California dreaming

HOLLYWOOD REEL

A few years ago on a sticky afternoon, I met with Hollywood Film Director Willard Carroll at a Barista in Worli over a coffee. Carroll was well known in Hollywood for his film, Playing By Heart starring Sean Connery and Angelina Jolie.

He now had a script with the Hindi songs about an American actress stranded in Mumbai. He had studied conventions of Indian cinema closely. He also seemed to know the song-and-dance tradition that accompanies the Indian film narratives. Surprisingly, Carroll also had the ability to sing the title song of the first Indo US Co - production Shalimar.

This year at the American Film Market, Willard Carroll's Marigold made its debut and is now slated for a US release. A collaboration between Reliance Adlabs and Hyperion Pictures of USA, the bilingual film stars Indian heartthrob Salman Khan, Nandana Sen and Hollywood actress Ali Larter, better known for her roles in Final Destination and Legally Blonde.

Marigold is a romantic comedy about American actress Marigold Lexton (Ali Larter), who gets stranded in Mumbai. The reel adventure begins when she bags a small role in a Bollywood musical and meets Prem (Salman Khan), the film's choreographer. Some years ago Carroll had seen a Salman Khan film on a visit to India which sparked off his interest in Hindi films. Showing excerpts to a selected gathering at his house in Nichols Canyon above Hollywood Willard Carroll explained, "It's about a woman who comes to India, has some issues and undergoes a transformation for which Bollywood is a sort of catalyst."

His house also has a collection of hundreds of DVDs of Hindi films and now Carroll hopes to introduce American audience with magic of Hindi Films.

''We have put in $2 million in Marigold out of the total cost of $6 million,'' Manmohan Shetty the film's co producer announced at the American Film Market 2005, adding that this could be the first step towards venturing into making films in Hollywood. "Any growth into international film production will depend on how this film fares at the box office," he added.

Marigold was shot in the beautiful locales of Rajasthan, Mumbai and Goa. At just 10 minutes short of two hours, the film even has seven songs, composed by musical trio Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy, and written by Javed Akhtar. Marigold, incidentally, has been processed at the company's film processing lab. This year girls dressed in Indian dresses stood in front of the Loew's Santa Monica Beach Hotel handing out invitations to My Bolllywood Bride screenings during the American Film Market.

The US$ 2 million film has been written and produced by investment banker Brad Listermann and stars his wife Kashmeera Shah.

American actor Jason Lewis co-stars in this film as a Venice, Calif., ad copywriter who pursues an Indian beauty to her homeland without knowledge of her celebrity status. Vivek Wadhwa "" founder and chairman of Relativity, a Fortune magazine-hailed technology company has invested in the project.

Filmmakers have attempted the International Film idea before. Aishwarya Rai and Martin Henderson in Bride & Prejudice failed to penetrate the US market.

Both Marigold and My Bollywood Bride are brave attempts in new territories.

(The writer is the President and CEO of Lall Entertainment and can be contacted at lallentertainment@hotmail.com )