Bollywood is hardly visible in Hollywood: Ashok Amritraj
Karishma Upadhyay
Thursday, March 23, 2006 20:08 IST
Bollywood actors keep making claims about having taken that all-important step towards Hollywood. Making a global impact is a craze that seems to have gripped most actors in India. But the reality, according to US-based filmmaker Ashok Amritraj, is quite different.
“Indian films are popular only with NRIs. As for people in Hollywood being aware of Bollywood actors or films - they are hardly visible,” he says categorically.
While everyone in India is talking about crossover projects, Amritraj insists that no Bollywood film has managed to do that in the US.
“India is trying to get into world cinema, but so far nothing has really ‘broken out’. The difficulty is making movies with an Indian frame of mind and being able to sell those movies to someone in Iowa.”
Future films: A self-proclaimed Indian ambassador to Hollywood, Ashok Amritraj is planning an Indo-US film to be shot at the end of the year.
“It’s a romantic comedy about an Indian girl who has to make her way to the US. On my next trip here I’ll start looking for a cast,” says Amritraj, who is in town as a keynote speaker at FICCI’s Frame 2006.
‘Other End of the Line’ would be his first Indian film after the 1998 Aishwarya Rai-starrer ‘Jeans’, but it is not top priority for him. “Around the same time as ‘Other End of the Line’, we are also doing ‘The Persuaders’, which is based on a British series. If Ben Stiller agrees to do it, the Indian film will be on hold again,” says Amritraj.
Living a dream: At 50, when Amritraj looks back at his Hollywood career spanning a little more than two decades, he has reason to feel satisfied. “Hollywood has a heady atmosphere of great scripts, brilliant actors, private jets and yachts,” he laughs, “and, it’s balanced with a great family life and frequent trips to India.”
^this is true for quite a lot of them with their over acting but some are genuinely good actors like amir khan and some others.