Hollywood bitten by Bollywood bug?

NEW DELHI - Bollywood seems to have become a hot spot for Hollywood actors. From Sylvester Stallone, Kylie Minogue to Brandon Routh, Ben Kingsley and now Drew Barrymore, superstars from the West have started showing interest in Hindi films.

“Charlie’s Angels” star Drew has been roped in to star in “The Lifestyle”, about three women from different walks of life trying to assert their identities. Barrymore will play a foreigner in the film.

Hollywood actor Nicolas Cage is also said to be playing the lead in Vidhu Vinod Chopra’s English directorial venture “Broken Horses”, shooting for which was due to begin in September.

It is being said that Hollywood action man Mickey Rourke was approached to play a role in the gangster film that Chopra is producing in association with Reliance Big Pictures.

The film “Broken Horses” is reportedly inspired by Chopra’s Hindi movie “Parinda”, starring Anil Kapoor and Madhuri Dixit.

Colombian singer Shakira will play goddess Kaali in an Indian film called “Kaali - The Warrior Goddess”.

India is one of the world’s largest film-producing countries and churns out more than 1,000 movies every year. And now the West seems to be warming up to it.

Producer Sajid Nadiadwala’s “Kambakht Ishq” had international stars like Stallone, Routh and Denise Richards. In director Anthony D’Souza’s Akshay Kumar-starrer “Blue”, Australian singer Kylie Minogue made a cameo appearance.

Kingsley played a pivotal role in director Leena Yadav’s “Teen Patti”.

“You (Indian films) have very distinct styles of cinema. You have your popular Bollywood movies which are loved by the massive Indian diaspora. So your filmmaking is perceived in different ways in the Western world. They have great popularity among Western audiences,” Kingsley had told IANS.

The film also starred Amitabh Bachchan, R. Madhavan, Raima Sen and Shraddha Kapoor.

In an interview to Gaurdian magazine, Akshay said: “I presume they must be seeing what is happening in India. They see what Bollywood was two or three years ago and then they see what it is today. It has grown a lot and it has the capacity and capability to grow much more. If this collaboration works, then things will start moving towards Hollywood and Bollywood coming together again and again.”

In “Kambakht Ishq”, Denise played the role of a girl in love with Akshay, who played a stuntman in the film.

Talking about her experience, Denise had said: ” ‘Kambakht Ishq’ was my first Bollywood film and I didn’t know what to expect from it. But I felt very comfortable. Bollywood is a very catchy phrase; it sounds cool. All of you welcomed me and made me feel so comfortable. Thank you. You all are very helpful and very fun people and I love that.”

It’s not just Minogue who sang and acted in a Hindi film, but rapper Snoop Dogg turned into a Sikh for “Singh Is Kinng”, again an Akshay-starrer, and also sang the title track.

Singer Akon is composing and singing for Shah Rukh Khan’s sci-fiction film “Ra.One”. The singer said he plans to work more with Indian music directors: “You will see me doing more things in India soon.”

(Priyanka Sharma can be contacted at priyanka.s@ians.in)