Marigold films turn India into pension paradise
We should not be surprised if India witnesses an invasion by British pensioners now that the 2012 film, The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, has been followed by a sequel, The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel.
The latter had its world premiere and fund-raising royal film performance last week, attended by Prince Charles and the Duchess of Cornwall, at the Leicester Square Odeon - which had to suspend screenings of Fifty Shades of Grey for the evening.
Charles and Camilla, who wore a deep red velvet dress by Anna Valentine with a ruby and diamond encrusted necklace, are regulars in Rajasthan (where it is known the duchess shops till the Prince drops).
In the spirit of the proceedings, one of the Indian cast, Tina Desai, arrived for the premiere in an auto rickshaw decked out in flaming colours (not the sort you get, incidentally, on a rainy night outside Belgachia Metro). The whole place was decorated with yellow and pink flowers and drapes symbolising the blazing hues of Rajasthan. Even the traditional red carpet was orange.
The plot is about British pensioners who come to India to spend their last days and instead discover companionship, romance and the deeper meaning of life.
The two great dames of British showbiz, Judi Dench and Maggie Smith, who are 80, are both in the cast.
There was disappointment that the "silver foxes" Richard Gere and Bill Nighy were unable to come. Dev Patel, who plays the central character, Sonny Kapoor, a young hotelier with an excitable manner and exaggerated Indian accent, was also absent.
Sonny, who has one Marigold Hotel and is acquiring another, tells the pensioners with perfect Indian logic: "Why die here - when you can die there!"
One sour critic noted that the film "makes India look like a far more appealing place than it probably is".
But Celia Imrie, whose character Madge juggles two wealthy suitors, hit back: "Think India is one of the greatest stars of the film."
Dubey's day
Lillete Dubey is in the prime of her career. The actress was at India House last week talking about Boiled Beans on Toast, a play by Girish Karnad which is about to be staged at Waterman's Theatre in west London.
Meanwhile, the lovely Lillete, who stars in the Marigold films as Sonny's mum had a nice chat with Prince Charles at last week's premiere.
Lillete wore a white sari made by "wonderful designers" Nikhil and Shantanu. "Everyone from Judi (Dench) to Maggie (Smith) asked where my sari was from."
Charles confided that he had much enjoyed Episode 1 of the new Channel 4 drama, Indian Summers, in which Lillete is cast as Roshana Dalal, who is wife to Darius (played by Roshan Seth) and mother to a son, Aafrin, and two daughters, Sooni and Shamshad, in a Parsi family.
Charles volunteered he had seen Marigold I and was looking forward to Marigold II. "Then he said, 'I saw Indian Summers.' I was very pleased; I said, 'Do you like it?' And he said, 'Yes.' So I was telling my producer, 'He's even recorded it and seen it, so hopefully it will do well.'"
If the first series is deemed a success, there will be a second - and perhaps five in all, taking India from 1932 to Partition and Independence.
JLo & behold
Gopi Hinduja, back home in London last week after masterminding son Sanjay's wedding to his fiancée Anusuya Mahtani in Udaipur, tells me the highlight - all recorded on his iPad - was JLo's act.
"Oh my dear, people went mad," enthuses Gopi happily.
Because of lack of hotel accommodation, he was restricted to inviting only 800 VIPs to Udaipur, where the authorities obligingly set up immigration and customs. But among them were heads of state (President Yoweri Museveni of Uganda and His Highness Sheikh Hamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan of Abu Dhabi, plus the father of the Emir of Qatar), captains of industry (everyone from Lakshmi Mittal and his son, Aditya, to the Ambani brothers, Mukesh and Anil). However, everyone wanted to take selfies with Jennifer Lopez and the pop artist, Nicole Scherzinger.
Gopi might well have helped their charitable foundations. "They do a lot for good causes in health and education."
"It was the first time for JLo in India," Gopi confirms. "She was fascinated. She liked being in India very much. Not only did I meet her, I have photographs with her - as a performer she is No. 1 in the world."
So how did he get her?
"In life, contacts, relationships, friendships mean more than wealth but somehow people don't understand that - they think wealth is everything," Gopi tells me. "Wealth is nothing."
He plans to hold a reception in London to celebrate the wedding when he hopes to show footage of JLo doing her thing in Udaipur.
"And then you tell me whether you like Jennifer Lopez or not," says Gopi.
Oscar tips
In accordance with established custom and practice, I turned to the Hollywood movie mogul Ashok Amritraj, chairman and CEO of his production company, Hyde Park Entertainment, for his Oscar tips for this weekend's ceremony. Of course, it will be Monday in India by the time the results are known.
"My predictions for the Oscars are a sweep of the major ones for Birdman - namely Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor," says Ashok, who has himself made 110 movies and, more pertinently, is an Academy member of long standing with voting rights (I will never forget he told me, "Slumdog will sweep," back in 2009).
For Best Actress, he tips "Julianne Moore ( Still Alice); J.K. Simmons (Whiplash) for Best Supporting Actor; and Patricia Arquette ( Boyhood) for Best Supporting Actress".
Best Screenplay will go to Boyhood; Best Adapted Screenplay to The Imitation Game; and Best Foreign Film to the Polish movie, Ida.
"The Best Actor nominees are all wonderful and voting will be close between Michael Keaton ( Birdman) and Eddie Redmayne (The Theory of Everything)," fore-casts Ashok. "Best Director voting will be close between Alejandro Iñárritu ( Birdman) and Richard Linklater (Boyhood)."
He adds: "Best Picture has a number of wonderful possibilities - 2014 has been a great year for independent quality films and filmmaking. Bio pics - Alan Turing, Stephen Hawking, John du Pont, Chris Kyle - seem to rule the day."
Best beach
No. 12 among the world's top 25 beaches is Radhanagar Beach, Havelock Island, India, according to travellers' reviews on TripAdvisor.
I looked it up - Havelock is in the Andaman Islands 57km northeast of Port Blair. Shouldn't be too difficult to get to from Calcutta. I have heard the coral reefs in the Andaman really are among the least degraded in the world.
Tittle tattle
An attempt is being made to encourage director Dibakar Banerjee and lead actor Sushant Singh Rajput to come to London to promote Detective Byomkesh Bakshy!, due to be released in perhaps 10 cinemas in Britain. All the prints will be subtitled in English.
This film can only be an improvement on Titli, which Dibaker co-produced and which received a Cannes release last May. It was an excessively violent film about a dysfunctional Indian family which has happily sunk without trace.
