Jan 4, 2010

Shahrukh Khan to shoot in Miami next month

Bollywood superstar Shahrukh Khan (Chak De India!) will shoot in Miami (Florida, USA) next month for a big-budget action film "Ra.One".

Filmfare award winner Khan reportedly plays a Miami software engineer Shekhar, who as a video-game hero takes on his self-created techno-monster "Ra.One". Filmfare winner Kareena Kapoor (Jab We Met) will play female lead. Most of the shooting crews will be reportedly brought from India but extras required will be from the area, according to reports.

Filmmakers are planning to close parts of an avenue for a car chase, which will also extend to various other parts of Miami. Khan is being described in the media as Hollywood stars George Clooney and Brad Pitt mixed into one. Shahrukh's wife Gauri Khan (Billu) is the producer and Anubhav Sinha (Tum Bin) is director of this film, which will be produced by Bollywood Hollywood Production and Red Chillies Entertainment. Cinematography is by Ueli Steiger (The Maiden Heist), while David Benullo (Shadow Man) is screenwriter, reports suggest.

This will be the second Bollywood shooting in Miami in less than a year. About nine months back, shooting was held for "Dostana" (directed by Tarun Mansukhani and starring Abhishek Bachchan, John Abraham, Bobby Deol, and Priyanka Chopra), which showcased Miami as a romantic place to fall in love. Tourism officials of the area are excited over the prospect of attracting more tourists from India to Miami by this sudden interest of Bollywood in Miami.

Welcoming Bollywood filmmakers to Miami, acclaimed Hindu statesman Rajan Zed, in a statement in Nevada (USA) today, said that seeing the continuous increase in the unnecessary vulgarity and violence in Bollywood films, it appeared that the Bollywood had lost the sense of India's cultural milieu.

Zed, who is the president of Universal Society of Hinduism, said that they were fully supportive of the artistic freedom and expression and did not want any unnecessary censorship, but were highly concerned about the increasing presence of the explicit scenes in the movies which were there simply for "mercantile greed" having nothing to do with cinematic elements. Rajan Zed argued that cinema was a highly powerful medium and had the potential of impacting the audience and altering the psyche, especially the impressionable minds of younger generation. He asked the Central Board of Film Certification of India to "wake up".

Incorporated in 1896 and located between the Florida Everglades and the Atlantic Ocean, Miami, known as "Magic City", is the international center for popular entertainment. Golden Globe nominated "Scarface" (Brian De Palma) was shot here. Tomas P. Regalado is the Mayor.