Bollywood Calling

Won’t you fly away to Bollywood with me?

Are you totally into Bollywood films? Do you love the action, melodrama, romance and music all jammed into one four-hour epic? Would you like to make your own masterpiece? Well, now you can! Air France is running a Fly to Bollywood Contest, and you can produce your very own short Bollywood film to enter. It’s simple—just add your own clever dialogue as subtitles for preselected pieces of film to create an instant classic. You could be the next … well, I don’t know the names of any Indian directors. But you’ll definitely be in the running for a free trip to India. Won’t Mom and Dad be proud? Please post the links to your creations in the comment section—we’d love to see what our Nirali readers come up with!

Good luck!

Thanks to Ranjit and Shilpa for the tip.

Jhumpa Lahiri in Chicago

Jhumpa Lahiri

The city of Chicago’s One Book, One Chicago program attempts to “cultivate a culture of reading and discussion in Chicago by bringing a diverse city together around one great book.”

After choosing such classics as To Kill a Mockingbird, Night and Pride and Prejudice, the city has picked Jhumpa Lahiri’s Interpreter of Maladies for its latest selection. The Pulitzer Prize-winning author visited Chicago to discuss her work and her Indian-American identity.

I read and enjoyed Interpreter of Maladies, but I haven’t attempted The Namesake. Should I go for it, or wait for the movie starring Kal Penn and Tabu?

Water Works for Canada

Lisa Ray and John Abraham in Water.

Last month Telefilm Canada submitted Deepa Mehta’s Water, the third in her elements trilogy (which included Fire and Earth), as its official entry for the 2006 Academy Awards in the Best Foreign Language Film of the Year category.

That Water was completed is in itself a feat. The film was stalled and eventually shut down in India because of violent opposition by Hindu fundamentalists. After receiving death threats, Mehta was forced to relocate the shoot from Varanasi, India to an undisclosed location in Sri Lanka. Mehta, an Indian born Canadian citizen, received little help or protection from the Indian government during filming- largely because Mehta’s subject matter was considered controversial. Yet her adopted homeland of Canada submitted a Hindi language film, about Indian historical subject matters as an official entry.

Set in 1930s India, Water explores the institutionalized oppression of Hindu widows.

As you may already know, this film has received rave reviews from Salman Rushdie and film critics from the New York Times, Washington Post, Village Voice, and Time magazine. Here’s a peek at some of those reviews: “gorgeous fury,” “eloquent testament,” “Water seduces with its beauty and sorrow,” “exquisite storytelling.” Variety raved: “Deftly balancing epic sociopolitical scope with intimate human emotions, all polished to a high technical gloss, Water is a profoundly moving drama.”

This film is in real danger of winning and I for one could not be more excited. Let’s hope the American distributor Fox Searchlight pulls out all the stops.

Navi Rawat in Feast

Oh, Navi!

So I’m emailing with Ismat while we’re putting the archives back online and the Google contextual ad at the top of my screen starts showing, “Rotten Tomatoes: Feast.”

Feast is a Project Greenlight film starring the lovely Navi Rawat… I remembered that we had spoke to her about it when we talked to her in the spring of last year. It’s apparently being released in limited markets on September 22nd plus the release of the on DVD in mid-October in time for Halloween. Halloween? Oh, yeah. It’s a bloody slasher horror movie about a group of people locked in a bar while human flesh-eating creatures try to attack them from outside.

The trailer is here, lots of blood and guts but there are some pretty cool shots of dear Navi cocking a huge gun. (Might be slightly NSFW, kiddies.) See our article with her here from our April 2005 Issue.

Kal Penn Joins Cast of 24

Kal Penn’s star is rising—he’s been everwhere since Nirali interviewed him in September 2004.

Kal Penn has joined the cast of 24, Fox’s Emmy-winning drama about Jack Bauer and his quest to stop the terrorists. I don’t watch the show, but word is that Penn is going to play the recurring role of a man who is involved with a nefarious Muslim leader who “may or may not be plotting a terrorist attack.” (Aside: Oy. I’ve heard good things about the show, but as a Muslim, I’m reluctant to check it out—does it perpetuate stereotypes? Hmm, I may have to rent the DVDs.)

Penn’s star is certainly rising: Not only was he in Superman, he will soon film Harold & Kumar Go to Amsterdam, the follow-up to 2004′s Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle. The Van Wilder sequel is going to be based on Penn’s character Taj and will be called Van Wilder 2: Rise of the Taj. And who can forget his leading role in The Namesake, Mira Nair’s film adaptation of the Jhumpa Lahiri novel, due out this spring.

Looks like Kal Penn is officially in the big leagues. Good thing he still knows how to have fun. Check out his official MySpace profile for some hilarious videos that are somewhat…unexplainable?…but amusing nonetheless. And don’t forget to read our September 2004 feature on Penn himself.

Looking for Lovely Rita

Pals Owen Wilson and Wes Anderson re-unite in The Darjeeling Limited. Photo courtesy of Slate.

Wes Anderson, the director of cult classic Rushmore and 2001 hit The Royal Tenenbaums, is headed to the subcontinent. He will direct Owen Wilson, Adrien Brody and Jason Schwartzman as three brothers who journey through India in The Darjeeling Limited. Production Weekly reports that filming begins in December.

Meanwhile, casting director Cindy Tolan is scouring the South Asian community for a young woman to play Rita, an “attractive, intelligent and articulate” stewardess on a train in India. This may be your chance to become the next Ash—no experience is necessary for the role. The actress-to-be should be in her mid-20s to mid-30s, speak English and preferably Hindi, as well. Email dlcasting@gmail.com with a letter and headshot to apply.