Bollywood tests Latin American waters with ‘Guzaarish’

Hrithik Roshan and Aishwarya Rai starrer ‘Guzaarish’ is set for a Peru release this February.

Washington: Hrithik Roshan and Aishwarya Rai starrer ‘Guzaarish’ - meaning ‘request’ in English - is set for a Peru release in February this year, as Bollywood looks towards newer markets.

‘Guzaarish’ deals with the serious subject of euthanasia and received a four out of five star review from newspaper The Times of India, which called it, “one of the most unusual love stories of recent times”. The fact that the film has already won recognition in markets outside of India, including in France, gives UTV Motion Pictures reason to be hopeful about its reception in Latin America. “Latin America as a new market is a focus for us. The Indian population is limited in Peru, which makes it even more significant an achievement to have managed a release for the film there. We’re looking forward to the Guzaarish release in Peru,” Fox News quoted Amrita Pandey, Senior Vice President of International Distribution and Syndication at UTV Motion Pictures as saying. Apart from ‘Guzaarish’, trailers of the upcoming Bollywood flick ‘Ek Main Aur Ekk Tu’ have been translated to Spanish and will also be coming soon to theatres in Peru. ‘Ek Main Aur Ekk Tu’ - meaning, ‘You and I’ in English - is a romantic comedy starring Imran Khan and Kareena Kapoor. Its plot has been compared by some to the American film, ‘What Happens in Vegas’ and the Mexican film, ‘Recien Cazado’. Although it is difficult to predict the success of such ventures, it seems that traditional Bollywood films, known for their dramatic and romantic themes which can often times come across as a little cheesy would do quite well with Spanish-speaking audiences; after all, this also describes an already well-loved Latin American phenomenon - the telenovela. Bollywood films have enjoyed a global following in the diasporic South Asian community for generations, but it’s only been in the past decade that these films have benefited from considerable attention by Anglo-American and other non-Hindi speaking audiences, as evidenced by the success of such recent films as ‘My Name is Khan’ and ‘3 Idiots’. ANI