MUMBAI,
India —
One of India’s biggest stars is banking on a remake of Hollywood feelgood hit
“
Forrest Gump” to revive the fortunes of Hindi-language Bollywood, after a
string of weak box-office showings.
اضافة اعلان
Aamir Khan’s “Laal Singh Chaddha”, an
adaptation of the 1994 US classic starring Tom Hanks, hits cinemas on Thursday
ahead of India’s 75th independence celebrations.
Disappointing takings for other
Bollywood A-listers have cast a pall over an industry still recovering from COVID-19
lockdown losses when many in movie-mad India turned to streaming giants like
Netflix and Disney+ Hotstar.
The adaptation keeps several iconic scenes
from the original — which netted six Oscars, including for Best Picture — such
as a floating white feather, ping-pong playing, and lots of running.
Box
of golgappas
But
there are several changes, with Gump’s “box of chocolates” line becoming “Life
is just like a golgappa. Your tummy might feel full, but your heart always
craves more.”
Golgappa is a popular Indian snack, while
the second half of the saying — “you never know what you’re gonna get” in the
original — draws from a common Hindi
phrase.
The film promises to take people through
India’s history in the same way Gump stumbled through and influenced major
US events like the Vietnam War.
This could irk Indian right-wing critics who
have already called for a boycott of the film because of comments made by Khan
in 2015 that were deemed to be unpatriotic.
Khan, the star of megahit “Dangal” (2016),
and screenwriter Atul Kulkarni were coy in sharing what Indian historical
settings would be featured.
Kulkarni would only say that his script was
a “beautiful story about a beautiful country called India through a beautiful
person called Laal Singh”.
Remaking
a ‘classic’
Khan,
57, admitted that he initially put off reading Kulkarni’s script, uncertain it
would be possible to adapt such a “cult classic”.
“It’s like saying we are remaking
‘Mughal-E-Azam’ and ‘Mother India’. It’s not a wise thing to do,” he said,
referring to two Indian classics.
“But when I heard the script, I understood
he’s done it. It was a moving experience for me. I really loved it. The moment
I heard it I wanted to do this.”
Bollywood star Kareena Kapoor, 41, who plays
Singh’s lifelong friend Rupa, based on Robin Wright’s Jenny Curran, said the
plot was “timeless” with a love story at its core.
“I wondered how they would play around with
such an iconic film,” added Naga Chaitanya, a Telugu-language star from the
southern film industry “Tollywood” who plays Bala, an adaptation of Gump’s
shrimp-fishing Vietnam comrade Bubba.
“But the way they have conceived the film
for Indian cinema is unique.”
Competition
Recent
silver-screen hits have not come from Hindi-language Bollywood but are in other
Indian languages, such as action flicks “Pushpa”, “KGF: Chapter 2”, and “RRR”.
“RRR”, released in March, raked in $87
million domestically, while “KGF: Chapter 2”, which debuted a few weeks later,
took in $106 million, media analyst Karan Taurani of Mumbai-based Elara Capital
told AFP.
Action film “Shamshera”, released on July 22
and starring Bollywood actor Ranbir Kapoor, has so far only made $5.6 million,
dashing hopes it would lure audiences back to Hindi cinema.
A rare Bollywood hit this year has been
comedy horror “Bhool Bhulaiyaa 2” released on May 20 and featuring rising star
Kartik Aryan, which has brought in $24 million so far.
Now, all eyes are on “Laal Singh Chaddha”
and family dramedy “Raksha Bandhan” with Bollywood megastar Akshay Kumar —
which also releases on Thursday.
Taurani estimates that “Laal Singh Chaddha”
will make $19 million, falling short of Khan’s per-film average of $35 million.
Khan, who co-produced “Laal Singh Chaddha”,
believes Bollywood hasn’t lost its mojo, blaming the early release of movies on
streaming services for lower box-office takings.
“I feel that perhaps we — I’m including myself in this
— as Hindi filmmakers, need to ... also
pick topics which are relevant to a larger audience, as opposed to picking
topics which are relevant to a smaller audience,” he said.
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