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With Shah Rukh Khan’s RA.One and Hrithik Roshan’s
Krrish 2 in the offing, Bollywood is on the verge of reinventing the superhero for domestic audiences, writes
Saibal Chatterjee
IF you’ve seen the Hindi version of the big-budget Hollywood sci-fi epic, Transformers 3: Dark of the Moon, released recently, you would have found the ‘voice’ of the heroic Optimus Prime, leader of the Autobats, rather familiar. It belongs to Bollywood star Akshay Kumar. He lent his voice to the mighty fictional character without charging director Michael Bay a single penny. "I did not do it for money. I did it for my son, Aarav, who is very fond of the series and the character of Optimus Prime. I guess every child sees a superhero in his dad," the Mumbai actor has said.
So will Akshay be slipping into the garb of a superhero in a Hindi film anytime soon? There is talk in Bollywood circles about a new cinematic venture in which he might play an invincible action hero modelled on none other than Hanuman. Whether the aforementioned project gets off the ground or not, Shah Rukh Khan, has wrapped up the film that will mark his first foray into the superhero saga space. RA.One, in which the superstar plays a crime-fighter endowed with exceptional powers, is slated for an October release. Bankrolled by Shah Rukh’s own production banner, RA.One is a special effects-laden superhero flick that serves as a reflection of Bollywood’s increasing flirtation with the magic of computer-generated imagery. RA.One is Shah Rukh’s most grandiose film to date, both as an actor and a producer. Directed by Anubhav Sinha, it adopts a recipe that Hollywood has tapped with great success over the decades. RA.One has a lot more than just a megastar’s reputation riding on it. The film aims to put commercial Hindi cinema in the global big league. It’s a big ask, and the star is sparing no effort or expense to ensure that RA.One scales levels of technical finesse never seen before in Indian cinema. If the media has been touting RA.One as the costliest and most ambitious Hindi movie ever made, there is pretty good reason for all the hype. Apart from a host of international actors, who will appear alongside the likes of Kareena Kapoor and Arjun Rampal (who plays the scientist’s dream invention gone awry), Shah Rukh has roped in top-flight technicians from Hollywood to give his film a world class veneer. On board are Italian-born cinematographer Nicola Pecorini (Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus), computer animation wizard Jeffrey Kleiser (TRON, the X-Men series, Judge Dredd, Clear and Present Danger) and production designer Marcus Wookey (Outlaw, Sexy Beast).`A0 RA.One is designed as a state-of-the-art sci-fi thriller that mixes elements from the Gothic tale of Frankenstein with the hi-jinks of a superhero film to serve up an old-fashioned good versus evil drama. Will the superstar’s ‘superhero’ gamble pay off? It certainly did for Hrithik Roshan in 2006, the year of Krrish, and Rajinikanth last year. The Bollywood superhero genre, in its present form, is a derivation from Hollywood conventions, but it is different in one crucial respect. In the American movie industry, superhero roles are rarely played by the really big stars, the Johnny Depps or the Brad Pitts. The comic book characters are too well entrenched in the consciousness of the US audience for producers of these films to ever feel the need to turn to the megastars to accentuate mass appeal. In India, the scenario is unique. It is a land of the all-powerful monkey-god Hanuman endowed with great physical strength (Bollywood has already delivered two successful animation films about the exploits of Hanuman, one in 2005 and the second, Hanuman Returns, in 2007). Therefore, the comic book superhero, borrowed from the West, remains an alien concept. Hence the need for boxoffice powerhouses like Shah Rukh and Hrithik to step in for they alone can ensure a steady stream of footfalls across the country and elsewhere when the superhero film opens. Remember the fate that befell the cinematic fantasy Drona, in which Abhishek Bachchan essayed the role of a man with supernatural powers, who sets out to save the world from extinction. The film sank without a trace. There could be no such worries for RA.One for the man driving the project is SRK. At the very least, a bumper opening is a foregone conclusion. Much the same would be true of Krrish 2, scheduled to roll out in October 2011. Of late, a steady stream
of big Hollywood SFX-driven productions has found instant support in
the Indian market. The visual effects industry in the country, which
has for long being providing back-end technical support to big
American films like Avatar and TRON, is steadily ramping
up its delivery capacity to bolster the production of indigenous
superhero movies. With the likes of Shah Rukh and Hrithik throwing
their weight behind this endeavour, the Bollywood superhero seems
poised for take-off.
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