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Enter planet Bollywood

AS ANY FILM producer will tell you, it doesn't bode well to tempt fate and assume success prior to the release of a film. But so confident are the folks behind Kal Ho Na Ho (If Tomorrow Happens Or Not), the prints of the Indian movie have been sent to all the global hotspots where Bollywood musicals sing at the box office - New York, London, Australia, Dubai, Russia, Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia. The film marks the return of 'King Khan' - India's leading man for the past decade, Shah Rukh Khan. The usually prolific Khan has been laid low by a back injury for more than a year.

But his return has industry analysts predicting big things for the tragi- comedy that reunites him with screenwriter Karan Johar. As their previous collaborations have been box-office landmarks, there seems no reason to doubt these prospects.

Karan's father, film producer Yash Johar, speaking while on his way to a preview of the film in Mumbai, said: 'Yes, we have certain expectations and confidence of the film's box-office success. We have a good product, it has an incredible cast who've acted brilliantly, the music is doing well and it's a beautiful film set in New York, but the sentiments are very Indian.'

Over the past five years, a seismic shift has occurred among the top-line filmmakers in Mumbai - the movies are made not for Indians, but for non-resident Indians. Every frame looks like a cosmetics ad in which the perfectly lit, designer-clad cast waxes synthetic feel-good emotions, sings and dances with Broadway precision and lives happily ever after.

Such movies did well initially in India but have lost their flavour. Not so in the overseas market, where an attractive cast, boosted by a reasonably good screenplay seeped with traditional values, sets registers ringing. Because the dollar and pound are mightier than the rupee, market savvy filmmakers have set their sights overseas. 'Indians abroad come to the film looking for something that they miss in their everyday lives,' Johar said. 'They miss their motherland, miss the music, miss the emotional dramas, so they flock to movies with their entire families. In the west, you go to movies with your girlfriends and boyfriends. In India, it's a family affair. The trend for vulgarity and violence will not last because it's just not in our culture .

'Even the foreign audiences are growing tired of it. The reports we get of foreign attendance has surprised us. In Malaysia and the US, audiences are very mixed.'

Why have the makers abandoned India altogether and set the film in the US? 'We didn't abandon India; the story demanded the set. It's about a more affluent Indian guy who is suffering from a heart ailment, so he goes to New York for treatment. I have been through cancer myself, and we went outside India to get the best treatment,' says the sexagenarian producer who's been making movies for almost 20 years.

'The happy-go-lucky guy lights up the life of others around him, which is what I think of Shah Rukh myself. He's been in my last three films. We wanted to show how Indians abroad live. But I actually think it's the singing and dancing that is bringing in non-Indian audiences. Music is a universal language and when we shot with American dancers, they all conveyed their pleasure in working on such a project. We used the latest cameras, young technicians and new talents. We've had to move with the times but the staples of Indian cinema, we didn't move away from.'

Kal Ho Na Ho (with English subtitles) will screen from tomorrow until December 3 at Queen's Theatre, Central. Tickets $80-$200. For screening times, phone 2523 2252 or 2368 2947

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