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All Alone: Idea desi, film videshi: The Times of India
London, Mar 14: It`s being billed as India`s most expensive film, with its most multinational cast and Bollywood`s first simultaneous, 19-country, 5000-screen worldwide release. But Monday`s formal unveiling of the project may be no guarantee that Hindi cinema is finally getting serious about going global.
London, Mar 14: It`s being billed as India`s most expensive film, with its most multinational cast and Bollywood`s first simultaneous, 19-country, 5000-screen worldwide release. But Monday`s formal unveiling of the project may be no guarantee that Hindi cinema is finally getting serious about going global.
The main snag in all the hype? All Alone , the new film, is literally all alone in Bollywood with its internationalist aims. Besides, its not a Hindi film at all, isn`t being shot in India and its subject is emphatically not Indian.
But that, it seems, is the point. "It`s in English, it`s shot in Mauritius, it`s at a particular point in the island`s pre-independence history," the film`s Mumbai-based director Ritesh Sinha said in London.
"It`s still an Indian film", he insists because the idea, director, production and finance is from India.
Sinha claims his film "can open a new door because Indian film-makers still lack the confidence to venture out into the world and take the world as their audience".
Sinha`s venture, which has an eye-popping budget in Indian terms of $ 15 million, is to be showcased as "India`s first international film" at FICCI-FRAMES 2004.
Analysts said the insistent drumbeat of "internationalism" for the world`s most prolific film industry is not before time. "The concept is fine, haven`t seen the film yet," commented one pundit.
Competing at the global box office for multinational audiences, rather than just diasporic ones, would challenge Bollywood`s current smug sense of self, experts said.
The main snag in all the hype? All Alone , the new film, is literally all alone in Bollywood with its internationalist aims. Besides, its not a Hindi film at all, isn`t being shot in India and its subject is emphatically not Indian.
But that, it seems, is the point. "It`s in English, it`s shot in Mauritius, it`s at a particular point in the island`s pre-independence history," the film`s Mumbai-based director Ritesh Sinha said in London.
"It`s still an Indian film", he insists because the idea, director, production and finance is from India.
Sinha claims his film "can open a new door because Indian film-makers still lack the confidence to venture out into the world and take the world as their audience".
Sinha`s venture, which has an eye-popping budget in Indian terms of $ 15 million, is to be showcased as "India`s first international film" at FICCI-FRAMES 2004.
Analysts said the insistent drumbeat of "internationalism" for the world`s most prolific film industry is not before time. "The concept is fine, haven`t seen the film yet," commented one pundit.
Competing at the global box office for multinational audiences, rather than just diasporic ones, would challenge Bollywood`s current smug sense of self, experts said.