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    • The Italian Job

The Italian Job

Bollywood Blows Door Off

Parimal M. Rohit
Bollywood Editor
H'wood Correspondent

Your mission, should you choose to accept, is to do a bank job in Italy with a little Bollywood-style song and dance. Oh, and while you are at it, make sure you only blow the bloody doors off. And if you are not careful, you may find yourself in a car chase through the agrarian villages a few hours outside of Mumbai instead of the windy roads and mountainous terrain of Turin.

Yes, The Italian Job is going Bollywood.

According to reports, the Indian Film Company purchased the rights to the 1968 classic film from Paramount Studios.

The original, which starred Michael Caine, will be recreated for Indian audiences with “lots of singing and dancing,” according to film executives.

Italian Job is a thriller, and we thought it had great scope if adapted for the Indian market,” Sandeep Bhargava, chief executive at Indian Film Company, told reporters.

Bhargava said the Bollywood remake will include elements from the 1968 original and the 2003 Hollywood remake starring Mark Wahlberg, Charlize Theron, and Donald Sutherland.

The popular director duo Abbas-Mastan, known for creating some of India’s best action-thriller movies, is currently working on the film’s script.

The Indian Film Company purchased the rights to the popular crime caper, despite warning from Hollywood studios, advising Bollywood production houses to limit its practice of mimicking Western blockbusters with little regard of copyright infringement.

In fact, at least one American film studio was observed placing advertisements through the local press, warning Bollywood production houses of potential copyright infringement.

Speaking of copyright infringement, Bhargava may rely on one of the film’s most popular lines in using this re-creation as a baseline for future remakes: “You were only supposed to blow the bloody doors off!” said Caine’s character, Charlie Croker.

Bhargava told reporters that if the fans in India blow the bloody doors off local movie theaters suring screenings of his remake of The Italian Job, he plans to produce Indian versions of other Hollywood hits, including Dirty Rotten Scoundrels and Mamma Mia!

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