DUBAI // A leading Hollywood film maker has dropped songs, snipped dance routines, cut melodrama and added a fresh musical score in the hope of serving up a new Bollywood experiment that will wow international audiences.
Brett Ratner, the action film director known for X-Men and the Rush Hour movie series, tried to adjust Kites: The Remix to make it palatable for a different kind of viewer. "Bollywood movies move between a multitude of genres - they have drama, action, romance. I have focused on the romance because I believe that translates internationally," he said. "Bollywood movies go from dramatic scenes and break into dance. I think it was important to simplify it for a western audience."
The film is a romantic action-adventure tale about a fugitive who searches for his lady love while on the run in the United States. The 90-minute English version of Kites, a Hindi-language film that runs more than two hours, was released across the UAE on 15 screens yesterday ahead of its international release today. "My movie introduces people [to Bollywood] that would normally not see a Bollywood movie; people with a western sensibility," Ratner said.
The Hindi version, released last week, disappointed fans in India but exceeded expectations overseas. Ratner said the original Kites had also attempted to draw in the overseas market. It succeeded in doing so in historic fashion. The Hindi version became the first Bollywood film to debut in the US top 10 on its opening weekend, according to Reliance Big Pictures, its distributor. The film raked in just short of US$1 million (Dh3.6m).
Movie-mad South Asians pack in to see Hindi-language movies abroad. Ratner said second and third-generation Asians who grew up overseas and were used to seeing American films might enjoy his version. "There is already a big audience [for Hindi cinema]. This is an attempt to go outside the diaspora, to go to countries that haven't see Bollywood movies," he said. "It may be the staple in Dubai, in east and west African countries, in some countries in the Middle East, but some countries haven't seen a Bollywood movie."
Several scenes in both versions were shot twice and some passionate scenes between the Bollywood heart-throb Hrithik Roshan and the Mexican actress Barbara Mori appear only in the English version. "I added a little more romance," said Ratner. "It's still a Bollywood movie. It's just short. I've tried to make it less over the top." Roshan exuded a style that was not limited to an Indian audience, an international appeal including humour, charm and vulnerability, said Ratner.
However, critics and the cinema-going public in India and the UAE have not been impressed, complaining about a weak plot and an implausible storyline in the Hindi version of Kites. That critique has apparently affected the English version of the movie, with most halls screening the film all but empty on the opening day. One couple walked out midway during the afternoon show at CineStar Cinemas at the Mall of the Emirates. At Ibn Battuta Mall's Grand Megaplex, the refrain was: "It's vacant, you will get seats."
Rakesh Roshan, the film's producer and the leading man's father, said all criticism was welcome. "You make a dish, somebody likes it, somebody doesn't," he said. "There will be pockets where people will not like film, but in the West we have got good ratings. I think this is a positive experiment." Pratik Shah, the head of communications for Reliance Big Entertainment, said the initial plan in the UAE was to run both versions simultaneously.
"But we ran the risk of cannibalising the Hindi movie and it would have added to the confusion," he said. "People wouldn't have known where to go with both movies playing." @Email:rtalwar@thenational.ae
