Bollywood/Hollywood (2002)

After Rahul's white pop-star fiancée dies in a bizarre levitation accident his mother insists he find another girl as soon as possible, preferably a Hindi one. As she backs this up by ... See full summary »

Director:

Deepa Mehta

Writer:

Deepa Mehta

Stars:

Rahul Khanna, Lisa Ray, Moushumi Chatterjee

3 wins & 8 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Rahul Khanna	...	Rahul Seth
Lisa Ray	...	Sue (Sunita) Singh
Moushumi Chatterjee	...	Mummy ji
Dina Pathak	...	Grandma ji
Kulbhushan Kharbanda	...	Mr. Singh
Ranjit Chowdhry	...	Rocky
Jessica Paré	...	Kimberly
Rishma Malik	...	Twinky
Jasbir Mann	...	Bobby (as Jazz Mann)
Arjun Lombardi-Singh	...	Go (Govind)
Leesa Gaspari	...	Lucy
Neelam Mansingh	...	Mrs. Singh
Mike Deol	...	Killer Khalsa (as Killer Khalsa)
Jolly Bader	...	Daddy ji
Ronica Sajnani	...	Ronica

Storyline

After Rahul's white pop-star fiancée dies in a bizarre levitation accident his mother insists he find another girl as soon as possible, preferably a Hindi one. As she backs this up by postponing his sister's wedding until he does so, he feels forced to act, the more so as he knows his sister is pregnant. But it's a pretty tall order for an Indian living in Ontario, so when he meets striking escort Sunita who can 'be whatever you want me to be' he hatches a scheme to pass her off as his new betrothed. Things get complicated when his family start to take to her and he realises his own feelings are becoming rather stronger than that.

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Plot Keywords:

wedding | escort | hindu | indian | deception | 

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Taglines:

Nothing is what it appears to be.

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Genres:

Romance | Comedy | Drama | Musical

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated PG-13 for sensuality/partial nudity, some crude language and drug references

Details

Country:

Canada

Language:

English Hindi Spanish

Release Date:

25 October 2002 (Canada)

Also Known As:

Bollywood Hollywood

Filming Locations:

Thornhill, Ontario, Canada

Box Office

Opening Weekend:

$18,014 (USA) (3 October 2003)

Gross:

$1,491,083 (USA) (10 October 2003)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Different Tree Same Wood, Téléfilm Canada, Canadian Television Fund

Technical Specs

Runtime:

105 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital SDDS DTS

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Killer Khalsa (Mike Deol) is a real wrestler, and the website listed when he appears is his official site. When he heard Deepa Mehta was making the movie, he contacted her as he wanted to break into acting.

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Quotes

Grandma ji: [about grandson's caucasian girlfriend] This is the winter of our discontent.

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Crazy Credits

Akshaye Khanna as his own good self

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Connections

Features Bollywood Dreams (1995)

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Soundtracks

"Rooftop Party"
Composed and Directed by Sandeep Chowta
Performed by Sonu Nigam and Alisha Chinoi

User Reviews

Parody? Yes. But With a Kicker

B/H stands up as a comedy AND an affectionate parody of Bollywood formula romances. The very title underscores the love-hate relationship many contemporary South Asian filmmakers feel about the Hollywood hegemon (see http://www.thefilmjournal.com/issue9/bollywood.html ). As such, it offers a sly reworking of the Pretty Woman formula, with an Indian twist – which raises the question of why Mehta's writers chose THAT Hollywood movie to build a comic plot upon. One answer requires examination of how women, especially young women, are depicted in Bollywood movies, which valorize – even enforce – Ramayana-like ideals of female purity versus the reality and problems of female identity in a modern world. Compare Mehta's Fire. The comedy and parody in B/H offers a different take on a Mehta theme. The Shakespeare-quoting grandmother reflects another aspect of the film's comic concern with the clash between tradition and modernity – here, the kind of British-inspired education the grandmother would have received, which often required students to memorize whole scenes from Shakespeare (whose plays were and are very popular in India). The comic turnabout at the end might be examined in light of equally sudden turnabouts in movies like DDLJ, the difference being that the main blocking character at the end of B/H is Sunita herself. Her father, minutes before, reverses himself BECAUSE he has seen movies like that one. A very "filmi" intrusion into the comic plot, but (true to Mehta's sympathies) it is Sunita herself who becomes – for a moment – the blocking character whose needs must be recognized. It's a matter of HER identity, albeit within the framework of Bollywood comic romance. As such, her situation offers, for the perceptive, a bittersweet comic take on a question Mehta raises more seriously elsewhere. B/H is a parody, yes, but it has a serious side as well. Think about this while you laugh.