The LA Times did a major story on Vidhu Vinod Chopra, director of Bollywood movie, Three Idiots. According to them, "3 Idiots," now tops the list of highest-grossing Bollywood films (I am somewhat confused by that report as others are saying that My Name is Khan is currently #1). The story reveals that the filmmaker is leasing in Beverly Hills and planning his first movie in English. The movies mentioned include his 1981 feature film debut, "Sazaye Maut" ("Death Penalty"), , "Mission Kashmir", my own favorite "1942: A Love Story"and "Munna Bhai MBBS." "3 Idiots," released by Reliance Big Pictures has reported earned more than $52 million during its first 10 days in theaters. The story says that outside of India, the movie, made for $8 million, has brought in about $16 million, with a record-setting $6.5 million coming from the U.S. A little known fact that the Times talks about is that Chopra’s post-film school documentary "An Encounter with Faces," about impoverished children in India, was nominated for an Oscar in 1979.
The story of "3 Idiots" is about three friends at a tough engineering college in India who deal with difficulties like academic pressures and family. Aamir Khan who is one of Bollywood’s biggest stars in one of the title roles. According to the story, Chopra has made LA a second home where he spends two weeks every month. His next movie is "Broken Horses," about two brothers, one a violinist in New York, the other a hired gun, set against the drug war on the U.S.-Mexico border. Read the complete story on LA Times here.
Credit for photo: bollywoodhungama.com, url link to photo is here (creative commons license)
