EK AJNABEE PRESS CONFERENCE

EK AJNABEE, the upcoming Bollywood action flick set in Thailand with stunts by Seng (the guy who choreographed the tuk tuk chase in ONG BAK), held its press conference last night in NYC and, as usual, it was like jumping into a pool full of piranhas. I'm honestly surprised I emerged with all my arms and legs still attached. It was held in the smallest room they could find, but the reason it was such a feeding frenzy was because Amitabh Bachchan was there. Yep, the Big B himself was slouched at the front of the room in all his laid-back glory, giving off fatherly vibes and being as charming as it's possible for one human being to be without imploding.

Also present was the director, Apoovra Lakhia, co-star Arjun Rampal, and Vikram Chatwal. Vikram is NYC's socialite Sikh, famous for his hotels and this is his first movie (he got the role because he's a friend of the director - which is okay because, as Amitabh said, he did the movie because the director is a friend of his son). Vikram provided the comic relief for the evening, jumping in and tiring everyone out with his long, fully baked answers to questions directed at other people onstage, rambling on about Strasberg and mathematics and reminiscing about wonderful conversations he had in Thailand about the breeze. Whenever he opened his mouth the room was filled with the sound of a hundred eyeballs rolling.

The conference kicked off with some footage from the movie (about 5 trailers worth) none of which showed much of anything except a bit of what I hope is a hip-hop item number from the movie. Then Amitabh and Co. entered, whipping the press into such a frenzy that they began to feverishly bite their own arms and legs. Vikram set the tone for the evening by delivering an interminable opening lecture.

"Please do not call this a Hindi film," he said, several times. "Don't call it a Bollywood film. This is a film with all new editing and photography and it is like nothing you've seen before. This is not a remake of MAN ON FIRE."

Then director Apoorva Lakhia torpedoed Vikram by standing up and saying, "I think of this film as a Hindi version of MAN ON FIRE. But I believe the result is good and I'm very proud of it."

The stated justification for the remake was that there have been several movies that look like MAN ON FIRE and this is India's. The movie was shot in just 40 days (although they had to wait 2 years for Amitabh Bachchan's schedule to open up for him to perform in it) in Thailand (because Apoorva wanted his two lead actors, Bachchan and Arjun, to "stand out", which prompted Arjun to reply, "Thank you for telling us we don't stand out anywhere in the world except Thailand.")

Amitabh was asked why he did the movie, and after saying that Apoorva is a friend of his son, he was quite frank, "As a 64 year old, I'm happy to be in a movie where I'm the main character. The film industry does not have a lot of time for a 64 year old actor." He claimed that the stunts weren't too difficult, and that the action was kept on a realistic level, noting that as an actor it was his job to make sure he was physically fit so that what he did on screen looked good.

I've been to a press conference with Shah Rukh Khan before and I have to say that as charming as he was, I think the Big B has him beat for pure, unadulterated, laid back cool. Amitabh talked about economics, the Mahabrata and child actors without ever once sounding like he was stretching or showing off. As he said at the end, "The Indian film industry makes films for our fellow Indians, wherever they are in the world. If you're not Indian and you like our films, then welcome. But we are not trying to cross over."

Then there was an explosion of digital camera noises as Amitabh Bachchan left the room and the assembled media went bananas, shoving, pushing, kicking and punching each other to get the best shot possible.

(Quick note: according to Amitabh, the little girl who stars with him in Sanjay Leela Bansali's BLACK, a Bollywood version of THE MIRACLE WORKER out earlier in 2005, was not only a novice actor but when she attended the premiere of the movie it was the first time she'd been in a movie theater in her life)