Indian Exposure...

Hollywood will soon witness a lot more of India, more than they asked for. We've already talked about the fact that Shakira will shake her booty for Indian rickshaw walahs, Will Smith will produce two films and Spike Lee already Chaiya Chaiya'd his way to the bank. With Mira Nair's The Namesake ready to premiere at the Toronto Film Festival in two days, there are several other directors that are either shooting in India or making movies with some Indian theme. Here's a list....

Darjeeling Limited - The first one is Wes Anderson's (Royal Tenenbaums, Rushmore) movie about three brothers, Owen Wilson, Adrien Brody and Jason Schwartzman who take a spiritual trek through India, following the death of their father. The rumor is that the shooting will start sometime in 2007 and movie will release in 2008. If you have seen other Wes Anderson movies, you'll probably wait for this one. Known for their subtle yet weird humor, they have a very loyal fan following and are not for the mainstream.

The Life of Pi - Based on Yann Martel's best selling Man Booker prizewinning novel, The Life of Pi, this is a magical adventure story of Pi Patel who is the son of a zookeeper. His family decides to move to Canada and they hitch a ride on a huge freighter. After a shipwreck, Pi is left in the vast Pacific ocean on a lifeboat with a zebra, hyena, an orangutan and 450 pound Bengal tiger named Richard Parker. The movie is being directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet, the acclaimed French director of Amelie and A Very Long Engagement and is set to release in 2007.

Shantaram - It is said that Russell Crowe loved this script so much that he wanted to act in it. But when the role went to Johnny Depp, he decided to co-produce it. Based on Gregory david Roberts' mostly autobiographical novel, it's a story of an Australian convict, Lindsay, who escapes from prison and comes to Mumbai, where he meets Prabhakar (rumor is that Chunky Pandey is attached to the project to play that role) and he introduces him to his people who rename Lindsay as Shantaram and he gets involved with Mumbai mafia. The shooting on the movie is yet to begin.

Karma Confessions and Holi - Produced by Drena De Niro, Robert De Niro's daughter, the movie is based on inner conflicts of people. The characters never speak about their inner turmoils, but in a festive atmosphere of Holi, they begin to lose the irinhibitions. Starring an ensemble cast of Indian and American actors, (Sushmita Sen, Randeep Hooda, Naomi Campbell, Drena De Niro herself, and Dipal Shaw among others), the movie is shot entirely in New York. 

These movies are still distributed by the likes of Fox Searchlight Pictures and get limited releases, but slowly, India is becoming the buzz word in Hollywood. An increasing number of studios want to collaborate with movie makers in Bollywood or shoot in India because of the cheap and readily available movie infrastructure....

Oh BTW, have you guys seen The Namesake's trailer....No? Here you go....