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NIKITA DOVAL / TNN / Mar 26, 2006, 20:53 IST

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Will India ever have its own James Bond? We try to find out.

Will India ever have its own James Bond? We try to find out.
daniel Craig probably knew that he was inheriting a crown of thorns when he took over the James Bond mantle.
It started as a trickle with tidbits being leaked from the film sets such as how Craig lost a tooth while filming, and how he could not drive Bond's dream machine, and then became a flood when a few disgruntled fans started a website and an online petition to prevent Craig from playing Bond.
Nothing new about the hoopla though. This kind of frenzy is seen every time it comes to the casting of an iconic character - be it Darth Vader in his younger days or Superman or Batman.

India, happily, remains unaware of such frenzy, for, we are still to come up with a character who sustains over the years. And then comes the million-dollar question: Why not?
"Because we don't have a tradition of sequels or a series of films revolving around the same protagonist," says director Madhur Bhandarkar.
This is not to say that Hindi films have had no iconic characters, "It's only that their stories have never been taken forward," says director Ken Ghosh.
And is it because the audience would not really want to see the same character in different settings? "Why blame the audience? It is the makers who have really not come up with something like this," says filmmaker Kunal Kohli.
However, with a spate of sequels in the pipeline - Krrish, Dhoom 2 and Munnabhai Meets Mahatma - maybe India will finally get its answer to Bond.
"If even one sequel hits the bull's eye, it will become Bollywood's latest success mantra," says Kohli. So, don't be surprised if you find Dhoom 3 and Krrish 2 lined up for release next year.
"Maybe, if the Munnabhai series takes off and they try to replace Sanjay Dutt, it might lead to an uproar," says Ghosh. But director Deepak Tijori is still not confident.
"In India, film-watching is a passion but not an all consuming one. People are interested in a film when it hits the theatres, not later."
lucknow.times@timesgroup.com

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