After a long dry period due to the multiplex strike and a fairly lackluster return to the screens for Bollywood producers, a lot is riding on next weekend’s release of the Katrina Kaif – John Abraham starrer New York. With the painful memories of Yuvraaj now firmly behind her, Katrina is keen to be out and about promoting her new movie and hopes to visit Kolkata, which she sees as her good luck charm. “I really want to come to Calcutta… the city has been very lucky for me,” she says, “I am pushing the producers Yash Raj Films to try and come to Calcutta. It’s an important sector and I want to be there.”
Multiplex owners and producers are also hoping for the success of New York this weekend, which also stars Neil Nitin Mukesh. “Audiences have been starved of entertainment and we have had a lot of enquiries about New York,” said an industry source, “We all have our hopes pinned on New York because if it does well, it will set the trend for the rest of the season with a long line of big releases – Kambakkht Ishq, Love Aaj Kal and so on.”
For Katrina’s fans, New York will provide a glimpse into her real personality. Director Kabir Khan deliberately asked her to be herself for her role in the movie and not be a movie star. “I was told ‘look at yourself, the personality you have and the things you go through in real life’,” she explains, “Of course, the situations would be different but Maya is what Katrina is off-screen. She is what I am in real life.”
