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London calling?

Director Vipul Shah is busy wrapping up a cross-culture love story

So, after Salaam Namaste, here is a greeting for London city - Namaste London. And the person who is greeting the city of Big Ben is director Vipul Shah with Akshay Kumar and Katrina Kaif. Going to the floors this month, the film has a couple of firsts to its credit. Apart from being an usual love story between a boy from Punjab, played by Akshay, and a London-born girl, played by Katrina, it is "an effort to show a cross-culture union" between Britain and India. It is a meeting of two cultures, according to Shah.

"It is a love story and romance between two countries without compromising on the ethical values these two countries represent," explains Shah. About the firsts, Shah has roped in, for the first time in India, Peter Field as a director of photography whose earlier work includes Brad Pitt-starrer Troy, Tomb Raider, The Da Vinci Code and the Bond flick, Tomorrow Never Dies. This Hollywood heavyweight has been hired to "make London look very different." He has been hired at an astronomical price that reportedly exceeds a crore, which perhaps makes him the costliest director of photography ever in Bollywood. And there is more. Shah has signed Javed Akhtar and Himesh Reshammiya to pen lyrics and compose music for the film.

Nothing great!

Says Shah, "I didn't want to create history by roping in Peter for the film. It is just that once I was going through the talent pool of photographers across the globe through an Internet search engine and I happened to read about Peter and contacted him. Fortunately, he liked the script and was ready to work with me. He will shoot the whole film in Punjab and London."

About Akhtar and Reshammiya, Vipul says, "I have already recorded seven songs with them. All are romantic numbers. Himesh has sung two of these songs. But the duo changed their style because of my request. I wanted to give Himesh a different platform. He was always willing to work with me and used to ask often, `When would you make a love story?' When I made this one, my natural offer was to him. Akhtar saab anyway fits with any kind of musician." Shah will compete the film by this November and release it earlier next year.

RANA SIDDIQUI

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