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Hey Baby, Come to Sydney
The NSW government is
launching a tourism campaign in India, based on the new Bollywood movie
"Hey Baby":
"We think it's really, really important," said Matt Brown, the NSW
Tourism Minister.
"People do relate to iconic things such as the Opera House, the Harbour
Bridge, Bondi Beach. So to be able to see that - see people enjoying
themselves, interacting around these icons - really will have a powerful
impact, we think, with the Indian audience."
Hey Baby is the first Bollywood film to feature an Australian location that
is central to the entire film.
The Indian bachelors in the story live in Sydney.
October 4th, 2007
Greetings, your father is a thief
 Bollywood actress
Celina Jaitley has played a practical joke on a New Zealand movie
director by teaching him insults in Hindi language.
At a party during the recent filming of "Love Has No Languages" in New
Zealand, Jaitley urged Kiwi director Ken Khan to greet Indian guests by
saying: "Namaste, tera baap chor hain," or "Greetings, your father is a
thief."
Khan fell for it.
"You should have seen the expression on the guests' faces when Ken actually
said that to them. They were just stunned and did not know how to react,"
Jaitley told the Mumbai Mirror newspaper. "Of course, later I told the
guests that it was a prank that I had played on him."
September 26th, 2007
Seized
Aussie customs officers have
seized more than 11,000 pirated Bollywood movie DVDs, in two
consignments from Singapore. The DVDs are to be destroyed.
September 24th, 2007
Unwinding with a Bollywood Movie
Bollywood clubs are
booming in Australia, according to a report in The Economic Times:
Book clubs are popular in Australia, but Bollywood Clubs? Yes, they too
exist, with more and more Australians cued on to Hindi films.
Curator Rebecca Bower, whose bedside table doesn't have books but a laptop
and Hindi film DVDs, has formed a Bollywood Club where a group of women
watch and discuss Indian films.
"I watch a Bollywood film for half hour or so every night to unwind before
sleeping," said the curator of the Bollywood and Australia section of
"Cinema India: The Art of Bollywood" exhibition, running at the Powerhouse
Museum here. She is learning Hindi so she can turn off the subtitles.
September 17th, 2007
Australian Bollywood
If you're in Melbourne, catch "The
Perfume Garden", which is described as:
Australian-Bollywood. A comedy about an Indian family who own a spice
shop in suburban Melbourne, complete with an Indian wedding in true
Bollywood style. Enjoy an authentic meal prior to the show on performances
on Tuesday through to Saturday evenings.
July 22nd, 2007
Bollywood Radio
I haven't tried listening to it yet, but I've just learnt about the
Bollywood
Down Under Syndicated Monthly Radio Program.
July 22nd, 2007
Bollywood "Abandons New Zealand"
Fairfax Media
reports:
Bollywood, the world's biggest movie maker, has ditched production in New
Zealand despite Prime Minister Helen Clark touting for business in India and
giving "$50 awards" to industry stars.
Mumbai production companies, which once filmed 15 to 20 movies a year in
this country, attracting thousands of Indian tourists, effectively said
"cut" on New Zealand in December.
Film New Zealand has admitted that not one Bollywood movie is in production
here. It blames the collapse of the business on this country's refusal to
give incentives to Indian film-makers.
A Christchurch family who brought Indian film-makers to New Zealand and got
an export award for building the business now say they are giving up.
"Our government doesn't want to even recognise the potential. There is no
point," said Raajew Singh, of family firm Kuran Ltd.
June 27th, 2007
Mango to Melbourne
An email newsletter from Mango Dance
Studio says they are now offering Bollywood dance classes in Melbourne,
starting on July 22nd. Contact them for further details.
The Studio also celebrates its second anniversary on July 8th, in Sydney,
with a two-hour show.
June 22nd, 2007
Ponting for Bollywood?
Aussie cricket captain
Ricky
Ponting is in India. He answered questions from a group of children:
"Would you like to act in a Bollywood film?" asked one young enthusiast.
And the shrewd Aussie quipped, "that would depend on how many beautiful
girls are there in the film".
June 14th, 2007
A Broken Hill Carrot for Bollywood
The Australian mining town of Broken Hill hopes to
lure
Bollywood:
It has the support of the Indian consul general to Australia, who was
shown the area recently.
Film Broken Hill's manager Dinitee Haskard says Indian tourism is increasing
and Bollywood movies have been made in Australia.
She says the consul general will help Film Broken Hill pursue opportunities
for the area.
"We will forward information packs on tourism, but also Film Broken Hill and
what Film Broken Hill can do, so it will be a package basically with a film
directory and some information on what they may require, which is to put a
carrot in front of them and show them what we can do," she said.
May 25th, 2007
The Bollywood Attraction
Hindi language courses are booming in Sydney - because of Bollywood.
May 25th, 2007
Love Has No Language
 Bollywood
star and former Miss India Universe
Celine Jaitley
is to star in a New Zealand movie:
With the working title "Love Has No Language", the film is now nearing
the end of pre-production phase and shooting is scheduled to begin next
month. It is scheduled for release early next year.
This special movie tells a cross-culture tale of love between a Maori
heart-throb (Ben Mitchell) and a beautiful Indian migrant (Celine Jaitley).
Fascinated by each other's cultures, the pair fall into a love spiral which
springs many surprises on them and those around them. The film is poised to
highlight to the world the diverse range of communities that live in New
Zealand.
May 22nd, 2007
Shilpa - Don't Kiss Me
Shilpa
Shetty has arrived in Melbourne, and naturally she was asked about That
Kiss:
A jetlagged Shetty said she was tired of talking about a "trivial and
insignificant" kiss on the cheek from Richard Gere and urged fans to stay
back as she had a terrible cold.
...One controversy Shetty is less disparaging about was her experience in
the UK Big Brother House where she was called a "dog" and a "Paki" by her
fellow celebrities.
"I think it was a positive thing in the end because it made people more
aware about racism," she said. "I do not regret it at all."
Shetty said she was not keen to repeat her experience and had turned down
offers from Network Ten to visit the current Australian housemates.
May 5th, 2007
Tania Gets a Life (Coach)
According to a lengthy article in The Age, it was a "life coach" who
inspired
Tania Zaetta to pursue her Bollywood career:
Three of [life coach Shannah]
Kennedy's other clients all make the same point. Yet none go so far as
to describe it as a life-changing experience.
"That's so Oprah Winfrey," says Bollywood megastar Tania Zaetta, who credits
Kennedy with helping her take the plunge and pursue her film career in
India. "I have too much respect for Shannah to put that kind of spin on it.
What she has done is help put me back on the right track and keep me there."
Zaetta says she consulted Kennedy because she was "too motivated" - a fact
that Kennedy confirms.
"With Tania, it was about saying, 'Whoa! Pull back here'," she says. "For
most of us, life is just overloaded. Most of my clients don't need
motivation; they're very successful people. They actually need things to be
simplified."
May 2nd, 2007
Shilpa for Oz
 Bollywood star Shilpa
Shetty's
latest Big Brother date could be in Australia.
Shilpa Shetty, who won the controversial show in Britain earlier this
year, will go into the Big Brother house on the Gold Coast while on a
promotional tour, the Daily Star newspaper reports.
The paper quoted a Ten Network spokesman as saying: "We are trying to work
out just how long she can spend in the house."
Shetty will be in Australia next month to plug her new movie Metro.
April 25th, 2007
Bollywood Beckons for Brett
Cricket star Brett Lee is laying the groundwork for a
move to Bollywood when his sporting career ends:
Lee has already recorded a No.1 single in India, the pop ballad You're
The One For Me, performed alongside Bollywood actress Asha Bhosle. And that,
apparently, is just the beginning. Lee is looking to further his music
career by finalising a recording deal, then eventually move into acting,
where his services are being actively sought by Bollywood directors.
To achieve his goal, Lee has enlisted the services of a personal Hindi tutor
and is developing relationships with Australian companies seeking to break
into India, heightening his exposure in cricket's largest market.
April 5th, 2007
Radiating Star Power at 74 - Asha in Melbourne
The Age newspaper reviews
Asha Bhosle's Melbourne concert with the Kronos Quartet:
Indeed, I felt for David Harrington and his Kronos colleagues, who were
almost reduced to bit players - Bhosle's musical extras - in the concert's
second half. This impression was heightened by the singer's long, spoken
interludes in Hindi, which excluded the non-Indian members of the audience.
Luckily, the music itself was sensational. The concert's first half featured
beguiling works from Iran, Iraq and the United States as well as India,
performed by the Kronos Quartet and guest pipa player Wu Man. The final two
pieces of this set introduced the music of Bollywood composer R. D. Burman,
whose compositions filled the rest of the program. They also served to
introduce Kronos' other special guest - the legendary tabla player Zakir
Hussain.
Hussain's participation added an undoubted frisson to Friday's concert, the
awe-struck audience exploding with delight at his presence. Yet even he
became a mere accompanist when Bhosle took to the stage, radiating star
power at the venerable age of 74. Bhosle's still girlish voice led the
ensemble through Burman's fabulously eclectic sound world, encompassing
elephant-filled jungles, Oriental spaghetti westerns, playful James Bond
references and the appealing, syrupy kitsch of Bollywood pop.
The Kronos Quartet supplied all the arrangements and played superbly yet
there was a sense that they were constantly upstaged by their Indian guests.
March 23rd, 2007
Bollyfest
 Auckland's
annual Polyfest festival, designed to showcase the best of traditional Maori
and Pacific Island dance and speechmaking, is
going Bollywood:
More than 8500 secondary students from 62 Auckland schools will take to
one of six stages over the next four days.
But an increasing number of other cultures are also making their presence
felt at the annual festival, among them Chinese Lion dancers, Korean fan
dancers, Middle Eastern groups and the Indian dance troupe from Selwyn
College in Kohimarama.
"It's a chance for us to be glamorous like [Bollywood actress] Aishwarya Rai
and to be up there representing our culture," said 15-year-old Ruveena Kaur.
Of the 46 acts taking to the diversity stage today, 32 are Indian
performances.
"It's a mix of traditional and contemporary Indian dance - we all love doing
it and watch heaps of Bollywood movies every week," said Ruveena.
March 22nd, 2007
I'm Famous
This morning's Weekend Australian magazine carries an article (not
online) "G'Day to Bollywood", about how "Australians have fallen in love
with the passion and romance of India's popular dance culture".
Right at the end, in tiny letters, you can read: "For more information on
Bollywood dance, visit
www.bollywood-down-under.com." (So far I haven't noticed any
massive spike
in visitors numbers.)
Thanks to the article I've added a couple of new places to
my list of dance classes -
Bollygrooves in Sydney and
The Dance Workshop in Perth.
March 10th, 2007
Before Tania Zaetta, There Was...
I had never heard of "Fearless Nadia". But apparently this Aussie girl (real
name: Mary Evans) was once one of Bollywood's superstars. Melbourne's The
Age
reports:
To most people, Bollywood is a cinematic style featuring cartoonish,
over-emoting caramel-skinned stars, garish song-and-dance numbers and blunt
moral messages. But, somehow, Evans, a fair-skinned Australian with not a
skerrick of Indian ancestry, earned her own place in Bollywood history by
literally whipping and beating the baddies into submission, then lecturing
them on the values of female equality and literacy in schools.
Read the whole fascinating story.
March 9th, 2007
Bollywood Dance School
I've added Bollywood Dance
School to my list of links. It's in Melbourne, and is run by Sheila
Gawthorne, who writes:
Sheila Gawthorne is a trained Bharata Natyam (Indian Classical Dance)
dancer with 30 years experience teaching and performing dance.
A secondary school teacher, she studied under Dr Chandrabhanu making her
Arengetram (graduation) in 1978 and continued her studies in India
incorporating Manipuri, Kathak and Satriya styles in her Classical Indian
repertoire.
She has performed on Doordarshan TV in India.
She has also taught and performed belly dance and studied a wide range of
other dance genres.
Her family was resident in India for more than 100 years.
She was married to an Indian Film actor which afforded her a unique insight
into the Bollywood movie industry.
She has also appeared as a movie extra.
February 19th, 2007
Hi Brett, It's Asha. Let's Duet Again.
Bollywood singer Asha Bhosle said she
plans to
phone cricket star Brett Lee during her forthcoming Australian tour, to
discuss the possibility of recording a follow-up to their hit song "You're
the One for Me".
"Why not? The song is going extremely well," the 73-year-old said in an
interview, translated by her son Anand from their home in India.
"He is such a huge cricket star and you know how crazy we all are about
cricket ... but not only that, he is a pop star here now."
Bhosle warned that Lee should expect a phone call from her soon.
"We have his telephone number and he said to give him a shout and he will
try and catch up," she said.
"Brett is a really great guy. I really had fun with him and I look forward
to doing that again."
February 7th, 2007
"Heyy Babyy!"
 The
Sydney Morning Herald reports on the
filming of "Heyy Babyy!" in the streets of Sydney, with stars Vidya
Balan and Akshay Kumar:
Saturday morning shoppers could be forgiven for thinking the Mardi Gras
parade had come early, with a troupe of sequin- and feather-clad dancers
taking over a city street yesterday.
About 50 dancers went through their paces on busy Druitt Street yesterday
morning, filming a pivotal scene for the Bollywood film, Heyy Babyy.
Hundreds of shoppers, city workers and tourists stopped for an exclusive
preview of the film which has been in production in Sydney for the past two
weeks.
February 5th, 2007
"Heyy Babyy!" Comes to Sydney
Filming starts in Sydney this week of the
Bollywood movie "Heyy Babyy!" The Sydney Morning Herald reports:
Dubbed the biggest Bollywood film to grace Australia's shores, NSW Arts
Minister Bob Debus today said the film would inject $2 million back into the
state's economy during its four to five week filming stint.
"The film is hiring more than 450 Australian cast and crew through its
Australian line production company ... This is a great start to the new year
for the New South Wales film industry," Mr Debus said.
"Heyy Babyy!", which will feature some of Australia's greatest attractions
including the Sydney Harbour Bridge and the Opera House, is about three
Indian playboys who discover a baby dumped in their apartment.
The trio leave India bound for Australia to track down several of their
ex-girlfriends, who recently relocated to Sydney and who they believe may be
the mother.
"Heyy Babyy!" is being produced by Sajid Nadiadwala through his company,
Nadiadwala Grandson Entertainment India, one of the biggest and most
respected production houses in India.
Sajid Khan, popular for his roles as a television host and stand-up comic in
India, will make his debut as director.
Nadiadwala has previously shot films in New York, Cape Town and London, and
said he was excited about doing his latest project in Sydney.
"New South Wales has everything you need to make such a big-scale film," he
said.
January 25th, 2007
Come to Townsville, Part II
 Actress
Tora Borhani's call (see below) for Bollywood movie makers to come to
Townsville in northern Queensland has been
enthusiastically endorsed by city officials:
Townsville Mayor Tony Mooney said he supported the idea.
"I think Townsville would be a great location for a Bollywood film or any
other film for that matter," Cr Mooney said.
"We are especially lucky that...we have a dry tropical climate which makes
us the ideal location for most of the year for climatic conditions.
"If there is any possibility of Townsville being selected then I would be
very keen to work with film company executives to help bring Bollywood
here."
While Cr Mooney has signalled his support to work with producers, a starring
role is out of the question.
"Probably a step too far for me, I might be able to take a cameo role as a
wise city elder or something," Cr Mooney joked.
January 20th, 2007
Come to Townsville
 Actress
Tora Borhani plans to push for Bollywood producers to make their movies in
the northern Queensland city of Townsville, where she lived for two years.
"This place holds a very special place in my heart, I call it my home,"
she said. "It is so beautiful, the people are so nice, I want Bollywood to
come here.
"Producers only know Sydney, Melbourne and maybe Brisbane and the Gold
Coast. They do not know Townsville.
"I've been telling everybody come to Townsville, it such a beautiful place."
Ms Borhani said she had been involved in films where the cast and crew shot
the entire film on location outside India.
Now she wants Townsville to be given the same opportunity: "But for that to
happen we need to get more active, maybe invite them here, tell them to come
and look at our beautiful place," she said.
January 19th, 2007
Bollywood Comes to Brisbane
The Brisbane City Council is reportedly "laying down the red
carpet" as
Bollywood
comes to town:
Mumbai's A-list are in Brisbane to film a feature called "Hey Baby" and
will be using St Stephen's Cathedral and the Exchange Hotel as locations.
...Deputy Mayor David Hinchliffe says the small disruption will be
worthwhile.
"Bollywood is a billion dollar global industry, it's certainly put
film-making in India on the map globally," he said.
"It's good for local economy in terms of hotels and hospitality, but it's
also very good for promotion of Brisbane."
January 18th, 2007
Hooray for Cliches
Type "Hooray
for Bollywood" into Google and you get more than 57,000 pages. That
didn't stop The Australian from using the headline, "Kids say hooray
for Bollywood" on
this story:
Bollywood came to Melbourne's Immigration Museum yesterday as children
were encouraged to become film stars for the day by dressing up in costumes
and learning some new dance moves.
Children were also given the opportunity to act out a scene and face the
camera for the first time as film characters as part of the museum's Kids
Fest: Experience Bollywood.
As well, the Jhanak Dance Company performed and conducted workshops in
Bollywood dance - a combination of hip-hop, salsa, rhythm and blues and
classical Indian dance movements from all parts of the country.
January 17th, 2006
Bollywood Comes to Melbourne (Again)
"Bollywood
Comes to Melbourne" reads the headline in this morning's Herald Sun:
Learn how to shake and move as you become the ultimate Indian Bollywood
film star.
Kids can dress up, act out Bollywood scenes on live video feeds and take
part in dance workshops at Kids Fest: Experience Bollywood at the
Immigration Museum on Sunday.
Children can also dress mini-Bollywood film characters, make colourful
crafts and accessories and get decorative with henna tattoos.
Each year the museum runs Kids Fest programs linked to current exhibitions
and this year's ties in with Jonathan Torgovnik's exhibition Bollywood
Dreams.
Running until January 28, Bollywood Dreams takes a behind-the-scenes look at
Bollywood theatre.
January 12th, 2007
More Brett
Brett Lee continues to make news with his duet
with Asha Bhonsle. Melbourne's
Herald Sun has a short report (headline: "Brett Lee Hits Right
Pitch").
The
Sydney Morning Herald, in a much longer report (headline: "Lee Song
Bowls Over India"), writes:
It has taken Brett Lee seven years and 143 gruelling one-day
internationals to attain his current ranking, sixth, among the world's
bowlers. But to reach No.4 in India's music charts, Lee required just 30
minutes.
View the song here.
January 9th, 2007
Brett Lee and Asha Bhonsle
Click here to view
Brett Lee's duet with Asha Bhonsle, "You Are The One For Me", on You Tube.
And read about it
here.
January 8th, 2007
More Bollywood Down Under in 2007
It seems that 2007 could be a hot year for Bollywood down under. AP reports
that
Asha Bhonsle will perform with the classical jazz group Kronos Quartet
at the Sydney Opera House in March. This follows the Bollywood album "You've
Stolen My Heart" that the 73-year-old Bhonsle has done with the quartet.
And in Melbourne, also in March, comes an
exhibition at the National
Gallery of Victoria titled "Cinema India: The Art of Bollywood".
January 4th, 2007
Bollywood's Oomph Girl Meets the Prime Minister
 More
on Neha Dhupia's recent visit to New Zealand (from a report which
hilariously claims that Indians comprise more than 25% of Auckland's
population - think 2.5% instead):
She is Bollywood’s oomph-girl. But Neha Dhupia, as a cultural ambassador
and Hindi cinema’s representative at a Diwali celebration in Auckland in New
Zealand last month, impressed everyone. She met New Zealand Prime Minister
Helen Clark and several other bigwig politicians. “The honourable PM
appeared to be simple and was very respectful towards all. The place is
heaven. I feel like going back again,” she gushes.
November 23rd, 2006
Brett's Bollywood Ballad
Aussie fast bowler
Brett Lee has appeared in a music video with Bollywood legend Asha
Bhosle, playing the role of a foreigner who woos an Indian girl.
According to Indian news reports:
The video shows the guitar-playing Lee miming along to a love song from
the album "Asha and Friends" which was released this week.
Lee, who has a rock band called "Six & Out" at home, shot the video during
Australia`s victorious Champions Trophy campaign in India last month.
..."Lee sang well, he knows a few Hindi words and is a star," Bhosle told
reporters here.
Ashok Mehrotra, who directed the video, said: "Lee is cool headed and was a
very focussed artist. We wanted him because he lends charisma and energy."
November 22nd, 2006
Farah and Shirish in Oz
 India-eNews
reports that
Farah Khan
and Shirish Kunder are holidaying in Australia:
Far from being daunted by the mixed reviews for Kunder's debut film 'Jaan-e-Mann',
Khan has whisked hubby away for a 10-day break Down Under.
'We both need to unwind and then return to work. My next film - 'Om Shanti
Om' - is well into the end of its post-production phase. Shirish, too, is
about to zero in on his next project. Once we're back, we'll both get going
with no time at all to even look at each other,' Khan told IANS.
The couple will join up with Shah Rukh, who is currently in Australia
shooting a hockey match with director Shimit Amin for 'Chak De'.
'We'll spend four days with Shah Rukh and then cruise down the Gold Coast
all on our own. We need this time together. We didn't even get time to have
a proper honeymoon. We had just three days together. We owe each other this
time together,' Khan said just before leaving.
November 21st, 2006
Bollywood Big in Oz, Says Variety
Bollywood must be making an impact in Australia. Now the US trade magazine
Variety says so, under the headline, "Oz
auds are bullish on Bollywood".
Just four years ago in Oz, Bollywood films were available on video but
rarely seen on the bigscreen. Now they regularly pop into the theatrical top
20 list, following a trend in the U.S. and the U.K.
Although Australia has a large immigrant Indian population, the pics are
starting to appeal to non-Indian auds as well.
Pics are released narrowly (on about a dozen prints) to a national circuit
of mainstream cineplexes, each of which has established a reputation for
screening these "masala" movies. And they regularly open with double or
triple the per-screen averages of new Hollywood releases.
November 20th, 2006
More Faith Than Physics
Aussie stuntmen and women are
wowing them in Bollywood, according to a lengthy report in the Sydney
Morning Herald.
 With
33 years' experience in the stunt game, 50-year-old [Chris] Anderson has
worked as a stunt co-ordinator on four Indian blockbusters in the past five
years. While the experience and technical knowledge of people such as
Anderson is highly prized, it's the improved safety standards that they also
bring to a film set that's perhaps their greatest asset.
"The injury rate [among Indian stuntmen] is pretty high," Anderson says.
"Unfortunately their training is not exactly what you would call fantastic.
I was recently working with a stunt co-ordinator who had put probably five
or six guys in hospital. I was also talking to one stuntman and showed him a
particular stunt we did in a film last year here in Australia - it was where
we jumped a truck into the ocean - and he just went white, and he said,
'That's exactly the same stunt my father died doing 15 years ago.'
"Those sorts of things you just have to be absolutely meticulous about.
Indians have limited resources so they have to really just work on their gut
instincts."
Grant Page agrees. Another of Australia's most accomplished stuntmen, the
67-year-old (picture) got his first taste of the Indian film industry as a
stunt co-ordinator in late 2003.
"I was rather shocked at their attitude to losing stunt people," he says.
"There was one co-ordinator there who had a reputation for averaging one
stunt person [killed] per film. Even the Indians were amazed by that."
Page says even the attitude of Indian stuntmen is vastly different to that
encountered elsewhere. "On one film I did there was a big truck roll," he
recalls. "Just before we went into the stunt, everyone congregated around
the front of the truck and there was a holy man there.
"He blessed the truck, then the driver, then the driver got down on his
hands and knees and kissed the seat of the stunt co-ordinator. Our attitude
is, 'No, we've got to get all the physics right,' but they tend to work off
faith more than physics."
October 23rd, 2006
Brett Goes to Bollywood
Aussie fast bowler
Brett Lee is in love with India:
The 29-year-old self-confessed Indophile was offered a lead role in a
lavish Bollywood production when he visited Mumbai on his way home from
Australia's tour of Bangladesh this year.
The notion was floated by none other than Amitabh Bachchan, or the Big B as
he is more widely known, one of the biggest and most recognisable stars in
India's huge film and television industries.
"He asked me if I wanted to play the major role with him," Lee recounted in
Mumbai yesterday.
"I said 'mate, I've had no acting experience in my life' and he told me that
was OK, that they could sort that out.
October 16th, 2006
Bollywood's Big in Australia
Bollywood movies are big in Australia, according to a lengthy report in
The Hindu:
The Australian Film Commission's research department indicates that
according to the Motion Picture Distributors Association in Australia, 33
films from India were released in cinemas across Australia during 2005. This
is marked increase from the 18 released in 2004; nine in 2003; and the 15
released between 1983 and 2002.
This fascination for Indian films means one can no longer walk into a cinema
minutes before the show and enjoy a near private screening. As Georgiades
says, "Indian cinema has certainly come of age in Australia. One multiplex
even had to drop a session of `The Da Vinci Code' recently to add an extra
screening of `Fanna' due to huge demand."
But this doesn't mean that Bollywood has entered the Aussie mainstream:
Adrienne Mc Kibbins, Executive Officer and Awards Manager of the Film
Critics Circle of Australia who watches one Hindi film a week, says, "It is
predominantly the Indian audience with a very small proportion of the
general cinema going public that is bringing in the high box office returns.
I think the word `popularity' is possibly being confused for `recognition'.
There is still reluctance for these films to be reviewed in mainstream media
e.g. `Veer Zaara' ran for weeks at a multiplex in both Sydney and Melbourne,
but no mainstream critic reviewed the film. So it is still unclear how great
the inroads into the non-Indian mainstream audience are. "
October 16th, 2006
Fresh Air Hits Neha Dhupia
 Bollywood
star Neha Dhupia
got a shock when she arrived in New Zealand for Radio Tarana's
Diwali Festival, according to the New Zealand Herald:
All that fresh air cannot be good for her lungs after Bombay.
But she likes it and wants to do her bit for the country - her bit being
shopping.
"I want to add to the revenue," she says. "Honestly."
October 14th, 2006
Bollywood Avoids the Aussie Bush Fires
A bush fire is
raging out of control on South Australia's Kangaroo Island, just a few
days after the stars of "Love
Story 2050" were there filming scenes.
October 13th, 2006
Tania Zaetta - Set to Become the Bravest
Babe on British Telly
Tania Zaetta is increasingly in the news, and for all the right reasons - a
new television show in the UK, called "Mission Implausible", which seems to
be a reprise of her "Who Dares Wins" show here in Australia.
The Sun
newspaper says:
To look at Tania Zaetta you'd be forgiven for thinking she's a pampered
supermodel scared witless by the thought of breaking a nail.
But you couldn't be further from the adrenaline-fuelled truth.
Step forward the all-action Aussie who's set to become the bravest babe on
British telly.
October 12th, 2006
Bitten by the Bollywood Bug
South Australian Premier Mike Rann has been "bitten
by the Bollywood bug".
Rann agreed to play a cameo in a song and dance sequence being filmed on
Priyanka Chopra in Adelaide for the film ‘Love Story 2050’.
Incidentally, Rann met Yash Chopra and other filmmakers in Mumbai recently
and expects more films to be shot Down Under. “Another five projects are to
be rolled out over the coming year,” revealed Anupam Sharma, head of the
Australia-India Film & Media Council.
October 9th, 2006
Tania Latest
Lengthy report in Britain's Sunday Mirror on
Tania Zaetta and her (alleged) relationship with singer James Blunt.
October 9th, 2006
Indian Film Festival
The Indian Film Festival
- titled "The Best of Bollywood & Indian Cinema" - opens in Sydney on
Friday. You can read a lengthy preview
here, and more
here.
October 4th, 2006
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