India is the flavor of the month. So I've got to make a film about it. And so now I, part of a new generation of Hollywood directors, am making my way to South Asia to make films “about India”. No, I don’t know any Indian filmmakers, have never watched Indian films, and really couldn’t name any Indian actors. But that doesn’t matter at all. You see, my film's really not going to be about India at all and most definitely not about Indians. They will just be somewhere in the background looking colorful and dancing Bollywood dances. Ultimately, my ‘India’ film will be a western film about western themes – you know, individualism and liberty and raw sex, and just coincidentally the setting will be in India. Because, you see India is the flavor of the month, and everyone just has to have made at least one film in India.
Update: Apologies are in order. I re-read the article to which I linked and now I'm sorry that I criticized the filmmaker. It seems to me that the reporter basically asked all sorts of leading questions about her interest in India, etc. and her responses were basically polite "yes, I'd like to do that" kind of replies. But like Danny Boyle, chances are the film will probably follow the format outlined above. And then, it will be the Slumdog Millionaire experience redux. Awards and hoopla in the west, and a deflating non-event in India. I can already see the director scratching her head and wondering, "Why the heck didn't Indians in India like my film?"
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