Repeating Islands

Dulha Mil Gaya (Found A Grom), a Bollywood movie filmed partly in Trinidad and Tobago, premiered this week at MovieTowne in Port of Spain. In an interview with the Express at his Port of Spain office on Tuesday, the movie’s produced, Maharaj, spoke about the film in connection with the islands. Here are some excerpts from the interview from the Express. A link to the complete article follows:

He said the opportunity to produce Dulha Mil Gaya was born after Trinidad and Tobago’s High Commissioner in India, Maniedeo Persad, pointed filmmaker and producer Vivek Vaswani in Maharaj’s direction. ’I felt this was a great opportunity for Trinidad and Tobago. My parents were responsible from the 1940s for the distribution of Hindi films to this part of the world and, as such, I had an emotional attachment in this opportunity to produce a Bollywood film,’ said Maharaj. . . . ’I felt this was a film which Trinidad and Tobago could be proud of. It was a Shah Rukh Khan film, the biggest Indian star, the script is very good, very funny and light-hearted but, more importantly, the music which is an important ingredient to Hindi films was being done by Jatin-Lalit, who had done just about all the big blockbusters over the years,’ he said.

Maharaj said the music of this film, which features the voices of India’s top five playback singers, was dear to his heart, one that would live on forever.

The film also features former Miss Universe Sushmita Sen of India.

Dulha Mil Gaya, which cost a total of US$6 million to create, was released in India over two weeks ago, as well as in the United Kingdom, the United States, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and Dubai, among others. The reviews have been mixed, with some calling it groundbreaking and entertaining, while others felt it was old wine in a new bottle. One particular review out of India described it as ’Trinidadian trash’.

Maharaj responded: ’That was from one newspaper in Bangalore which was done by a relative or wife of some producer… it’s obviously stupid because the film has nothing to do with a Trinidadian story, the script was never written here, the story does not originate here, how can you call it Trinidadian trash? That person probably didn’t even see the film. The fact that the film is in its third week in India speaks for itself. If it’s going to be a flop, it would have been out in a week.’

. . .

So what were the challenges? Maharaj said bringing in a crew of over 100 persons and a dog (Bozo) was no easy task. Costumes were lost, Bozo had no place to stay and the weather was unpredictable.

’In the film you won’t see the dog had no place to stay when he came to Trinidad, we had to keep him in my office for three weeks. The shoot started in India so we couldn’t use another dog, we have to ensure continuity,’ he said. ’Another thing you won’t see are the awkward moments like the director falling ill and ending up in the hospital in Tobago after trying to eat some oysters,’ he added.

Maharaj said of all the scenes shot in this country-Pigeon Point, Tobago-were the most challenging, as one minute the sky would be bright and sunny, and the next you would see rain clouds.

However, he said challenges aside, it was wonderful to see local talent such as the Shiv Shakti Dancers and Malick Folk Performers involved in the movie.

For the complete article go to http://www.trinidadexpress.com/index.pl/article_news?id=161585025