Talk about a bouquet of Oscar winners working together on a Hindi-English film being made in India. Check this out. Hollywood heavyweight Russell Crowe, who has been in and out of India lately, is all set to play a middle-aged German writer who travels to the Kumbh Mela to attain moksha and falls in love with a 21-year-old Bengali girl. Sudipto Sen (of The Last Monk and Akhnoor) is directing this Crowe-starrer as a bilingual: in Hindi to be called Amrit Kumbh, and in English with the title In Search Of Immortality. Crowe will speak in English in the Hindi version as well.
Apparently another very fine actor, the German star Michal Zebrowsky who played the Nazi officer in Roman Polanski’s The Pianist, was almost finalised for the role. But when Crowe showed a keen interest, plans were immediately revised to accommodate the Hollywood actor who it was felt would bring a larger global appeal to the project.
Sudipto Sen, currently in fierce pre-production with his crew at the Kumbh Mela in Haridwar, confirmed, “Crowe is indeed on. The project explores the journey into self-discovery. I want the importance of the holy Kumbh, which is a sacred bathing place for eight crore pilgrims from all over the world, to connect with the West.” The young Bengali girl in the film will be played by Paoli Dam who recently did the controversial Italian film Choli Ke Peeche Kya Hai. The sound design and music are by Resul Pookutty and A R Rahman respectively, who both won Oscars for Slumdog Millionaire. Also working on Amrit Kumbh/In Search of Immortality are Oscarwinning editor Chris Dickens from Slumdog and Bhanu Athaiya (who won an Oscar for Gandhi, remember?) for the costumes.
Apparently another very fine actor, the German star Michal Zebrowsky who played the Nazi officer in Roman Polanski’s The Pianist, was almost finalised for the role. But when Crowe showed a keen interest, plans were immediately revised to accommodate the Hollywood actor who it was felt would bring a larger global appeal to the project.
Sudipto Sen, currently in fierce pre-production with his crew at the Kumbh Mela in Haridwar, confirmed, “Crowe is indeed on. The project explores the journey into self-discovery. I want the importance of the holy Kumbh, which is a sacred bathing place for eight crore pilgrims from all over the world, to connect with the West.” The young Bengali girl in the film will be played by Paoli Dam who recently did the controversial Italian film Choli Ke Peeche Kya Hai. The sound design and music are by Resul Pookutty and A R Rahman respectively, who both won Oscars for Slumdog Millionaire. Also working on Amrit Kumbh/In Search of Immortality are Oscarwinning editor Chris Dickens from Slumdog and Bhanu Athaiya (who won an Oscar for Gandhi, remember?) for the costumes.
“The lead actor is also an Oscar winner, and since we’re talking about moksha... I couldn’t ask for more,” said the director.
