Chadhas film,
"Bride and Prejudice"
Aishwarya Rai takes the lead
role and New Zealand actor Martin Henderson
Bend it Like Beckham director Gurinder Chadha has said her Bollywood
version of Pride and Prejudice will span several continents.
Chadhas film, renamed Bride
and Prejudice, stays faithful to Austens original story,
although the Bennett family become the Bakshis, and Mr Darcy becomes
a wealthy American. Aishwarya Rai takes the lead role in the
film His unsavoury friend Mr Bingley is still an Englishman - in this
case a barrister - and according to Gillies, who plays him, his character
will be more despicable.
At Mukesh Mills, art directors Nitish Roy and Nick Ellis have created
an elaborate Amritsar street scene. Two bedecked elephants that have
played a starring role in the final scene of the film the weddings
are getting restless. But its pack up for the India shoot
and location shift to Los Angeles for the final schedule of Chadhas
British movie with a nod to Bollywood.I am exhausted,
I have been shooting for three months and 10 days in London,
Amritsar, Goa and now Mumbai. We go to Los Angeles next, says
Chadha.
Weve shot the opening song of the film here with
Lalita (Rai) and her friend Chandra (Sonali Kulkarni) and the closing
scene. Prior to this was a song shoot in Goa, with American R
& B artist Ashanti.
She was amazing and focused. She came with her mother and hair
and make up and all these black American women were completely freaked
out about being in India. They only ate packaged Udon noodles that they
had brought with them. Ashanti appears in a beach party in Goa and has
sung in Hindi and English.
Chadha, whose previous films include Bend It Like Beckham and Bhaji
on the Beach, plans to complete the film by next summer, but anticipates
a release by the end of 2004.