videsee
June 17th, 2002, 07:28 PM
MUMBAI: The boss of Bollywood music hopes audiences in London's West End will soon be gyrating to a new beat. Allah Rakha Rahman composed the tunes for Bombay Dreams, a $6 million show produced by Andrew Lloyd Webber that Rahman hopes will help give Indian showbiz a wider international profile.
``It's very exciting. This will be an exposure of the big industry that exists in India, of the films we make, of life in India,'' said Rahman, who has written soundtracks for more than 50 movies produced by the Indian industry known as Bollywood.
``This musical is a culmination of all this,'' the 35-year-old Rahman said by telephone from London.
It remains to be seen how West End theatergoers will react to some of the Bollywood staples featured in ``Bombay Dreams.''
Lloyd Webber and Rahman have included a fight and a ``wet dance'' -- in which female dancers in wet saris perch atop a fountain that springs up on the stage to the sounds of a Rahman tune.
``You must have women in wet saris for anything connected to Bollywood and this is a total Bollywood number _ very cheesy, very corny,'' said choreographer Farah Khan in Bombay.
The risk remains that a Bollywood theme may attract Asians only and Westerners will stay away. Dire predictions about the musical's fate have already appeared in Indian newspapers.
Lloyd Webber acknowledged challenges in selling the musical on the West End, but he thinks Rahman is worth betting on. ``I know he is very famous (in India), but in England he means nothing at all,'' Lloyd Webber told The Times of India. ``But he is probably one of the most exciting composers around and the musical has got to be able to embrace that.''
Rahman is already setting his sights beyond London _ he wants to see the musical play in New York, too. ``It has potential,'' Rahman said. ``It depends on how it does in the West End, then it can go to Broadway and will go to Toronto.''
Hoping to give ``Bombay Dreams'' its best shot, choreographer Khan has been juggling her Bollywood commitments carefully. She's now spending most of her time in London ahead of opening night on June 19.
One of the top challenges is doing the musical in English. ``It's a big question mark how the songs will sound in English and if this does well, it will be an opening for future Indian musicals abroad,'' Rahman said. The dancing is another issue. The cast of 40, largely British, has had to adapt to Bollywood style.
``They are used to jazz dancing, kicks, pirouette, splits. But I've had to teach them Bollywood dancing, which is upfront,'' Khan said. ``A more rounded movement.''
But practice seems to be paying off.
``They are finally getting a hang of the style and having a ball,'' said Khan, who has choreographed dances for more than 30 Hindi movies.
Ornate costumes, melodramatic dialogue, an overdose of songs coupled with a wealthy female lead who overcomes family opposition to marry the poor hero, or vice versa, is the standard plot for many of the 800 Bollywood movies produced every year.
Bollywood hasn't always worked overseas, but it's showing signs of success outside its home market. Hindi language movies are widely watched all over Asia and the Middle East, and by Indian migrant communities around the world.
Some producers, including Aamir Khan, are steering away from the rich-poor romance formula, with original movies such as ``Lagaan,'' in which illiterate villagers beat their colonial English rulers at a game of cricket to avoid paying a steep land tax.
``Lagaan'' was nominated in the foreign film category for the Academy Awards this year, only the third Indian film ever to make it to the Oscars. But Bollywood came up short in March as the prize went to ``No Man's Land,'' a violent war satire from Bosnia -Herzegovina.
Rahman, who penned advertising jingles before moving into the movies 11 years ago, wrote lively scores for ``Lagaan'' as well. ``Bombay Dreams'' has been in the making for three years, ever since Lloyd Webber heard Rahman's music and asked him to compose for ``Bombay Dreams.''
The plot is straight out of an Indian movie script, with the daughter of a rich Bollywood producer falling in love with a boy from a Bombay slum, who wants to make it big in the movies. Appropriate enough, as some of Bollywood's best try to make their mark in the West End.
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow.asp?art_ID=13249964
``It's very exciting. This will be an exposure of the big industry that exists in India, of the films we make, of life in India,'' said Rahman, who has written soundtracks for more than 50 movies produced by the Indian industry known as Bollywood.
``This musical is a culmination of all this,'' the 35-year-old Rahman said by telephone from London.
It remains to be seen how West End theatergoers will react to some of the Bollywood staples featured in ``Bombay Dreams.''
Lloyd Webber and Rahman have included a fight and a ``wet dance'' -- in which female dancers in wet saris perch atop a fountain that springs up on the stage to the sounds of a Rahman tune.
``You must have women in wet saris for anything connected to Bollywood and this is a total Bollywood number _ very cheesy, very corny,'' said choreographer Farah Khan in Bombay.
The risk remains that a Bollywood theme may attract Asians only and Westerners will stay away. Dire predictions about the musical's fate have already appeared in Indian newspapers.
Lloyd Webber acknowledged challenges in selling the musical on the West End, but he thinks Rahman is worth betting on. ``I know he is very famous (in India), but in England he means nothing at all,'' Lloyd Webber told The Times of India. ``But he is probably one of the most exciting composers around and the musical has got to be able to embrace that.''
Rahman is already setting his sights beyond London _ he wants to see the musical play in New York, too. ``It has potential,'' Rahman said. ``It depends on how it does in the West End, then it can go to Broadway and will go to Toronto.''
Hoping to give ``Bombay Dreams'' its best shot, choreographer Khan has been juggling her Bollywood commitments carefully. She's now spending most of her time in London ahead of opening night on June 19.
One of the top challenges is doing the musical in English. ``It's a big question mark how the songs will sound in English and if this does well, it will be an opening for future Indian musicals abroad,'' Rahman said. The dancing is another issue. The cast of 40, largely British, has had to adapt to Bollywood style.
``They are used to jazz dancing, kicks, pirouette, splits. But I've had to teach them Bollywood dancing, which is upfront,'' Khan said. ``A more rounded movement.''
But practice seems to be paying off.
``They are finally getting a hang of the style and having a ball,'' said Khan, who has choreographed dances for more than 30 Hindi movies.
Ornate costumes, melodramatic dialogue, an overdose of songs coupled with a wealthy female lead who overcomes family opposition to marry the poor hero, or vice versa, is the standard plot for many of the 800 Bollywood movies produced every year.
Bollywood hasn't always worked overseas, but it's showing signs of success outside its home market. Hindi language movies are widely watched all over Asia and the Middle East, and by Indian migrant communities around the world.
Some producers, including Aamir Khan, are steering away from the rich-poor romance formula, with original movies such as ``Lagaan,'' in which illiterate villagers beat their colonial English rulers at a game of cricket to avoid paying a steep land tax.
``Lagaan'' was nominated in the foreign film category for the Academy Awards this year, only the third Indian film ever to make it to the Oscars. But Bollywood came up short in March as the prize went to ``No Man's Land,'' a violent war satire from Bosnia -Herzegovina.
Rahman, who penned advertising jingles before moving into the movies 11 years ago, wrote lively scores for ``Lagaan'' as well. ``Bombay Dreams'' has been in the making for three years, ever since Lloyd Webber heard Rahman's music and asked him to compose for ``Bombay Dreams.''
The plot is straight out of an Indian movie script, with the daughter of a rich Bollywood producer falling in love with a boy from a Bombay slum, who wants to make it big in the movies. Appropriate enough, as some of Bollywood's best try to make their mark in the West End.
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow.asp?art_ID=13249964