Hollywood Goes Bollywood?

Forget Hollywood, Bollywood is the new red.  It is only a matter of time before we see the first Bollywood film cross over and connect with American audiences. And who knows, maybe the film will feature American stars, filmmakers and or writers. When I talked to Slumdog Millionaire director Danny Boyle in September, he told me that Will Smith had visited India a couple times over the last year in hopes of starring in a Bollywood film. After seeing Slumdog, I have since become more and more interested in Bollywood. It now seems rather odd that we haven’t yet seen a big crossover or collaboration.

Now THR reports that Taxi Driver and Raging Bull screenwriter Paul Schrader has decided to write and direct a Bollywood action film titled Extreme City. Schrader points to the cold financial climate as one of the reasons he is moving to India, which will offer more creative freedom and a new audience. Extreme City is described as “a cross-cultural tale that will center on an American man who travels to India to help resolve a kidnapping case for his father-in-law, only to get caught up in a gangster plot.” The script will likely feature musical numbers, and Schrader is already in talks with a bunch of Bollywood stars.

  • gpp
    good to know that even after a 100 years, outsiders dont have an inkling of what Indian movies are and what Bollywood movies are, yesterday and today, and that there are 3 more giant movie industries within India better than the identity less Bollywood movies. :D Enjoy.
  • Bring it on, I'm tired of spoof movies.
  • Dan
    Everything that I have seen that is Bollywood has been completely rediculous. I don't know if that is just because I happened to see a few rediculous productions, or if that is the norm coming out of Bollywood....

    im not sure....but from what I did see, I can say that I absolutely thought it was junk. Not my cup of tea at all....so I'll pass on this idea
  • I just don't see these types of movies being a big hit with the general audience.
  • Next will be the Bollywood spoof movie.
  • But you'll have to agree that the general audience will see Danny Boyle's movie as "Bollywood"
  • Didn't Mike Myers try that?
  • Cenzo
    What the hell is BOLLYWOOD, and why have people been using this term like we all know what it means?
  • Prat
    See.. the problem is.. Bollywood isnt just films shot in India, its the entire 'masala' aspect of it. If some guy comes along and makes a film in India, it doesnt actually make it a bollywood film. Like Slumdog Millionare.. what I've seen (in trailers) looks like a good movie and I'm waiting for it eagerly, but I think it really wont be attracting lots of crowds in India, like a Sharukh Khan, Bachaan or Roshan film.

    But yeah, coming from an Indian, I always wanted a Bollywood film to be simultaneously Bollywood and yet attract a Hollywood audience.. ah well, at least its in reverse now :P
  • Delta Assault
    Why would we want more Bollywood? We already have to put up with friggin High School Musical 3.
  • Ryan
    It's been done already: Moulin Rouge. Probably not a straight up Bollywood movie but pretty much the same. It's the closest thing to a crossover i think.
  • I wish people would stop reffering to "Bollywood" as a film genre. What, you think Indians produce 800+ times the same kind of film per year? Movies like Devdas, Lagaan, Black, Don, Kal Ho Naa Ho and Taare Zameen Par couldn't be more different one from the other. Sheesh.

    Also, the India/USA crossover/collaboration already happened, several times: Bride & Prejudice, Marigold, Roadside Romeo,...
  • Joaquinis mama
    Bollywood movies are my little piece of heaven. I personally hope it never crosses over. Everything Hollywood touches turns to crap. & as for Will Smith...well he can go to India...and stay there! Maybe Shahrukh Khan can teach him how to be a real star
  • Jay Sikander
    Slumdog Millionaire is not really a 'Bollywood' movie in the sense of the convention of the Bollywood masala movie, which involves lots of family melodrama, romance, and lots of songs and dancing. There is a parallel cinema in India, and some mainstream movies that dispense with the formula. That is a separate form of cinema.What Danny Boyle has done, and what Paul Schrader seems to be doing, is utilising the cinematic infrastructure to make movies that either play with, subvert, or dispense with the 'masala' conventions.

    Let me compare it to something to make it clearer. 'Bollywood' is a genre, full of conventions. It's like a Disney movie. Disney makes certain kinds of movies. Except in India the 'Bollywood' formulaic film is the dominant commercial type of film. Schrader and Boyle have more in common with the parallel cinema of India as well as directors like Ram Gopal Verma who make Bombay gangster epics, then they do with 'Bollywood Masala' types.
  • Hernan
    I Agree with mr hollywood, they already try to take movies from bollywood to the states and the rest of the world and they don't work, it doesn't matter if is a co-production with hollywood or an entire bollywood production, the movies doesn't work outside india. The only one that worked was Moonsoon Wedding, they also made a movie in hollywoood with a bollywood actor and plot and it didn't work at all its call the guru http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0280720/
    I hate musicals and even more if they are cheesy like in bollywood, so please bollywood stay in india.
  • ControlMaster
    See Pather Panchali it is the best film done ever by a Indian.
    Other than that i would add Sixth Sense.
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