Bollywood on the Hudson

Millions of moviegoers in India recognize the neon signs of Times Square as easily as the Taj Mahal, due to the growing popularity of "Bollywood" movies shot in the United States, particularly in New York.

By making movies in one of the world's most expensive cities, producers risk big losses but can score big rewards by appealing to India's fascination with foreign worlds.

Despite its high costs, New York, more than any city outside India, offers easy access to resources such as Indian extras, trained Indian dancers and Indian production teams, say experts on Bollywood, the $2 billion-a-year industry known for movies featuring elaborate music, costumes and sets.

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A slice of Bollywood life where kismet or luck plays a huge role

Directed by debutante Zoya Akhtar, 'Luck By Chance' is about a slice of Bollywood life where kismet or luck plays a huge role. It is slated for a worldwide release on January 30.

The film is about the journey of an actor named Vikram Jaisingh, played by Farhan Akhtar, who arrives in Mumbai to make it big as a film star with the help of Abhimanyu, played by Arjun Mathur, a television star friend, who puts him up during the initial struggle.

Sona, played by Konkona Sen Sharma, arrives in Mumbai with her dreams of becoming a film star. Wide-eyed but ambitious, she does whatever it takes, to make it.

She lives on her own in a rented apartment - a luxury for most in this bustling city and spends her time with a motley crew of loyal friends whose lives are also entwined with Bollywood, each one in search of a bigger dream.

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Bollywood to bring credit crisis to big screen with ‘EMI'

The global credit crisis has found echoes in an unlikely quarter, Bollywood, known more for its love of lavish musicals and racy thrillers.

The crisis, that has inspired "credit crunch" chocolate bars and "meltdown" parties in the West, is reflected in a new Hindi film ‘EMI,'or Equated Monthly Installments, by debutant writer-director Saurabh Kabra. It is set for release later this month.

EMI is an acronym that millions of middle class Indians are familiar with, as it allowed them to buy everything from washing machines to fancy cars, homes and vacations at a time when banks were eager to lend and credit was cheap.

‘EMI,' which stars actors Sanjay Dutt, Urmila Matondkar and Arjun Rampal, is a tale of the lives of disparate characters who live off credit cards and personal loans, and a recovery agent who makes them realize the folly of their ways.

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Bollywood goes on indefinite strike, movie shoots cancelled

More than 100,000 Bollywood and television workers began an indefinite strike on October 1, protesting irregular pay and the hiring of non-union members, a move that could delay major releases for India's festival season.

Movie stars, including Shah Rukh Khan and Amitabh Bachchan, as well as dancers, writers and technicians heeded a call for an indefinite "non-cooperation" protest in Mumbai.

"All shoots are off. The producers have not stuck to the terms of the agreement they signed with us one-and-a-half years back," said Dinesh Chaturvedi, general secretary of the Federation of Western India Cine Employees, the umbrella union for Bollywood employees.

"Payments have been delayed by three months, six months, a year. And producers are hiring non-members to save costs. We are not happy to call for this non-cooperation, but we are helpless."

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Kolkata-born baritone Shouvik Mondle to play the Phantom in 6-city Europe tour

With his recent real-life adventures containing all the elements of the operas he has starred in, India-born baritone Shouvik Mondle of Jackson Heights has just signed a contract for what is probably the highest opera role beckoning an American classical singer that of the phantom in ‘The Phantom of the Opera.'

This ends a period of turbulence, caused by his marriage in 2004 into a Bollywood musical dynasty, which very nearly brought the western classical career of the promising baritone to an end.

After dramatic ups and downs, The Times of India of Dec. 8, 2004, envisioned Mondle as ending up as a music composer in Bollywood a string of law suits ending in divorce, Mondle has been back in the United States picking up his musical threads.

A resident of Jackson Heights for the past 11 years, Shouvik was born in Calcutta, to a gifted family of artists and professionals, in 1978.

His mother, Aditi, was a producer for Doordarshan ,as a child, Shouvik played the lead dwarf in his mother's production of 'Snow White' on TV. His father, Samir, is an engineer. The family moved to this country when Shouvik was seven.

He flew back to the States for operatic appearances, including as Scarpia in Tosca at Natchez Opera Festival, May 2005, with Jennifer Griffin Chesney as Tosca. His most recent show was in Baltimore in April. But the wheel of fortune definitely turned in May, when just two days after an audition, his agent, a constant friend who believed in Mondle's talent, sent him an e-mail to inform him he has landed the plum role of the Phantom.

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Shah Rukh Khan to make Bollywood's costliest film

Indian screen superstar Shah Rukh Khan is spending an estimated Rs.1 billion ($ 25 m.) for perhaps the costliest Bollywood film to be made so far.

The film for children will be in the VFX medium, using computer-generated special effects.

It will be a film featuring a lot of children who wish for bad things, but get a shocking reality check when they come true, Shah Rukh told Patrick Frater of Hollywood's top trade magazine Variety in a recent interview in Berlin.

He is talking to Eros Multimedia and Charles Darby (of ‘The Matrix' and ‘Minority Report' fame), the visual effects guru, who recently co-ventured with Eros to launch Mumbai-based special effects Eye qube Studios.

Khan said he was planning the film under his home banner, Red Chillies Productions.The new venture - to be directed by Anubhav Sinha - had a budget of $25 million making it the most expensive Bollywood film to date.

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