Spielberg is planning Kashmir film: report

Hollywood director Steven Spielberg poses with Bollywood filmmakers in Mumbai.  The 66-year-old is on his first visit to Mumbai partly to celebrate the success of his film Lincoln, which was co-produced by Reliance Entertainment.

Agencies/New Delhi

Hollywood director Steven Spielberg is planning to produce a film set partly on the de facto border between India and Pakistan in the Kashmir region, a report said yesterday.

Spielberg, who is currently in India’s entertainment capital Mumbai, told The Times of India that the film would be produced by his DreamWorks Studios and its Indian partner Reliance Entertainment, which is headed by tycoon Anil Ambani.

“We have finalised a script for a movie,” Spielberg said.

“Part of it will take place on the India-Pakistan border in Kashmir. But we’re still trying to figure out the casting, locations and who’s going to direct it.”

The 66-year-old is reportedly on his first visit to Mumbai partly to celebrate the success of his film Lincoln, which was co-produced by Reliance Entertainment.

Spielberg, known for classic hits such as Jaws, E.T. and Jurassic Park, was seen leaving Ambani’s office on Monday afternoon.

Reports said Ambani and his wife Tina were throwing a lavish party in honour of the director during his visit.

On Monday night, Spielberg spoke to a gathering of Indian directors at an event moderated by Bollywood superstar Amitabh Bachchan in Mumbai.

Bachchan later said on Twitter that he had “a scintillating evening with Mr Steven Spielberg,” describing the acclaimed director’s comments as “simple, honest and with immense candor.”

Bachchan’s meeting with the acclaimed filmmaker, whom he calls an “institution”, was one full of talks on the state of Indian cinema and the future of cinema at large.

“An evening with an institution... an evening spent in conversation in the presence of select fraternity and press... an evening of sharing cinema with the prolific maker, inventor, story teller, innovator and one who continues to surprise us with his genius,” the 70-year-old posted on his blog srbachchan.tumblr.com.

Expressing his views on the new trend where Hollywood studios are collaborating with Indian production houses, Big B, as Bachchan is called, wrote: “The interest in the US and in particular Hollywood in holding hands with entertainment companies in India, because you felt that the world was ‘diminishing in size’ due to the ease of communication, and that the idea really was to bring communities closer, build bridges of understanding and sharing, because impressions, thoughts were now instant, thanks to the Internet and its various social networking programmes.

“My own argument on the subject though was somewhat different; that ever since the opening up of the economy in India, the sheer volume of the demographics of the region, 1.2bn, or every 6.3rd person in the universe being an Indian, was too attractive a consumer base to ignore!

“...So the argument being that when a country did well economically, its politics, finance, food, music, clothing … and film, became suddenly, very attractive too, which was why the mention of India, Indian references, presence of Indian actors, albeit in minuscule roles, gained relevance in Hollywood and in American TV.”

Among the Indian filmmakers present at the event were Rajkumar Hirani, Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra, Anurag Kashyap, Ramesh Sippy, Shyam Benegal, Ashutosh Gowariker, Sudhir Mishra, Nagesh Kukunoor, Madhur Bhandarkar, Zoya Akhtar, Kiran Rao, Reema Kagti, Rajshree Ojha, Gauri Shinde, Homi Adajania, Abbas-Mustan, Rohan Sippy, Prabhudheva, R Balki and Kunal Kohli.