With Dev, Akshay, Piyush and Anoop, will 2009 be the year of the Desi?

by Steve Mason

Guys named Dev, Akshay, Piyush and Anoop could become household names in 2009, winning Oscars, generating box office revenue for US studios, preparing for a Presidential run and even becoming the American Idol. The term Desi (pronounced Deshi) refers to someone with South Asian heritage, from India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka or Maldives, and America may be waking up to a new wave of talent.

Slumdog Millionaire (Fox Searchlight) is the most celebrated indie movie of the year, and it has banked another $7M over the 4-day MLK weekend for a new domestic cume of about $44M. The film has already won four Golden Globe Awards including Best Picture, and come Thursday morning, Slumdog could be nominated for as many as 9 Academy Awards.

Based on Vikas Swarup’s novel Q&A, Slumdog Millionaire is set in Mumbai, India and represents a celluloid bridge between Bollywood and traditional western cinema. Director Danny Boyle has create a fusion of world cinema complete with a brilliantly pulsating A.R. Rahman score, but the road to Best Picture favorite was almost a road not taken.

Made for a budget of just $14M, Slumdog was a bit of a stray dog. The movie was set to-be-released by Warner Independent Pictures, but when WIP was shut down last year, the picture could have easily become a straight-to-DVD throwaway. Instead, Slumdog Millionaire was picked up off the scrap heap by Fox Searchlight (sharing costs and revenue with Warner Bros), and the specialty distributor has done a masterful job guiding the movie from the Toronto Film Festival (where it won the Audience Award) through a perfectly-calibrated platform release.

First time actor Dev Patel is the star of Slumdog Millionaire, and he has already been nominated for Best Lead Actor at the BAFTAs, Best Supporting Actor at the SAG Awards, and he may soon be an Academy Award nominee. Another acting novice, Desi ingénue Freida Pinto won a Best Supporting Actress nom from the British Academy last week, and Slumdog also features legendary Indian actor Irrfan Khan.

It is not entirely surprising that India would spawn such a uniquely entertaining movie. The Bollywood industry is based in Mumbai, and the world’s second most populous country produces about 1,000 films per year. Approximately 17% of the world’s population resides in India, and movies there generate about $2 billion in ticket sales every year.

Indian audiences are not interested in traditional American blockbusters. In fact in 2008, the only English-language films among the top 25 grossing movies in India were Quantum of Solace (#13) and The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian (#25). 95% of the $2 billion in domestic gross is from Hindi (and other regional language) movies. So for American studios to tap into this massive overseas market, they need to start making some movies in Hindi, and that is exactly what they are doing.

In 2007, Sony produced Saawariya while Warner Bros released Saas Bahu Aur Sensex, but neither connected with Indian audiences. Now Warner Bros is trying to get into the Hindi blockbuster business with Chandni Chowk to China, released this weekend in India and on 138 screens in the US. The picture stars India’s biggest action star, Akshay Kumar, as a poor cook who travels to China to learn Kung Fu.

The picture met with lukewarm review in India, and, although exact box office figures are not available yet, Business Standard is reporting a less-than-spectacular performance. Devang Sampat, senior VP of exhibitor Cinemax India says, ”The weekend won’t go beyond 70% (capacity), and I am very disappointed.” In the US, Chadni Chowk to China had the twelfth-best Per Theatre Average Friday-Sunday at $5,000 for a total take of $650,000 or so.

Despite what appears to be a soft showing, Hollywood studios will continue trying to crack the lucrative South Asian market. Walt Disney is collaborating with an Indian studio to begin making animated films and Paramount is contemplating how to jump into the fray. Indian film trade analyst Komal Nahata says that “These collaborations are now going to be the order of the day. The Hollywood studios have deep pockets, so Bollywood producers can make more ambitious projects, and somewhere down the line I think they will also take Bollywood in territories which hitherto have been closed for Bollywood.”

It’s fair to assume that no less than Steven Spielberg and David Geffen could develop a Bollywood-style project in coming years. After all, Mumbai-based Reliance has committed millions to funding the all new Dreamworks, now that their divorce with Viacom is complete. It seems like only a matter of time before these legendary entertainment icons try developing film projects with an eye on India.

Did you realize that a guy named Piyush made Senator John McCain’s short list of running mates? Piyush “Bobby” Jindal, the Governor of Louisiana, is the first Indian American elected to state wide office winning a 4-way race in 2007. After serving two terms in Congress, he became America’s youngest Governor (36) and seems to have a very bright future that could lead all the way to the White House.

Born to Punjabi Indian immigrants in Baton Rouge, he was raised Hindu, but converted to Catholicism while in high school. He graduated with honors from Brown, and became a Rhodes Scholar, studying at Oxford. First as a legislator and then as a Governor, he has a 100% pro life voting record, opposes legalization of gay marriage, supports the teaching of intelligent design in public schools, and he voted 97% of the time with the Republican caucus while he was in Congress.

Jindal is sending mixed signals about whether or not he will be a candidate for President in 2012. He has considerable support among conservative Republicans, and, in a world where a multi-racial guy named Barack is President, maybe a guy named Piyush is the perfect candidate for the GOP. Time will tell, and a lot can happen between now and the next election, but it seems like Jindal will at least be considered as a Vice Presidential candidate in four years.

As a pop culture junkie, I try to watch as much television as possible, and thanks to TIVO, I see my fair share. One of the shows I try to watch is American Idol, television’s #1-rated show. There is something very old-fashioned about AI. Aside from the sometimes vicious sniping from Simon Cowell, there’s not much difference between Idol and The Original Amateur Hour, which debuted on radio in 1934, jumped to television in 1948 with Ted Mack as host, and stayed on the air until 1970. It is the only show during the golden years of television that appeared on all four networks (including the now-defunct Dumont, where it began its run).

Frank Sinatra began to make a name for himself with an appearance on the radio version of The Original Amateur Hour as part of a vocal group called The Hoboken Four. Later the TV show helped to launch the vocal careers of both Pat Boone and Gladys Knight. Proving that there are very few new ideas, producer Simon Fuller repackaged the Amateur Hour concept as Pop Idol in the UK, and then it came stateside as American Idol in 2002, where it has been TV’s #1 show ever since.

After launching major stars like Kelly Clarkson, Carrie Underwood and Academy Award winner Jennifer Hudson (Dreamgirls), and lesser names like Ruben Studdard, Clay Aiken and Fantasia Barrino, 2009 may be the year of Anoop Desai. A little dorky, but undeniably talented, Desai auditioned in Kansas City back in August, and his successful tryout aired last week on Fox. He made it through to the next round of the contest where a select group of singers will compete in Hollywood.

Anoop is not the first Desi to compete in American Idol. In 2007, Sanjaya Malakar finished 7th despite constant criticism by the judges. In fact, Sanjaya became both a pop culture instant celebrity and a bit of a national joke. My hunch is that nobody will be joking about “Anoop Dog” as Randy Jackson called him.

This kid is a North Carolina grad, and while there, he was a member of a “rock apella” group called the Clef Hangers. Anoop can flat out sing, and you can follow this link to watch him as lead singer on a smokin’ rock apella version Chris Brown’s hit Kiss Kiss. It’s very early in the competition, but Anoop is the only contestant with his own fan club on Facebook.

In the 2000 census, there were two million Desis living in the US with a median age of 29, making half of them part of the youth culture. That number is certainly higher now and will continue to grow. America is becoming more racially diverse by the year, and according to the Census Bureau, minorities will become the majority in 2042, and by 2023, minorities will comprise over half of all children.

Steve Mason is on Facebook and now also on Twitter.


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Posted Jan 19th 2009 at 1:25 pm in Steve Mason's Box Office | 32 Comments