John Landis (director of Beverly Hills Cop 3, Blues Brothers 2000, Coming To America and Trading Places), Rob Cohen (Dragonheart, The Fast & Furious and Bruce Lee Story) and McG (Terminator 4), you would think I was rattling of the names of a guest list to a Hollywood premiere right? Wrong! These were just some of the guests present at the Los Angeles premiere of Chandni Chowk To China on Wednesday night at Steve J.Ross theatre right inside the Warner Brother premises.
Minutes before he flew with his cast to New York for the next premiere director Nikhil Advani said, “We couldn’t stay for the LA premiere for more than 35 minutes because we had to leave for the NY premiere… I could see the audience which included directors John Landis, Rob Cohen and McG plus top brass from Warner Brothers were laughing at the right places and for the right reason and in an emotional scene they all went silent.”
It is going to be a glamorous and yet somewhat hectic experience for leading lady Deepika Padukone and leading man Akshay Kumar.
Advani continued about his experience – “We didn’t know what the exact turn-out at the LA premiere was going to be. The RSVPs kept coming till the last hour. Over here the biggest of stars let you know if they aren’t coming. It’s Warner Brothers’ prestigious Bollywood product and they’re releasing it on a par with any Hollywood film with 50 prints in the US.”
After the LA, New York and Toronto premieres the cast and director will attend premieres in London, Hong Kong and Dubai. Quite a lot of air miles to be gained!
However the much- expected premiere of Chandni Chowk To China in the Chinese Republic has been shelved as the Chinese government has denied the film the permission for release. To this Nikhil says, “What can I say? China only allows twenty international films to be released every year. Anyway the film will be out on pirated DVDs in China so the people there will see how much we’ve done to honour the country.”
Interestingly Nikhil Advani saw his own film for the first time on Tuesday. “I’ve to say at 2 hours 32 minutes it’s much shorter than my last film Salaam-e-Ishq.”
We just hope that Chandni Chowk to China doesn’t suffer the same fate as Salaam-e-Ishq.
