Jesus to get Bollywood treatment

Story of Jesus to get the Bollywood treatment
From The Independent (UK)

Cecil B DeMille has been there before, of course. As have Pier Paolo Pasolini, Roberto Rossellini, Mel Gibson, Franco Zeffirelli and Martin Scorsese. So maybe it was only a matter of time before Bollywood not only succumbed to the temptation but went one better by making its version in the subject's native land. Yesterday, India's Aditya Productions unveiled plans for a $30m (£19.5m), two-hour-15-min biopic which will be shot in the Holy Land and which it said would be "the first ever – in 79 years – Bollywoodian film on the life of Jesus Christ".

Although the picture will – unusually – mainly feature child actors, it will have an as yet unspecified role for the Bollywood megastar Pawan Kalyan – introduced to reporters at Jerusalem's King David Hotel yesterday as the "darling of millions".

Summing up the appeal of the story, which will be "a very faithful representation of the life of Jesus" from "birth to his crucifixion" with particular emphasis on his youth, the producer, Konda Krishnam Raju, said: "It is remarkable that this man who started his mission from a small village became within a short span of three years a force that influenced mankind for over 2,000 years and is worshiped by millions of people."

Posted on September 1, 2010 4:30 PM | |
Comments (4)

Will there be dancing and singing?

Posted by Ann Fontaine [TypeKey Profile Page] | September 1, 2010 5:10 PM

...and a happy ending?

Posted by Paul Woodrum [TypeKey Profile Page] | September 1, 2010 6:08 PM

Well, I generally think of the Life of Christ having (in Christian terms) a happy ending!

JC Fisher

[The singing and dancing would be big plus, though. Though Godspell and Jesus Christ Superstar have done it, I'm intrigued by what Bollywood could do!]

Posted by tgflux [TypeKey Profile Page] | September 1, 2010 10:56 PM

We've got DVDs of the Indian versions of Superman and Tarzan. (Baby Kal-El looks dubious about the rocketship his dad is about to put him in.) The musical interludes are wild.

Then there's the faithful-in-spirit Bride and Prejudice. The big wedding at the end, of course, has elephants.

Posted by Murdoch Matthew [TypeKey Profile Page] | September 2, 2010 12:47 AM

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