Striking back, in India
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Irvin Kershner, the man behind blockbusters like The Empire Strikes Back and Never Say Never Again, is in India scouting locations and talent for his latest film
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ON THE LOOKOUT Irvin Kershner is suitably impressed by Indian people and culture
The man who helmed what all fans swear is the best Star Wars movie, The Empire Strikes Back, Irvin Kershner, is in India scouting for locations and talent for his latest film, The Princess and the Wizard. Arjun Daluvoy, a U.S. based surgeon, is producing the film, which is billed as a middle-eastern fairy tale, chock-a-block with romance and comedy.
Kershner, who has directed some massive block busters like the James Bond film Never Say Never Again and Robocop II, is convinced that this film will attract the whole family and is determined to beat all his other box-office records. Apart from these high profile films, Kershner has also directed the critically acclaimed Raid to Entebbe, based on a true story of Israeli commandos mounting a successful expedition to rescue a hijacked plane.
There was also the thriller Eyes of Laura Mars starring Faye Dunaway and Tommy Lee Jones about a woman who "sees" murders before they take place.
Last year there was Naina with Urmila Matondkar based on a similar concept.
The crew of The Princess... is pretty heavy duty, with Richard Kline (King Kong) as director of photography and Gerard Schumann, who won the academy award for Lawrence of Arabia, giving the music.
Both Robocop and Empire Strikes Back were effects heavy and Kershner is comfortable working with SFX as he says: "My movie The Princess and the Wizard is a fantasy, a fable, so it does demand special effects. So as per the need we would use special effects."
The Indian bit
With Indian being the flavour of the season, Kershner is looking at "using some scenic locales of India for my outdoor and also I'll be shooting in Ramoji Rao Studio in Hyderabad. The cast and crew would be a mixed lot from both Bollywood and Hollywood. My friend and the producer, Arjun Daluvoy, insisted on coming to India and exploring the talent and scenic locales of India. He is the founder of World Entertainment Media promoting the fusion of the best of the best from the East and West in the entertainment industry in film, fashion, music and lifestyle. So we would be using Bollywood talent in terms of technicians and we will have the lead actress from India, as there are a lot of young women in the Indian film industry who have a lot of valuable experience. My lead actor can be Indian, Briton or American." Is a certain Ms. Mallika Sherawat listening? Kershner, who admits to enjoying scriptwriting, is personally supervising the scriptwriter and will dedicate the whole of the next year to developing the project. And what are his impressions of India? "India is a very beautiful country. It is very rich in heritage and culture. I love Indians. Here people smile so much unlike in the West, and the Indians are very warm people. I was blown away by the beauty of Rajasthan. The forts and the palaces we saw were gorgeous."
MINI ANTHIKAD-CHHIBBER
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