« Identity theft on the rise in India :+: Cricket’s most momentous day - The St. Patrick’s Day massacres »
Looks like you are new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!
“I see Indian people.” - Shyamalan
UberDesi favorite, M. Night Shyamalan had a trying year in 2006 after his movie, Lady in the Water, bombed at the box office. He has an even worse start to 2007 with a double whammy - he could not find any takers for his latest venture (see Un-take-able link) and he was nominated for the awards for worst directors at the Razzies (See Desi Representation link).
As a result, Shyamalan turned to his roots, literally. His next venture will be funded partially by UTV, an Indian media conglomerate in partnership with Fox Studios.
Hollywood director M Night Shyamalan will collaborate with UTV and Fox studios for his next film, The Happening. The film will be jointly produced at a cost of $57 million. This is the first time that the Pondicherry-born director will work with an Indian company.
The inconvenient truth about this venture is that it sounds eerily similar to an Oscar winning venture from the creator, (of the Internet, that is) Al Gore.
The film will focus on the earth versus man battle, and portray the environment as the victim of mankind’s villainy. It is slated for a July 2008 release.
Maybe Shyamalan is angling for a career in politics, as a Democrat. But he better watch out, since he has already provided ammo to the Republican propaganda machine by disclosing another inconvenient truth about himself.
“Recently, I saw a film with Shah Rukh Khan and Kajol. I think it was Kuch Kuch Hota Hai, and I loved it. They expressed their emotions beautifully. It is a different kind of acting. When I watch those films, I get emotional. I also start weeping,” Shyamalan joked.
Asked why he was willing to take a such a big risk with Shyamalan, UTV head honcho, Ronnie Screwvala (UberDesi highly recommends this last name if you are planning for a career in the adult movie industry, Ho-llywood), said:
“After Aks, people said the same thing about Rakyesh Omprakash Mehra. We believed in him and he made Rang De Basanti, which became a big hit. I have experienced that people do very well when they are down. They come back and make it big by improvising themselves.”
For Shyamalan’s sake lets hope this (pardon the pun) happens.
« Identity theft on the rise in India :+:
Cricket’s most momentous day - The St. Patrick’s Day massacres »
Discuss in our off-topic forums


Is Screwvala a made-up name?
No matter, I think he said it right: artists do their best when they have lost everything and must then redefine themselves…take Rachmaninoff for example, of course he had help from a hypnotist!
Bess,
Screwvala is his real last name. And he’s a big time media mogul/celebrity in India. The Parsi community in Mumbai has these kind of unique last names - Screwvala (screw man), Dabbavala (box man), Batlivala (bottle man).
Shyamalan showed lot of promise but started tapering down with the Village and bottomed out with the Lady. For his sake, I really hope he can make a comeback. Even though I may rag on him, I’m a big fan of his earlier movies.
Santosh, I think it’s a good sign that he’s bombed a few times. It means he’s not playing it safe - my kind of artist!
Not sure about that. It seems like he was playing it safe by sticking to one genre of movies - horror/suspense and relying on a surprise ending to carry the movie.
okay okay….you get the last word on this one my Friend.
I saw “lady in water ” On dvd recently. And I could not really sustain it more than 25 minutes. Its kindda buggy movie..
[...] The desi quotient of this film is fairly high. The movie is a UTV production and Ronnie Screwvala is credited as a producer, something we reported on UD more than a year back. [UD link] [...]