Bin Laden gets cool Bollywood makeover
Source: Agencies |
July 8, 2010, Thursday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
OSAMA bin Laden is coming soon to a movie screen near you.
The al-Qaida leader is the subject of a Bollywood film "Tere Bin Laden" ("Without You Laden"), the story of an imaginative young television journalist who turns an encounter with a lookalike of Laden into his ticket to fame.
The journalist, played by Pakistani pop artist Ali Zafar, films a video with the lookalike, which goes viral quickly, and tries to use his 15 minutes of fame to migrate to the United States after past attempts at getting a visa failed.
"The film looks to give a fresh perspective to the repercussions of 9/11 that a lot of people are facing but I want to do it through humor," director Abhishek Sharma said. "When he comes across a lookalike of bin Laden, he hits upon the idea of making a video. That video makes him famous and ironically, he has to use the US' biggest enemy to create a favorable impression of himself."
This is not the first Bollywood film to focus on the September 11, 2001, attacks and their aftermath. Over the past year, three big-budget films, including Shah Rukh Khan's "My Name is Khan," have focused on the subject.
This is also not the first Bollywood film to focus on infamous personalities: A film on the last days of Hitler ran into controversy last month after Jewish groups protested, causing the lead actor to pull out of the film.
But Sharma says the low-budget "Tere Bin Laden," which opens across India on July 16, is not a serious film, and expects the audience to also treat it that way.
"It's a satire," he insists.
The al-Qaida leader is the subject of a Bollywood film "Tere Bin Laden" ("Without You Laden"), the story of an imaginative young television journalist who turns an encounter with a lookalike of Laden into his ticket to fame.
The journalist, played by Pakistani pop artist Ali Zafar, films a video with the lookalike, which goes viral quickly, and tries to use his 15 minutes of fame to migrate to the United States after past attempts at getting a visa failed.
"The film looks to give a fresh perspective to the repercussions of 9/11 that a lot of people are facing but I want to do it through humor," director Abhishek Sharma said. "When he comes across a lookalike of bin Laden, he hits upon the idea of making a video. That video makes him famous and ironically, he has to use the US' biggest enemy to create a favorable impression of himself."
This is not the first Bollywood film to focus on the September 11, 2001, attacks and their aftermath. Over the past year, three big-budget films, including Shah Rukh Khan's "My Name is Khan," have focused on the subject.
This is also not the first Bollywood film to focus on infamous personalities: A film on the last days of Hitler ran into controversy last month after Jewish groups protested, causing the lead actor to pull out of the film.
But Sharma says the low-budget "Tere Bin Laden," which opens across India on July 16, is not a serious film, and expects the audience to also treat it that way.
"It's a satire," he insists.
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