Mira Nair's 'The Namesake' to be officially announced!

By Our Correspondent ©2005 Bollyvista.com






Hollywood actor Kal Penn will be part of Mira Nair's 'The Namesake'
The cat is out of the bag. At least we heard about it first. India's leading production house UTV, having announced its mammoth 'Rang De Basanti' (Aamir Khan), is all set to announce its next biggie: the acclaimed director Mira Nair's 'The Namesake', based on Jhumpa Lahiri's novel of the same name.

Reportedly, this film will be a co-production but we don't know the co-partner's name. The Hollywood film will star two leading international ladies in addition to the well-known Indo-US actor Kal Penn. Tabu and Irrfan Khan play Kal’s parents.

'Namesake is very uncannily my story!'

Ronjita Kulkarni | February 07, 2005 21:35 IST

The casting of Mira Nair's next film, The Namesake, has been hogging headlines for a while now. Rani Mukerji was approached first for the movie. The deal fell through and Mr And Mrs Iyer star Konkona Sensharma was roped in. She dropped out as well. Now, Tabu has been signed on.
"I wanted a Bengali [for the title role]. I really liked Rani and wanted her to do the film," Mira said in a videoconference. "I liked Konkona in Mr and Mrs Iyer. But her mother Aparna Sen is starting her own film with Konkona at the same time. There was a clash of dates."

Mira said time was the deciding factor. "If I had waited any longer, I would have missed the winter in New York, and a large part of the film takes place in the New York winter. The snow does not last until mid-April. So I could not delay any further."





"The great benefit out of this is Tabu. We needed a 19 or 20-year-old young bride, who becomes a mother and then a widow, and then the mother of a 27-year-old son. Tabu, because she is older, can play a 25 and 45-year-old woman more convincingly and with more panache than Konkona."

"Tabu has extraordinary range and depth."

With Namesake, the Maqbool pair of Tabu and Irrfan makes a comeback.

Sipping on her morning tea, the director said she was pleased. "Irrfan had made his debut in my first film Salaam Bombay, so I'm happy to have him in Namesake."

Namesake also stars Kal Penn, who Mira described as the "fastest rising Indian American star this side of the ocean."

"Kal's film Harold And Kumar Go To White Castle was a hit and all the 13-year-olds in America know and love him," she said. "Namesake will be his first dramatic role. He is an extraordinary actor. He has just signed on as Superman's best friend in the new movie called Superman Returns. As soon as he finishes shooting for Namesake, he will shoot for that. So by the time Namesake comes out next year, everyone will know Kal Penn, which will be great for us!"

Mira had first approached Abhishek Bachchan to play Kal's role, but Abhishek turned it down. "Maybe Abhishek had problems with his dates, but he was never clear about that. Maybe [he changed his mind] because of some love scenes and nudity in the film," she said.

The director auditioned actresses from around the world for Kal's 'bombshell girlfriend' – who later becomes his wife – and chose Zuliekha Robinson. The actress, whose mother is from Kolkata, lives in Los Angeles and was recently seen in films like Hidalgo and The Merchant of Venice.

Talks are on with Kate Hudson to play Kal's American girlfriend.

The $9.6 million film is based on Pulitzer Prize-winning writer Jhumpa Lahiri's best-selling novel, which Mira happened to read on a flight last March.

"When the plane landed, I called my agents immediately and told them we had to buy the rights of this novel. It was deeply moving. The story – about this girl who moves from Kolkata to Cambridge Massachusetts and ends up in New York City – is almost exactly the road I've travelled as a young girl. So it's very uncannily my story," the director, who has won critical acclaim for her films such as Mississippi Masala, said.

Mira bought the rights within a week, after a long talk with the writer. "Jhumpa had her first baby, a daughter, two months ago. She calls Namesake her second baby!"

"Jhumpa will also act in the film. She will have a one-line part."

Mira co-wrote the script with her best friend for 30 years, Sooni Taraporewala. About 80 percent of the movie is shot in New York, the rest in Kolkata.

The film is co-produced by Fox Searchlight and UTV, who produced films such as the Shah Rukh Khan starrer Swades and the Hrithik Roshan's Lakshya.

"I've always looked for a financial home for my films in India," Mira said. "Except for Salaam Bombay, which was financed by NFDC [National Film Development Corporation of India], the finances for my other films have come from across the ocean. It was very important for me to have a partner in India because I am very much an Indian. So it was wonderful that [UTV's] Ronnie Screwwala and I connected. I've had a relationship with Fox for a while. They are undoubtedly the best in the business, especially in film distribution. You can see that from the recent Academy Award nominations – Sideways and Kinsey are their films. It's very important for me to get out there."

Mira said the movie would stay "fairly close to the book. I have made only two changes. One change is that Ashima [the protagonist] is a singer in my film because I want to use music. I love to create soundtracks for my films. Another change – to keep the budget in check – is that I have changed the Cambridge Massachusetts location in the book to New York."

After Namesake, Mira will direct the Hollywood version of Vidhu Vinod Chopra's Bollywood hit, Munnabhai MBBS. Chris Tucker may play the role Sanjay Dutt played in the Hindi version. Mira plans to approach Tucker officially after the script is finalised.

UTV and FOX Searchlight collaborate for Namesake

By IndiaFM News Bureau, February 08th, 2005 - 1000 hrs IST


Mira Nair's Namesake is finally coming into existence after quite a commotion on its starcast. The film will be the screen adaptation of Pulitzer Prize winner Jhumpa Lahiri's bestseller Namesake and is the story of a young boy torn between two cultures and in search of his real identity.

The film will be produced by UTV in association with Fox Searchlight, which is entering into movie production territory for the first time. This is a huge collaboration with the coming together of two big banners. Fox are also the overseas distributors of Namesake. UTV will handle the Indian territory. The film budgeted at $9.6 million will go on floors next month.

Initially Abhishek Bachchan and Konkana Sen Sharma were about to star in the film. But Indo-US actor Kal Penn and Tabu will play the respective roles now. Zuleikha Robinson and Irrfan Khan also star in the film.

From Rang De to The Namesake

Patcy N | February 21, 2006 20:17 IST


Not many people knew Arjun Bhasin before, despite the stylish costumes and look he designed for Dil Chahta Hai. But Rang De Basanti changed all that.

How the Rang De look evolved

Born in Jamshedpur, the costume designer studied at Lawrence School in Delhi before moving to New York for further studies. He studied film, then fashion, at the Fashion Institute of Technology. After ten years in the Big Apple, he returned to India to work on Dil Chahta Hai. It happened through Zoya Akhtar, with whom Bhasin had worked on Mira Nair's Kamasutra.

The designer then left for New York once more, returning to India permanently just four years ago. He says he enjoyed the experience of Dil Chahta Hai and felt he could make a difference and do something interesting here.

Bhasin was always interested in cinema. He studied filmmaking as an undergraduate, then took up an internship for a film in the costume department. That is when he realized he wanted to be a costume designer. While still in college, he began training himself in the fields of cinema and design simultaneously. He worked through college with designers, assisting people, doing odd jobs like polishing shoes and ironing clothes.

Then, one day, a director asked him to work on the design for his film, for which had absolutely no budget. Soon, other job assignments came along. Farhan gave him Dil Chahta Hai based on his work he had seen in New York.

When asked about where he gets his ideas from, Bhasin says, "Films are very trendy and people do copy them, but designs are copied from the street. I get all my ideas from just walking around the street."

One of the best experiences he has had in the field came from designing a ballet in Italy and Greece. "It was a completely different language from cinema. The costumes are dictated by how the dancers can move and how the costume influences the movements, as oppose to just the looks."

Bhasin believes every designer has his or her own outlook. There are different ways of approaching a character and creating a look. "I don't think there is ever any correct look or wrong look," he adds.

Aamir's small beard in Dil Chahta Hai was Farhan's idea, something he had seen elsewhere. "We wanted him to look very different and this really suited him," says Bhasin. When asked about the work he has enjoyed doing in India, he says,

"The fun look I loved doing was Shabana's (Azmi) for Makdee, directed by Vishal Bhardwaj. As we wanted elements of folklore, Indian myth and old witch stories from the West, there was lot of work and research."

He feels that, with the amount of work and time he has spent in the industry, he has made his presence felt. Is it difficult to survive here? "I don't find it difficult to be in the industry," he replies. "Because I am doing something I love to do, and get paid for it. As far as competition is concerned, it exists in every field. I am not competing with anyone because no two designers are given the same job."

He feels great when people say they liked his designs in Dil Chahta Hai, considering the film is already 5 years old. "Designs just move from the streets to the films, and from films back to the street. That is a nice, rewarding feeling."

Next up is Namesake, where Tabu and Irrfan Khan play a middleclass couple from Kolkata who have moved to the US. They have two children who are incredibly American and feel alienated in their own home.

"The conflict of design in this film is trying to create two different worlds in the same house," says the designer. "The children are completely American and slightly influenced by their Indian heritage. The parents are Bengali and slightly influenced by the Western culture. It is a design clash of ideologies."

So, Tabu wears Bengali saris and adapts to cold New York by wearing a sweater and sneakers. Irrfan plays a professor in a college. As the movie is based in 70s and 80s, he wears American workingman clothes by day, and soft kurtas and lungis at home by night.

Namesake is complete, and Bhasin is now doing another film with Excel Entertainment directed by his friend Reema Kagti. The movie will have 14 characters, with 10 to 12 changes each, making for around 200 costumes in all. It explains why the designer tries to work on just one movie at a time.

The trailer is up and it looks damn good!

http://www.apple.com/trailers/fox_searc ... enamesake/

I so agree with you. I've read the book and the film looks almost exactly like it's described in it. I can't wait for the film to release.

Thanks for link, I watched in High Def and it looks wicked!! Tabu/Irfan Khan/Nair rules!!

Direct links to hi-def trailers of The Namesake;

HD 480P (37.8Mb)

HD 720P (120Mb)

HD 1080P (179Mb)

Ali

Fox Searchlight Pictures - The Namesake

Any reviews? Did any one watch it yet? zibawala, spiky, anwar miyan???

I saw it in September at the Toronto Film Fest. If interested, my review can be found here, but it's quite spoiler-heavy (I talk about how it compares to the book especially.)

Not yet, I'm still waiting for the film to screen at some film festival here in The Netherlands.