Will Nicole and Baz be in India?

While MS Dhoni and his Men in Blue are feeling the heat Down Under, there is an interest within the Australian film and television industry to woo all things India.
This year is shaping up a big year for tieups between India-Australia in terms of films. Last year, Hugh Jackman had attended the Australian Film Festival in Mumbai. The buzz doing the rounds this year is that Baz Luhrmann and Nicole Kidman might come down to India for AFFI 2012.But before that happens in March, an Australian film unit is already in India to shoot a movie based on cricket. Titled “Save Your Legs!”, the film will begin shooting in Varanasi from January 11.
The cricket film, starring Australian actors Stephen Curry, Brendan Cowell and Damon Gameau, is a comedy that’s inspired by a 2005 documentary of the same name. It is about a Melbourne cricket team. Directed by Boyd Hicklin (who also directed the original documentary) produced by Nick Batzias and Robyn Kershaw, and shot by Mark Wareham ACS, the film is about how a guy leads his two best friends and their cowboy cricket club on an audacious tour of India, winning friends but losing matches all the way. Large portions of the film, which began filming in Melbourne in December, will be shot in Kolkata. The film is expected to premiere as part of the 2012 Melbourne International Film Festival and will release in late-2012.
Nicole ad at AFFI
Meanwhile, Baz Luhrmann is the retrospective director of AFFI and all his movies will be screened at this Mumbai festival. The festival will also have the first digital simultaneous release of John Winter’s “Black & White & Sex” in India and Australia apart from Bill Bennett’s “Defiant”. Though AFFI director Anupam Sharma refuses to comment on the presence of the stars right now, he says, “Baz is the retrospective director and we are showing all his great films apart from his famous ad with Nicole Kidman, which was one of the costliest ad ever made for a perfume brand. We would also be screening the making of the ad at the festival.”
For those not in the loop, Luhrmann had directed this lavish multi-million dollar commercial inspired by his Red Curtain trilogy, starring Nicole Kidman and Rodrigo and the director had told that the commercial was based on the 1953 film — “Roman Holiday”.
What’s further interesting is that Australia has more than $100 million worth of Indiacentric films that are being shot in this country. Most, in fact, have received government funding for development or production. These include “Defiant” by Bill Bennett”, “One in A Billion”, “An Indian Summer” by John Winter, and “Bollywood Bazaar”.
Another very interesting project that will reinforce the Bollywood connect with Australia is the hosting of a reality show on India and Indians on an Australian mainstream television. The show, which is expected to run sometime between March and April this year is titled “Bollywood Star” and is aimed to find Australia’s first Bollywood star! And guess what’s the goody on offer for the star? The winner gets a role in a Mahesh Bhatt film! Says Bhatt, who is now in Darjeeling with daughter Pooja, “I had already done one such show of “Bollywood Star” in London. It was a huge hit. There is a growing interest in Bollywood in Australia. The franchise was picked up in Australia and I have now shot for the finals of the show as well in Mumbai. It will be aired in March/April. I will be casting the winner in either “Jism 2” or “Ashique 2”.