Chandni Chowk To China: Bollywood Meets Kung Fu!

A business acquaintance of mine was kind enough to extend an invitation to a special screening of Chandni Chowk to China on the WB lot tomorrow, to be released in select markets on January 16. I can’t wait to see it.

To be frank, until I received the invitation, I had not even heard of this movie, so I had to do a little reading up and at least watch the trailer:

Chandni Chowk to China (also known as Made in China or CC2C) stars Akshay Kumar (an Indian actor well-known as a Bollywood action hero) and the VERY HOT Deepika Padukone (an Indian supermodel turned Bollywood actress) in the lead roles, with Hindi cinema veteran Mithun Chakraborty and Hong Kong veteran Gordon Liu of Kill Bill, Volumes 1 & 2 playing other important roles.

The story is about a chef — actually, a halwai — who is mistaken to be a martial arts expert. CC2C is the first Hindi film to be shot in China and is said to be loosely based on Akshay Kumar’s life (he studied martial arts in Bangkok and worked as a chef).

I’ll be interested in seeing how the elements of two of my favorite genres — Bollywood and Kung Fu — are fused together in this movie. Bollywood movies are usually musicals with catchy song-and-dance numbers throughout; some people have called this movie Kung Fu Hustle for Indians, but that doesn’t really sound completely accurate, considering all the comic book elements of Kung Fu Hustle.

I’m also totally fascinated with Akshay Kumar, who has had a pretty amazing Bollywood career. This interview by Anupama Chopra (Consulting Editor, Movies, NDTV) which talks about how the movie came about:

Akshay Kumar: Before Warner Brothers came in, Rohan Sippy (Indian film director) got me a design of me standing like in [a martial arts] pose. The film was called ‘Mera Naam Chin Chin Chu’. He said, “Akshay I want to make a film.” I said, “Okay, what’s the story?” “I don’t have a story.” “Okay do you have an idea?” I don’t have an idea.” “Alright, you have a producer?” “I don’t have a producer.” Sso what do you have?” “I just have this poster, this is the main poster.” His idea was this poster he had made in front of me. This is the first film I’ve done without listening to anything. I told him I wanted to do this film.

Anupama Chopra: Purely on the poster?

Akshay Kumar: On the poster. You know, sometimes it’s your instinct. I don’t know whether it’s going to be right or wrong. That we will come to know later, when the movie releases. This guy is a chef who goes to learn martial art. Bas yehi idea tha (That’s all the idea there was). Let’s make it on my life and let’s do it. Rohan said,”…give me about three months and I’ll come back. He didn’t come back to me in three months. When he did come he told me that he has a small idea and that he has got Warner Brothers to produce it. And from there it took off.

I love that they produced a real Hollywood-distributed movie — all based on a poster!