Bollywood effect: first Indo-Kuwaiti film to hit the screens

Richa Tyagi

Kuwait City, Apr 8 (PTI) If Indians are here, can
Bollywood be far behind?

Come May and the first Indo-Kuwaiti film will be
screened in the oil-rich Gulf country which boasts of six-lakh
strong Indian population, the largest expatriate group here.

'Kahin na kahin milenge hum' is co-directed by Arif
Kazi, who calls veteran Bollywood actor Kader Khan his guru,
and stars Kiran Kumar, Shakti Kappor and Raja Khan.

"It is the first Hindi cinema to be completely shot
in Kuwait," says Kazi, who has been running a Hindi theatre
company by the name Fankar Arts for the last 16 years here.

Bollywood movies have a large fan following in Kuwait
not just among the 30 per cent south Asian expatriate
community but among Kuwaitis, especially those who know Hindi.

"Salman Khan and Shahrukh Khan are popular but Amitabh
Bachachan still rules the heart the Kuwaities," says Kazi who
hails from Mumbai. Regional language films including Tamil,
Telugu and Malayalam are also screened in Kuwait.

Among the Indian expatriates, the largest number is
from Kerala followed by Andhra Pradesh.

Despite the popular demand, Kazi says there are very
few theatres and the old ones have been replaced by
multiplexes. "The tickets are expensive and it is difficult
for people to go with their families for a movie," he says.

Pirated movies do a brisk business here with most of
them supplied from Pakistan, say industry people. "For as less
Rs 30 we can get as much as three movies, it is that cheap. So
why will we go to a cinema hall," says a Bollywood fan.

Kazi says he was inspired by the 'dilemma' of second
generation Indians who identify more with the country their
parents adopted while the elders still have a longing to go
back to their motherland. "The film will be released by early
next month," he said.

"It is everywhere and not just in Kuwait. For those
Indians who have settled in the UK, the families there are
also witnessing this tussle," he says.

Interestingly, Hindi theatre too has a niche in this
country of 3.5 million.

The viewers are mostly north Indians, people from
Delhi, Mumbai, he says but claims a dedicated Arab viewership
too.

"Dawood Hussain, known as the Amitabh Bachchan of
Kuwait, comes to watch our dramas. He knows Hindi. Most of the
Arabs who know Hindi do come to the theatres," Kazi says.

But with the rising inflation in the country, he says
they are now forced to hold free shows with recession taking
its toll.

"Earlier, the Indian community would allocate funds
for cultural shows, but now these flows are drying up. So we
invite people to these shows," Kazi says.

Like everywhere in the world, he says Bollywood was
forming an "important link" in the amalgamation of the Indian
community in Kuwait.

But there are others who feel that films should raise
the "real issues" facing the Indian community here.

"Movies tend to project a rosy picture of things. We
would be happy if they raise the problems faced by the
expatriate community here like the abuse of maids who come
from India," says Shano Abraham of India Women's League, one
of the 70 Indian community's organisations in Kuwait.

Others like Guru Rangashree, who teaches Bharatnatyam
here, is unhappy over the Bollywood's effect on traditional
Indian dances especially outside the country.

"I feel the electronic media and the traditional media
should not mix. The classical idiom should be presented in its
truest form," she says.

"We have had teachers who would pass off Bollywood
dance numbers as Kathak here as there were no real people
having the knowledge of the artform around," she says.

Rangashree has about 50 students mostly Indians and a
few westerners. "I would be happy to include locals too," she
says.