed Broken Horses unconditionally, in vain.
BIG SCREEN, SMALL RETURNS: Shekhar Kapur’s Four Feathers, which tanked without a trace; Anupam Kher in You Will Meet A Tall Dark Stranger; Naseeruddin Shah in the blink-and-you-miss-him role The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen; Kabir Bedi in the Bond flick Octopussy
|
After the Bollywood-style period dramas Elizabeth and its sequel Elizabeth: The Golden Age earned their share of hosannas and Oscar nominations, Shekhar Kapur was exp-ected to become a part of the global cinema aristocracy. That was not to be. Once his Four Feathers tanked — following allegations that it was rabidly anti-British — he became a virtual no-no. His oft-announced Paani, on the subject of water shortage in India, produced by the Yashraj banner, hasn’t taken off either. After announcements that it would star Viveik Oberoi, and then Hrithik Roshan, and, at last count, Sushant Singh Rajput, it’s been all quiet on the waterfront.
The point is that although Bollywood belts out a sizeable number of entertainers annually — contributing to India’s track record of being the world’s most prolific film industry — the bid for a crossover to global shores continues, albeit with mixed results.
Frankly, no B-town personality, actor or director is an A-lister beyond his or her homeland. No lead parts in the pipeline, no standout prominence in the publicity posters. Quaintly enough, India’s first export, Mysore’s Sabu Dastagir, who came to be known as the Elephant Boy in Hollywood during the 1930s and ‘40s, can be deservedly termed a Hollywood ‘star’.
Correctly perhaps, Shah Rukh Khan rejected a brief role in a James Bond movie, stating that he’d rather be a “baadshah at home” than a cog in the wheel in an international franchise. Being politically correct, he didn’t add that Kabir Bedi may have garnered yards of publicity for Octopussy, but that’s it.
There’s a flipside: Shah Rukh Khan did goof up when, after Amitabh Bachchan, he too turned down the role of the quiz show host in Danny Boyle’s multi-Oscar winning Slumdog Millionaire. Khan’s miscalculation practically reinvented the career of Anil Kapoor, who went at the part of the manipulative TV anchor with gusto.
That Kapoor wasn’t seen to advantage in Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol or that Bachchan’s cameo was underwhelming in The Great Gatsby, are just some of those occupational hazards. Bachchan Sr could have made a worldwide impact in the company of Johnny Depp with Mira Nair’s take on Gregory David Roberts’ voluminous novel Shantaram. Lucklessly, the project remains in a limbo.
Of course, the classic miscalculation was made by Dilip Kumar. The thespian nurtured doubts about the part of the desert warrior eventually incarnated by Omar Sharif in David Lean’s 1962 classic Lawrence of Arabia. In Kumar’s official autobiography Shadow and Substance, yesteryear actor Chandrashekhar remarked, “In contrast to today’s actors who lust for Hollywood, Dilip sahab turned down David Lean’s offer… He was proud to be an Indian actor.”
Be that as it may, Hollywood dreamin’ persists. Naively, a director-producer of splashy blockbusters has authored a hyper-imaginative script about a group of American and &European tourists held hostage by terrorists in Kashmir. He emailed it to me, asking, “Would you read it and advise if it has the potential to win Oscars? It is no less topical and hard-hitting as Argo.”
The script, however, was a cut-and-paste job of countless Hollywood films and TV series based on terrorism. When I responded, “Sorry, but the script doesn’t have an ice cube’s chance in hell,” he was displeased, to put it mildly. He said, “Wait I’ll make you eat your words.”
I’m waiting.
iPhone | iPad
Android
Huawei
