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| Westward bound: An early poster of East is East |
East and West come together in Cannes
A piece of very good news from Cannes 2009: despite budget cuts, BBC Films are going ahead with shooting West is West, the sequel to Ayub Khan Din’s East is East, in October this year.
East is East is Ayub’s autobiographical tale of growing up with his Pakistani father and English mother (played by Om Puri and the excellent Linda Bassett in the film) and eight brothers and a sister (the number of siblings was cut to six in the movie) in 1970s Salford near Manchester.
Ayub has done the script for West is West, in which the story has moved on five years from East is East. The youngest, Sajit, who was then the little boy in the anorak, has grown into such a problem child of 13 that his father, “George” Khan, decides to haul him back to Pakistan for a bit of cultural reorientation. Some of the old cast, including Puri and Bassett, as well as Jimi Mistry, are back for the new film.
Sadly for Pakistan, the film cannot be shot there because of the political situation.
“It will be shot in India near Delhi,” I am told by Jane Wright, managing director of BBC Films.
Jane will be executive producer of West is West with Andy de Emmony, who has made several films for television, as director.
An Indian shoot means there will be plenty of Indian involvement in the film, Jane confirms. She emphasises that the story has nothing to do with today’s terrorism but is a “poignant” tale of cultural identity. There is also a scene in which Khan’s English wife meets his first wife, who is a Pakistani. Though they have no common language, they are bound by “universal values” of motherhood.
The film version of East is East in 1999 was preceded by the Tamasha Theatre Company’s vastly superior stage play three years previously — I knew it would be a hit on the opening night at the Birmingham Repertory Theatre on October 8, 1996. I do hope that the mangled northern accent Puri adopted when cast as George Khan in the movie is dropped for West is West. He should be allowed to speak like a normal Pakistani.
Since I hold Ayub in exceptionally high regard, I am confident his script, which is being fine tuned, has been written with humour and subtlety. I wouldn’t be surprised if West is West, which will be made with a modest budget of £2-3 million, turns out to be almost as successful as Slumdog Millionaire.
“I’m not even going there,” laughs Jane, a Canadian mother of three who lived in New York for 15 years before settling in the UK. “The comparison would put too much pressure.”
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| Zoom in: Nina Lath Gupta of NFDC |
Market meanderings
Bollywood has a reputation for ripping off Hollywood but this won’t happen with The Italian Job, I learn from Tanuj Garg, head, UK & Europe, of Studio 18.
The rights to the story of a heist set in London and Turin and starring Michael Caine in the 1969 classic, have been acquired legitimately from Paramount Pictures.
The Indianised Hindi-language version of The Italian Job will be directed by the Burmawalla brothers Abbas-Mustan, who made Race, the 2008 thriller starring Anil Kapoor and Katrina Kaif, adds Tanuj.
I can also report that the first screening of Road to Sangam, which tells of the last journey of Mahatma Gandhi’s ashes — the cast includes the ubiquitous Om Puri, Paresh Rawal and Javed Sheikh — took place “to a standing ovation” at the Indian pavilion in Cannes, supervised by Amit Rai, the film’s director and writer, and Amit Chheda, the producer.
At the NFDC (National Film Development Corporation) stall, managing director Nina Lath Gupta disclosed that at the Locarno Film Festival this year, there will be a workshop from August 9-11 for six Indian scriptwriters to help them market their movies.
Nina reminds me that the NFDC has been making films successfully for a long time: “The NFDC was Richard Attenborough’s partner when he made Gandhi in 1981.”
The NFDC has come to Cannes with six films in post production, including Joydeep Ghosh’s Mayabazar in Bengali, adds Nina.
Over at the Eros stall, Alice Coelho, head of its international department, has been busy promoting several titles, including the “Bollywood meets Hollywood” Kambakkht Ishq, whose release has been held up by the producers’ strike.
“The title means crazy love,” Alice educates me.
Opposite her stall, Sanjay Jumani of Sunstone Entertainment was finding, as always, that traditional Bollywood fare involving Shah Rukh, Salman or Aamir Khan still sell best in non-traditional territories.
Next door to him, Rohit Sharma, president, international sales, of IDreams, was getting offers for Thanks Maa, the story of the attempt to find the mother of a baby found dumped in the Mumbai slums.
Two new-born babies, a boy, Arif, and the other a girl, Sakshi, were used for 2-3 weeks of filming, I gather from the director, Irfan Kamal. Then a doll was substituted — and even I can tell the difference.
Pak loves Singh is Kinng
News of Singh is Kinng comes from my friend, Hammad Chaudhry, who buys Bollywood movies for Pakistan on behalf of his UK-based family firm, HKC Entertainment.
Its screening in Faisalabad was a huge success — “the 550-seat cinema was so full that 300 people insisted on sitting on the floor”.
After the Mumbai atrocities of last November, Bollywood business is slowly returning to normal, says Hammad, adding optimistically, “The future lies in collaboration between India and Pakistan.”
On why Singh is Kinng, starring Akshay Kumar and Katrina Kaif, had been “the biggest success in the history of Pakistani cinema”, he explains: “Its Punjabi culture connected with the Pakistani people.”
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The way he walks
Ashok Amritraj revealed a secret — at Cannes and even at the Oscars he finds he has to walk such a lot that he always wears dark trainers instead of formal shoes, even to black tie functions.
And talking of walking, his Los Angeles-based friend, Bhuvan Lall, journalist-cum-producer, once again impressed with his ability to walk into any party. One of us was rebuffed while attempting to gatecrash a Cannes beach party. But then Bhuvan arrived, pointed us out as members of his “Indian delegation”, whereupon the same security guards allowed us to sail through, led by our leader.
No wonder Bhuvan was my Man of the Match in 2005.
Incidentally, Bhuvan has inside information on the Oscar-winning song Jai Ho: “It was written for Subhash Ghai but he felt it did not fit into his Yuvvraaj. At Rahman’s request, he let Danny Boyle have it for Slumdog.”
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Tittle tattle
Bollywood filmmakers who make movies that do not appeal to non-Indians or even educated Indians should reflect on a statement made by Quentin Tarantino at the press conference following the first screening of his film in competition, Inglourious Basterds, set in Nazi occupied France.
He sounds a trifle arrogant but the big American sums up the challenge facing Bollywood if it is ever to catch up with Hollywood.
I reproduce Tarantino verbatim from my notebook: “I am not an American filmmaker. I make movies for the planet Earth.”
