Blog Archive
December 16th, 2005 - January 27th,
2006
More Bollywood for Melbourne
My city of Melbourne came to experience Bollywood with the filming here of
the movie "Salaam
Namaste." Now more is on the way, for the conclusion of the Commonwealth
Games in March.
The Hindu reports:
A dazzling presentation showcasing the culture and heritage of the
country along with extending an invitation to various countries to reach
Delhi in 2010 would be made by leading Bollywood stars including Shah Rukh
Khan and Aishwarya Rai at Commonwealth Games 2006 to be held in
Melbourne....
Apart from unfurling the mascot for the 2010 Games, the theme song will also
be unveiled as part of the event. The leading Bollywood composing trio of
Shankar, Ehsan and Loy has composed the theme song. Interestingly, renowned
lyricist-poet Gulzar has penned the lyrics and it will be sung by five
leading voices from the Hindi film world. It was also revealed that leading
film stars Shah Rukh Khan and Aishwarya Rai would be among the prominent
artistes showcasing Delhi and the rest of India during this ceremony.
January 27th, 2006
Move Over Bollywood - Here Comes Bangalore
An
article in The Australian newspaper says that Bangalore firms are
now actively recruiting Aussies, and it makes this strange claim:
While Bollywood has long pillaged Australian actors - yanking Dancing
with the Stars contestant and Salaam Namaste talent Tania Zaetta to
supplement former Miss World Aishwarya Rai, for instance - Bangalore is now
hiring on our turf too.
Actually, apart from Tania, I don't know a single Aussie actor who has been
"pillaged" by Bollywood (and I doubt that Tania would consider herself
pillaged).
January 24th, 2006
Tania Zaetta – More Publicity
 It sometimes seems this
website is becoming a
blog
about Tania Zaetta. She features in a lengthy profile on the Rediff.com
website, titled “Want
to be a Bollywood star? Read this.” It’s well worth reading. Here’s an
excerpt:
Her words are worth a
listen, considering the Australian face of Who Dares Wins made quite a mark
in Bollywood with two big Yashraj releases, Bunty Aur Babli and Salaam
Namaste -- undoubtedly the most stellar debut by a foreign actress. Tania,
an Australian citizen, shifted to Mumbai four years ago, and is
contemplating several scripts (and item numbers) at the moment.
"I only
want to tell newcomers that these girls must not come to Bollywood
starry-eyed. Bollywood is tougher to break into than Hollywood because of
cultural differences, and also the fact that most of the films are made by
people whose families are already associated with the industry," says Tania
…
"My mother,
Heather, is my best friend, my elder sister and everything. She believes in
spirituality and she brought me to India when I was very young," explains
Tania. "She has told me to take the best of everything from every religion
and I am a great believer in the Karma of Hinduism."
And there’s
more. Rediff.com also carries a slide show, “Bollywood’s prettiest imports,”
with Tania
Zaettta prominently featured:
One can call her the
most successful foreign actress in Bollywood. After all, as the saying goes,
if you get a Yash Raj film, you have arrived. Tania made her presence felt
in two Hindi films last year -- that too, hits like Bunty Aur Babli and
Salaam Namaste. At present, the pretty Australian is living in India and we
are sure to see more of her in 2006.
January 13th, 2006
Tania Zaetta – Married to an Indian
Cricketer?
Aussie
Bollywood girl
Tania Zaetta provides practical wisdom for other foreigners
living
in India:
Yes, I’ve
heard about the rape of the South African national in Mumbai and I feel
terrible for the poor girl,’’ said the Australian born Tania Zaetta who was
in the capital to launch a spanking new range of perfectly weathered leather
handbags and jackets by Hidesign. ‘‘If you’re a foreign national trying to
get a foot in the Bollywood door, you’ve got to be street smart. You can’t
be blasé, thinking you’re on holiday, and get yourself lost in the wrong
part of town. But having said that, I can’t condone what the two men did.
Spiking a girl’s drink — that’s just pathetic.’’
And she
reveals what she might be doing in five years’ time:
Although the offers
won’t stop pouring, we won’t find Tania attempting to ‘‘get local’’ and
speak Hindi in any of them. ‘‘I don’t think directors expect it of me
because they know I’m not Indian. But who knows in five years, you just
might see me married to an Indian cricketer and learning
kathak!’’
January 7th,
2006
Salaam Namaste
– Bollywood in Melbourne
 The
2005 Bollywood movie Salaam Namaste was made here in Melbourne, and
has been responsible for enhanced interest in Australia among Indians, and
for a growing appreciation of Bollywood movies among Australians.
The official “Visit
Melbourne” website has a page –
Bollywood in Melbourne - devoted to the movie, noting that “director
Siddharth Anand had been planning to shoot the film in San Francisco, but
after a visit to Melbourne in 2004 was impressed by the city's architecture,
variety of settings and clear light for filming.”
The “Only Melbourne”
tourism website also has a
Bollywood in Melbourne page devoted to the movie. It includes an excerpt
from an
Urban Cinefile review:
I write
this review as a proud Melbournian, so readers from elsewhere may take it
with a grain of salt. Still, for locals who enjoy seeing their city on film,
Salaam Namaste is the most unmissable event since Jackie Chan came to visit
in the mid-1990s: three hours of synchronised dance numbers, farce,
melodrama and general Bollywood craziness against a background featuring all
our most photogenic tourist landmarks from the Fitzroy ...
An article in The Age
–
India flocks to Down Under movie – reported:
Mitu Lange,
the film's line producer, said it featured recognisable Melbourne and
Victorian images, including the Great Ocean Road, central Melbourne and
Chapel Street. "For a lot of Indians, Melbourne is very special because the
MCG is here," Ms Lange said.
Describing
the film, which features Australia's Tania Zaetta, Ms Lange said: "It's
about two young people who are away from India who are staying in Melbourne.
One is a chef, one is a radio jockey and every time she comes on air, she
says, 'Good morning, Melbourne'."
Or, as a
reader on a Hindi film website wrote: "A dishy look at mores, sexual or
otherwise, in the extremely urban setting of mouth-watering Melbourne,
Salaam Namaste bends the rules of mainstream Hindi cinema."
"It's the
best promotion Melbourne and Victoria could ever have done," said Andrew
Bailey, South Asian marketing officer for
La Trobe
University, which features prominently in the movie.
And the Hindustan
Times commented, in a report titled
Salaam
namaste to Oz tourism:
A Tourism Victoria
spokesperson says, “Earlier, Melbourne was seen as an aspirational but
remote location. By narrating a story with Melbourne as the backdrop, the
film has made Indians curious about the place. Queries have increased by
almost 25 per cent and more tourists are visiting the city than ever
before.”
The film, about an
Indian chef and an Indian medical student falling in love and living
together in Melbourne, could almost be called a three-hour commercial for
the city. It was the first Indian film to be entirely shot in Australia with
a crew of about 70, 40 per cent of them Australian — the title song was shot
on the sunny sands of Rye beach at Mornington Peninsula, just off Melbourne.
And the song What’s Going On? was filmed on Bourke Street. Many other scenes
were shot in landmark locations like the Great Ocean Road, Chapel Street,
the Federation Square and General Post Office. Aussie babe Tania Zaetta
added to the local flavour.
December 31st,
2005
Googling
Tania Zaetta
 “Who
Dares Wins” was one of the few TV reality shows I actually enjoyed, and my
family and I watched regularly. So I was interested to learn that one of the
hosts of the show, Tania Zaetta, has become a big name in Bollywood.
I decided to Google her,
to find out more about her Bollywood experiences.
An
official bio is at the Markson Sparks celebrity management website. It
says:
Tania
Zaetta is now officially Australia’s hottest female export to India, on the
basis of the phenomenal international success of
Australia’s daredevil action show Who Dares Wins (such a ratings
winner in
India they created their own version with Zaetta as host) and her
burgeoning Bollywood career.
The Sify website lists
her among its “Female
Debuts of 2005,” saying:
The
Australian beauty made her debut in Bollywood with a minuscule role in
“Bunty Aur Babli.” But she was more recognized in “Salaam Namaste” where she
played Arshad Warsi's wife. Next she will be seen playing one of the
Charlie's Angels in “Mr. Black Mr. White.”
According to
ApunKaChoice.com:
Tania is a
self confessed lover of Bollywood films. She loves the elaborate song n’
dance routines and vibrant colors of Hindi films. And she wants to do roles
that demand histrionics rather than sticking to item numbers.
Channel 4’s
Bollywood Star website features
an interview with Tania, and she reveals her top 10 tips for breaking
into Bollywood:
-
Speaking Hindi –
Unless you can speak Hindi fluently, it's impossible to land a huge part
in a traditional Bollywood film.
-
Dancing is an
essential – you could start classical Indian dance classes.
-
You need to understand
the Indian culture.
-
Spend time in India to
make contacts – get yourself known to film makers.
-
Get some acting
training.
-
The population of
India is about 1.1 billion and most of them want to be a star ? perfect
everything before you go and search for a job in Bollywood.
-
It's all about who you
know and which parties you're at.
-
Landing a role depends
a lot on your profile; you need to have a good profile before you consider
going into the Indian film industry.
-
It's very competitive
– they'll only hire you if they're certain you can attract more viewers.
IndianTelevision.com has
an
interview with Tania, though it dates back to 2003, before her Bollywood
debut.
December 30th,
2005
Tania Zaetta – the Face of Madagascar
Aussie
Bollywood star
Tania Zaetta has landed a new role, starring in promotions for
Madagascar tourism. A report in the “Sydney Confidential” column of the
Daily Telegraph newspaper says she is already a big name in the island
nation, thanks to repeats of the Who Dares Wins television show that
she once co-hosted. The column quotes the Madagascar Minister of Tourism
and Culture, Roger Mahozoasy: "We've all
grown up watching Who Dares Wins on this side of the world and it's
our pleasure to have her agree to this role."
December 27th, 2005
Bollywood Dance Classes Around Australia
My city council’s
handbook of local amenities has just arrived in the letterbox, and I find
that, even here in the Eastern suburbs of Melbourne, Bollywood dance classes
are available. Using Google, I decided to try to draw up a list of classes
throughout Australia.
Mango Dance Studios, founded by Farah Shah, provides Bollywood classes,
workshops and kids’ programmes in Sydney. You can read a little more about
it
here and
here.
Dance Central in
Sydney provides Bollywood dance classes, as well as lessons in a wide
variety of other styles. Also in Sydney,
Pampered
Hens organizes home lessons in Bollywood dance for ladies’ groups.
Bollywood
Dreams in Brisbane, which is also involved in the movie business, offers
dance classes in Brisbane, Melbourne and the Gold Coast.
Also in Melbourne,
Hip to Hip Middle Eastern
Dance Studio provides Bollywood dance tuition from the
Jhanak Dance
Company, and
Christine Sully at
Bellacize
offers belly dance, Bollywood and pole dance fitness classes.
Still in Melbourne,
check out Dancehouse for
Bollywood dance workshops. And
Glittery Tapping
Wonderland is a Melbourne dance studio with a website that plays
annoying music. It is run by the “original and glamorous Miss Lou Lou,” and
includes Bollywood tuition.
Also in Melbourne, check
out the Council of Adult
Education for Bollywood workouts.
The
Ausdance SA website has information on dance classes in Adelaide,
including Bollywood dance tuition from
Vinay
Kumar.
Dance Teachers Online is a
massive international site, with details of teachers in all styles,
including several offering Bollywood dance instruction. There are separate
pages for NSW,
Victoria,
South Australia,
Western Australia,
Queensland,
Tasmania,
Northern Territory and
ACT (though not all
regions offer Bollywood teachers).
The
Dancing Shoes Australia website contains many links to dance studios.
And I’m sure there’s
plenty more. Check local community listings. You could be surprised.
December 22nd,
2005
Bollywood Dance – the Fashion Craze of 2006?
Blackmores,
which is Australia’s leading producer of natural medicines, has published on
its website a report on the
three
“it” fitness crazes for 2006. They are Nordic walking, Capoeira (a
Brazilian martial art) and
-
Bollywood
dance.
Here’s what
the company says about Bollywood dance:
Love the
kitsch and colour of Bollywood? Now you can channel your enthusiasm onto the
dance floor (and take a bhindi and some bangles along for the ride). A term
coined by Westerners to characterise the burgeoning Indian film industry,
Bollywood exports have surged in popularity over the past few years.
Although they might have a fight on their hands elbowing salsa schools out
of business, Bollywood dance classes are also flourishing. Fusing Bhangra,
classical Indian, Arabic, Western jazz, funk and hip hop, this dance style
is accompanied by upbeat, hip Bollywood tracks. Expect a healthy dose of
theatrics, too: often romance scenes (for example a moody belle might
wrestle to deflect the affections of a love-struck beau) play out in
sequences that will have you, and your dance partner in stitches.
December 22nd, 2005
Kick, Polka, Stomp and Disco
The New
Zealand Herald reviewer
doesn’t quite know what to make of “The Merchants of Bollywood.”
 Mostly
the cast of some 30 dancers just kick, polka, stomp and disco their
enthusiastic and high-voltage celebration of the Bollywood phenomenon in
frenetic and furious style.
Leading Bollywood composers Salim and Sulaiman Merchant provide the score.
The costumes are a kaleidoscope of Indian ethnicity - and more - including
the curious combo of bare chests, balloon pants and huge skate shoes (for
the men) and thick, shiny "nude" body stockings teamed with skimpy harem
suits for the women. These strangely disguise the navel and wrinkle, like
baggy pantyhose. Other production values are not very high, either, in
contrast to the super-glossy $15 programme, which is quite interesting.
This show is not for the unconverted. But the fans on opening night loved it
- 100 per cent.
December 16th, 2005
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