MUMBAI : Bollywood is finally doing what Amitabh Bachchan claimed to do in Namak Halal: it is talking English. And our stars, Mr Bachchan included, are loving it. Saif Ali Khan loved his Being Cyrus experience with Homi Adajania so much that he is keen to repeat the experiment if a script that is challenging enough comes his way. Preity Zinta is high on Heaven on Earth with Deepa Mehta, where she plays a battered housewife travelling from Canada to India. And the Big B himself has joined the English-bolta bandwagon in Rituparno Ghosh's The Last Lear, which is hitting theatres next week after wowing viewers at a film festival in Toronto earlier this year.
Siddharth Roy Kapur of UTV Motion Pictures explains the phenomenon : "The market for indigenous English movies with Bollywood actors is still nascent but the interest is rapidly growing.''
PVR Pictures head honcho Sanjiv Bijli, too, is kicked about this genre. His company has distributed Being Cyrus, Everybody Says I'm Fine and Loins of Punjab and is now gearing up to release The Last Lear which also has Zinta.
Bijli says: "Singh Is Kingg definitely dominates Bollywood audience tastes but breakthrough films like Loins of Punjab and The Last Lear are finding takers, especially amongst the Englishspeaking audience in metros.''
He points out that at PVR properties at Saket in New Delhi and at Juhu and Goregaon in Mumbai and in a couple of upmarket areas in Bangalore - the hub of "Englishspeaking educated India' ' - there is definite curiosity for Eng l i s h f i l m s c o m i n g from the Bollywood stable. Ranjan Singh, who heads the marketing section at PVR, says: "The post-graduates and the white-collared Bollywood audience are obviously curious about Amitabh Bachchan in an English-language film.'' Singh, of course, agrees that one cannot bombard theatres with these movies but having threefour shows a day at select properties makes good business sense.
Trade guru Amod Mehra, however , is slightly sceptical about English movies' box-office prospects: "Being Cyrus or Loins of Punjab are meant for a niche market and don't generate big numbers at the ticket windows.'' Corporates with deep pockets are ready for experiments with different genres but he feels the larger audience still prefers the routine masala flick.
Bachchan says he got into The Last Lear not because it is in English or because such films are now finding favour with a section of the audience: "Ritu and I have been
keen to work together for some time and finally when we came across an opportunity and happily went ahead.''
Bachchan adds he was fascinated with the subject of Lear where he goes from theatre to film and with his character having touches of "Shakespearean left-overs'' . It was more the sheer excitement of doing a good film that led him on to The Last Lear; that it is in English is just a happy coincidence.
But thinking producers like Aamir Khan and Farhan Akhtar are now toying with the idea of English films with a strong Bollywood connect. Aamir Khan and UTV will produce Delhi Belly with nephew Imraan Khan (of Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na) heading the cast.
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