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Immigrant tales
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Sunanda Murali Manohar, the London-based producer who is all set to shoot an Aishwarya-starrer, recalls her days in the Bangalore of the '60s
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Our film will take Aishwarya on a higher pedestal in the Western film market Sunanda Murali Manohar
HITTING BIG TIME Among Sunanda's forthcoming projects is a film on Sonia Gandhi PHOTO: V. SREENIVASA MURTHY
A lot of eyes are fixed on Provoked. A British film starring Aishwarya Rai in a de-glammed role of a woman who ends the life of her abusive husband. The film is being produced by Sunanda Murali Manohar, a Bangalorean, who says she just casually mentioned the subject to Aish who snapped it up immediately.
With a string of Tamil films such as Minnale, Majunu and Arasatchi behind them, the producer couple Sunanda and Murali Manohar are getting set to take on the international film scene. They were simply at the right place at the right time, says Sunanda.
The film is based on the true story of Kiranjit Ahluwalia who was jailed for setting her violent husband on fire. Activists of the pressure group Southall Black Sisters finally got her sentence squashed in 1992.
The film was announced at the prestigious Cannes Film Festival, where the Manohars were showing their latest film Private Moments, their answer to Sex and the City.
Two-way traffic
"We had worked with Aishwarya before in Jeans. She was shooting in the U.K. and she loves having Chinese at a particular place. So over dinner we just talked about it," says Sunanda, beaming over having hooked one of the most publicised faces of Bollywood.
But why Aishwarya? (The film has Nandita Das playing the activist who finally rescues the protagonist from the sentence for killing her husband.) "I don't have to market her in the international market. She's already well known. She's going to get acclaim as well. And it will take her on a higher pedestal in the Western film market. So it's two-way traffic." Sound business proposition in the days of booming international film markets, need we say? Provoked, whose shoot will be wrapped up by mid-June, is being made at a cost of $5 million.
The now London-based Sunanda recalls her beginnings in her home city, when her father Mandre owned the Sangam theatres in Bangalore and Mysore. She even remembers how she and her siblings would be whisked away from school in the '60s when anti-Hindi protests erupted in Bangalore, because her father was a Hindi film distributor. "My father was a film distributor for 45 years. So while film was in my blood, it continued later by virtue of marriage."
Sunanda married Dr. Murali Manohar, an ENT specialist, who was lured by films. While he was doing his post-grad studies in the U.K., the Indian Government opened doors to import foreign films. The couple imported over 200 films from U.K., U.S.A. and China. "My husband brought in the first Jackie Chan film into India, Protector," she says with much pride. Then they imported children's cartoon videos, floated their own video label, imported foreign serials like Street Hawk and other programmes for Doordarshan.
From importing to producing, they made their next big leap. Along with a host of producers such as Ashok Amritraj, they co-produced a string of films such as Jungle Boy, Tropical Heat, Indian Summer, Bloodstone (Rajnikant's first international role). Some of them, according to reviews and summaries, bordered on soft-porn and B-grade variety, while most banked on "the land of Maharajas and Indian jungles" image for the international audience. None of the films really did well in the international market.
But Sunanda defends them all doughtily: "We made those films at an experimental stage, in the late '80s, when independent film making without a studio backing was a small segment. The market for such films was small too. So it really didn't make big news in the media as box office hits either. But we sold Bloodstone for $2.2 million worldwide, which is good, according to international standards."
When I ask about their association with Ashok Amritraj with whom they have co-produced over five films in English and Tamil, Sunanda carefully skirts the mention, casually saying: "Yes, we did work in association." And that's that. She quickly then moves on to other subjects.
The next bigger leap was starting their own Tamil TV channel, South for You, in the U.K. over the Sky Network under their Cee (I) TV banner. Their subsequent venture, a thriller, Telling Lies, starring pop star and Spice Girl Melanie Brown, is also set for release later this year.
Sunanda has also set her hands on another golden goose of a subject. They've optioned Rasheed Kidwai's biography on Congress President Sonia Gandhi and announced the making of their next film, Sonia, to be directed again by the director of Provoked, Jag Mundhra (who's done Bhawander and many of the Manohars' films earlier). Ace writer Farokh Dhondy, Sonia and Rajiv's batchie at Cambridge, is doing the script.
Also on the anvil for the Manohars is a Hindi film Ramji Londonwalle, and a remake of the Tamil Nala Damayanti that will star southern sensation Madhavan in a subject of — what else — but immigration blues.
BHUMIKA K.
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