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| ENTERTAINMENT - BOLLYWOOD |
| IFC Debuts Comic Miniseries ‘Bollywood Hero’ | | By LISA TSERING | | | indiawest.com | July 23, 2009 05:14:00 PM |
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Chris (Chris Kattan), a struggling and frustrated actor, announces that he’s quitting Hollywood and jetting off to Mumbai to pursue a career in fillums. But he soon learns that the life of a Bollywood hero — marked by strenuous dance routines, backstabbing family politics and difficult divas — is harder than he imagined.
“Saturday Night Live’s” Chris Kattan stars in “Bollywood Hero,” a three-part original miniseries premiering Aug. 6, 7 and 8 on IFC. Bollywood’s own Neha Dhupia, Rachna Shah, Pooja Kumar, Julian Sands and Maya Rudolph costar, with guest appearances by Keanu Reeves, Jennifer Coolidge and David Alan Grier.
 Filmed over 10 weeks on location in Mumbai, “Bollywood Hero” charts the stratospheric rise of Chris (Kattan is playing a “facsimile of himself,” said a spokesperson), who accepts a starring role in the film “Peculiar Dancing Boy” after a chance meeting with director Monty Kapoor (Ali Fazal). But once Chris lands in Mumbai, he learns that the film’s producer, Priya Kapoor (Pooja Kumar, a former Miss India U.S.A.), who also happens to be Monty’s sister, isn’t too confident in Chris’s potential as a leading man.
Meanwhile, back in L.A., trouble starts brewing when Chris’s ne’er-do-well father decides to crash in his home.
Chris manages to disgrace himself in front of the entire country of India in a public display of affection, but he dreams up a plan to improve his image. “Peculiar Dancing Boy” continues its zigzag path to production, leading to multiple surprises that nobody — least of all, Chris — could have planned.
The versatile Chris Kattan was one of the stars of “SNL” from 1996-2003. He has also appeared in “Undead or Alive,” “Foodfight!,” “Christmas in Wonderland,” “Hollywood and Wine” and “Adam and Steve.”
Neha Dhupia, a former Miss India Universe who finished in the Top Ten at the Miss Universe pageant in Puerto Rico in 2002, had a starring role in the megahit “Singh Is Kinng,” and has appeared in “Chup Chup Ke,” “Mithya,” “Ek Chalis Ki Last Local” and “Dasvidanya.”
Pooja Kumar is an up-and-coming NRI actress and model who won the Screen Actors Guild Emerging Actor award for her starring role in “Flavors.” She has acted in more than 10 feature films, appeared opposite Kal Penn in “Law and Order,” and hosted Zee TV’s “Jaago aur Jeeto.”
Rachna Shah is an accomplished actress in parallel and Bollywood films whose work has screened at Cannes (Sudipto Sen’s “The Last Monk” and Santosh Sivan’s “Navarasa”) and in the films “Meenaxi — A Tale of Three Cities,” “Rang Rasiya” and “Kal Kisne Dekha.”
Ali Fazal is a stage and screen actor whose credits include David Mamet’s “Duck Variations” and the Ashok Amritraj production “The Other End of the Line.”
Maya Rudolph is currently starring in Sam Mendes’ “Away We Go” and was a regular on “SNL” for seven years.
“Bollywood Hero” boasts an all-star lineup behind the camera, too, with dance numbers choreographed by Longinus Fernandes (“Jai Ho” from “Slumdog Millionaire”) and line production by Tabrez Noorani (“Slumdog Millionaire,” “Alexander,” “Bride & Prejudice,” “Bhopal Express”). The miniseries is directed by Bill Bennet and written by Laurie Parres and Benjamin Brand, and produced by Ted Skillman, Belisa Balaban and Fran Calderone. Michael Penn (“Boogie Nights”) composed the soundtrack.
In keeping with the spirit of Bollywood, IFC is also airing Bollywood movies each Sunday morning through Sept. 20. Titles include “Singh Is Kinng,” “Johnny Gaddaar,” “Ghajini,” Farhan Akhtar’s “Don” and other hit films. Check local listings or visit www.ifc.com for more information. |
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