Not that this is really news but it's being circulated on a lot of news boards:

Clooney wants to act in Bollywood movie



NEW DELHI - George Clooney says he'd like to appear in one of India's spectacular song-and-dance movies.

"I'd love to. There are some filmmakers whose films when you see (them) you say, `That could be an interesting story to tell,'" the 45-year-old actor said in an interview Thursday on the private CNN-IBN channel.

Clooney said he's a fan of Bollywood, India's prolific Hindi film industry, and is impressed by the way it has expanded.

"I was watching a film the other day and the music was just amazing. It's become such a huge industry," he said.

"There is a small market in the (United) States as of now, but it will be fun if it catches on because it is such a positive way of looking at filmmaking and I really love that. I truly think it's fun," he said.

Clooney, a favorite among India's English-speaking middle and upper classes, won a best supporting actor Oscar for 2005's "Syriana."

"It seems like the Indian filmmakers are pushing boundaries in terms of pushing the censors. I think it's (Bollywood) an interesting place for filmmakers to go," he said.

Clooney's upcoming movie, "The Good German," will be released by Warner Bros. in the United States later this month. It will be released in India next year.

thats interesting, I wonder which film he was so impressed by…

'good german' is looking amazing btw

Why the hell would he want to be in a Bollywood film? I think the most likely Indian film a hollywood actor would have seen would be Laggan, because it was nominated. I've found some westerners confuse Monsoon Wedding with bollywood, which it clearly isn't.

True that MW was certainly not Bollywood, but it did use a lot of Bollywood elements such as song 'n dance(like that is a privy of Bollywood alone - my own paradox, sorry!!). In any case if this misunderstanding leads to Western financing into Indian cinema, it may mean more avenues for the clearly third front that is emerging out of the multiplex boom.

At a recent conference in Wharton on indian entertainment(amongst other things) Harry Weinstein asked Karan Johar at a presentation how the West could help the Indian industry and KJo's answer was 'No thank you but we are self sufficient'. I read that statement as very smug. Whatever financing is currently available continues to be the privy of big production houses such as Yashraj, Dharma and now UTV. UTV is the best of breed funding certainly good movies but they are far from funding really different films. If anyone has seen the double disc DVD that came out of FTII's diploma films then you'll realise that if original thoughts are promoted then results as those can be achieved, truly terrific films can emerge and that wont happen until someone is willing to take that risk. some of those films truly turn traditional thinking around its head but the reason for that is the students are TOTALLY UNAFRAID to do whatever they have to. They did not have to think of market returns. It was pure creativity that drove them. To draw a parallel, its like Xerox having that Research Center in Palo Alto.....at one time it resulted in the graphical user interface (the mouse and windows based operating system). Not that we want to have a research lab but different funding might mean refreshingly different output.

In that context Western funding is welcome, since it may prompt some immediate thinking out of the box which is very necessary.

I second Aarkayne's comment about Western funding. We're already starting to see it with examples like Will Smith's agreement with UTV as well as some other Hollywood types getting into the Indian market. I truly believe, especially as a non-Indian filmgoer, that the sky really is the limit for Indian filmmakers. The opening up of the industry will lead to greater acceptance and more opportunities for Bollywood films to become worldwide hits. If there was a concentrated effort to market and make these films accessible to a general audience (which doesn't exist now), without necessarily having to alter the content, you could get higher returns and a greater appreciation. Stereotypes and misconceptions about Bollywood and Indian culture can be totally shattered if more people were exposed to the films. We are already seeing some very small results with films like "Water" and Yash Raj making a hold in the top twenty US box office on an almost regular basis. But think how it'd be if film critics were regularly screened Bollywood films and magazines like Entertainment Weekly doing features on actors. Or Access Hollywood following a domestic film premiere of the latest Big B flick. Wouldn't that be great? I just think it's crazy where I have to lend my DVDs to my coworkers, friends, etc. and organize film events where I'd bring a big group of people to check them out. I feel sometimes like I'm the only one promoting these films.

Again, Water is not a Bollywood film. It's more parallel cinema. The most popular Indian films with western critics are arthouse films like that of Satyajit Ray. I remember Will Smith said Indian films need to have more realism in order to be appreciated in the west, this is a problem for bollywood as their usual audience wants to see escapism and fantasy.

When it comes to bollywood they simply need to produce better films because with films like Dhoom 2 it will be laughed at in the west, who although can produce nonsense like Fast and Furious 3 is still far better than the mediocre and laughable effort in Dhoom 2.
Also bollywood should never promote any film to westerners they have ripped off from others (e.g. Black and Zinda), it won't do them any good.

If popularity with critics counts then DEVDAS was maha popular with a ton of them, in fact it has been praised regularly by most including making it to the TIME magazine's list of 100 best. But seriously critics only amount to so much. It is the audiences that want different fare is who should be targeted, including the junta that saw MONSOON WEDDING(which i loved) and WATER(which I totally disliked). Hopefully a smart guy like Harry Weinstein realises that and goes to India in search of smart young blokes that can make something like them. The need of the hour is to tell new stories from India. Heck even a KHOSLA KA GHOSLA may have worked. He started off on a wrong note with Gurinder Chaddha's BRIDE AND PREJUDICE and MISTRESS OF SPICES, but hopefully he does not give up and continues to engage with people from there. It is my desire and ardent hope that he is able to hook up with the likes of Nagesh Kukunoor or Anurag Kashyap(though I am yet to see even a single film of his). But from what I have heard from knowledgeable resources this guy knows his craft and we all know he can write.

Even Iranian cinema has made more of a splash in the West, even if it is only within ardent filmgoers. The film fans who are in-the-know will have at least heard of Kiarostami, Majidi, Makhmalbaf, etc. These filmmaker work under far more restrictions than Indian filmmakers and yet they manage to make a splash at festivals. While these films are not that popular within Iran, they garner attention abroad, which is more than we can say about Indian films. Meanwhile, India supports films like Devdas, which elicits responses that are mostly about the pretty costumes and sets.



Karan Johar is correct only if we just want to keep on making the same kind of films. IF we want to produce some smaller and more interesting films, other producers, though not necessarily from the west, will have to step up. Johar is a young man, but I feel he's a dinosaur in his outlook on the industry as well as his own filmmaking vision.