Wednesday, June 5, 2013

Grace and Ingrid Love Stories Perfect Romantic Subjects for Bollywood Expat Producer

Deadline Hollywood reports on a new film project announced by Uday Chopra, of India's Yash Raj Films, the Mumbai-based Bollywood powerhouse created by his late producer-director father, Yash Chopra, in 1970. Uday will follow the upcoming "Grace of Monaco," which stars Nicole Kidman, with a bio-pic about Ingrid Bergman's wartime romance with combat photographer Robert Capa.

A director since 1959, Yash Chopra, who passed away last year, pioneered a lush. romantic style that came to exemplify Bollywood glamour. He helped launch the careers of megastars Amitabh Bachchan (in "Trishul" and Deewaar") and Shah Rukh Khan (in "Dard"). He is regarded by critics such as England's Rachel Dwyer as a key evolutionary influence on the modern shape of Bollywood, both for his film style and his corporatized business practices,

In fact, biographical films about the loves of Hollywood royalty should by a perfect fit for the brightly colored glamor of the Yaj Raj house style, a species of film that no one in Hollywood knows how to make anymore.

Uday Chopra began his acting career at Yash Raj with a supporting role in his director-brother Aditya Chopra’s “Mohabbatein” (2000), co-starring with Bachchan and Khan. Now a charter member of the younger generation of Bollywood leading men, along with Hrithek Roshan and Amitabh's son Abishek Bachchan, Chopra's signature vehicles include the “Dhoom” action franchise ("Dhoom 3" is due in December) and romantic comedies such as the recent "Pyaar Impossible!" (2012).

Chopra learned the ropes of the American studio system as a graduate of the UCLA Professional Program in Producing.

The musical number below, from Uday's hit rom-com "Mere Yaar Ki Shaadi Hai" ("My Friend is Getting Married," 2002), is an expert pastiche of the location-shot song numbers in the romantic blockbusters of his dad, such as "Chandni" (1989), with Rishi Kapoor and Sridevi.

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