Roopa Swaminathan’s Blog

The Golden Globes were announced a few weeks back. Everyone and their grandfather seemingly was nominated. These include actors who induced a “What the hell?” moment (John Travolta) to those who have been nominated for roles that they’ve pretty much sleepwalked through (Denzel Washington and Tom Hanks) to those nominated for the wrong movie (Philip Seymour Hoffman for Charlie Wilson’s War???????? – Really???)

And then there’s one who had three amazing films and three incredible performances in one year – 3:10 to Yuma, I’m Not there and the incredible Rescue Dawn and the actor didn’t as much as merit a bloody yawn from the Golden Globes committee.

But what the hell is new? This is the same actor who was overlooked for The Machinist a few years back and then for American Psycho a few years before that. So-it’s-let’s-screw-him-over-one-more-time-time again.

See…for me…there are actors. And then there are actors. There’s Aamir Khan, Vikram, Hugh Laurie, Amitabh Bachchan, Jaya Bachchan, Jeff Bridges, Matt Damon, Rajnikant, Kamalahasan, Revathy – the list goes on.

And then there’s…

Well…Christian Bale.

Let’s see.

Is he the most underrated actor in Hollywood? Check.

Does he have the biggest cult following around the world? Especially on the internet? – Check.

Will he eat worms for a role (Rescue Dawn)? – Check.

Will he lose over 45 pounds for a role (Machinist)? – Check.

Will he learn magic for a role (Prestige)? – Check.

Will he act as the most savage axe murderer that ever lived but still make one of the funniest films you’ll ever see (American Psycho)? - Check.

Will he literally transform a franchise that had been mutilated and destroyed by other actors before him and give it the dignity that it was lacking (Batman)? Uhhhh…CHECK!

Make some really bad movies actually seem incredibly smart and worthy (Reign of Fire, Equilibrium)? Check!

Be considered the best actor of their generation by almost every one of his peers? - AGAIN…CHECK!

As a diehard Bale fan – I was sure that this year was it. I mean after years of ignoring him, I figured how the hell could they ignore three tour-de-force performances in one year?

Turns out – they can.

And they did.

What is even more upsetting is that while Hollywood has ignored the existence of this actor-among-actors, who woulda though that his own countrymen would do the same? The Golden Globes are traditionally handed out by the Foreign Press (read that as mostly British Press) and even they chose to ignore him!

What does the ruddy guy have to do to even get nominated for one of these awards for chrissakes?

Diehard Bale fans like yours truly love this actor because he does his job with the integrity we hope all creative people should aspire to. He plays one of the most iconic characters of cinema of all time - Bruce Wayne / Batman – but he could walk by us in a subway and chances are he won’t be recognized. For all those actors who claim that the paparazzi have made their lives miserable - they only need to look at Bale and see how he does it. But maybe it’s this incredible need for privacy, his refusal to even have his own assistant while he works in his movies, the lack of any PR manager around him and his adamant refusal to do the talk show circuit has probably cost him one more time.

Hell…even Matt Damon felt it when he said in an interview to Entertainment Weekly a few months back. “You know who’s great is Christian Bale. Did you see Harsh Times? He did that and The Prestige in the same year! People say, ”Oh, you did The Departed and The Good Shepherd in the same year, you really got robbed.” Christian f—ing Bale got robbed!”

Oddly enough, I don’t think Bale himself worries about any of this.

Only his fans do.

And that makes him cooler than ever.
 

I haven’t spoke to Chiyaan Vikram (or Kenny as we called him) for over four years. But I know that if I pick up the phone and called him now, we would get back to chatting away about life, issues, good cinema, boring cinema, money and cars as if the years hadn’t gone by. For awhile – especially when I wrote my final chapter in Star Dust on him, we were in touch almost every single day. For a period of two years - Kenny, Dharani (popular Tamil director) and I hung out a lot. The two of them are probably my only two friends from the film world.

Kenny was the first from the three of us to win a National award. He won it for his incredible performance in Pithamagan. I’m not a big fan of the movie but I loved his performance in it. And all through the award process – it seemed like everyone from Bollywood - who had NO clue about Kenny or his performance in Pithamagan – moaned and bitched about how Hrithik Roshan should’ve gotten the award that year and that he got totally gypped for Koi Mil Gaya! It still makes me MAD when I think of it! So were a lot of others in Chennai. Except Kenny. Even through that time, he was so incredibly polite and decent! Moments before he was to receive the award from the President, one of the reporters from NDTV thrust a mike in front of him and asked him, “So? Do you know that Hrithik Roshan is mad because he feels that he should’ve won this award?” Kenny was gracious personified when he responded politely, “Sorry about that!” He then looked directly into the camera and said, “Sorry Hrithik! I think you should’ve won too!”

As luck would have it, the year after he won, I won the National award for Star Dust. It was weird because it came out of nowhere. All of us at NFDC had hoped that maybe I would’ve had a shot at winning the award for best first time director for Five By Four. When that didn’t happen, I just moved on. And then came the award for the book! It was amazing! I already shifted to the US by the time the actual awards day rolled around, so my dad went to Delhi and picked it up for me. so from the three of us, the only one left to win the award now is Dharani!

A quick side about Aamir Khan and Vikram – Khan is making Ghazini with Murugadoss. Oddly enough, Vikram and Murugadoss were supposed to make a film together. It was all settled when at the very last moment the deal fell through. I was actually with Kenny talking about the final chapter for Star Dust when this happened! Funny, I remembered this now!

Anyway, I moved to the US again in 2005 and lost touch with both Kenny and D. But I know that wherever they are and wherever I am, they would think well of me. As I do them!
 

I thought I’d begin my first time blogging by writing about Aamir Khan. This is fitting especially since his newest film Taare Zameen Par (TZP) just came out and I saw it a few days back in London (where I’m currently holidaying). I could talk about all the typical things that a fan may talk about and I probably will in the future, but today I want to address something that’s really been bothering me.

Most Bollywood aficionados probably know that TZP was written by one of Khan’s oldest friends Amole Gupte. Gupte even directed the film for two weeks before Khan looked at the rushes and pulled the plug on the project. He said somewhere that there just wasn’t that special something that’s required to make a film work. In many of his interviews, Khan claimed that he told Gupte that he (Gupte) could very well take the movie to some other actor and make the movie elsewhere. But Khan personally had lost faith in the directing capabilities of his friend and wanted to discontinue the film. Gupte (to his credit) told Khan that instead of him finding another actor, he would much rather have Khan direct the movie himself. Khan agreed and the rest they say is Bollywood history.

TZP was directed by Aamir Khan. It opened to packed houses. And Khan is on top of the world.

I saw the movie last week and have to admit – my favorite Bollywood star had done it again. He has once again made a superbly nuanced film that straddles the Bollywood world of melodrama with a multilayered albeit an understated sensibility that’s uniquely Aamir Khan.  A lot of love, thought and planning has gone into this film and clearly it shows. For diehard fans such as yours truly, the movie is testament to Khan’s basic understanding of the film medium and his devotion to his craft. So while the rest of them make Saawariyas and Om Shanti Oms, he makes TZP and is able to attract the masses and the so-called classes and attracts them in hordes.

But I wonder what Amole Gupte is going through right now.

As much as I love and support Khan and think he absolutely played fair by his friend, fact is that Gupte probably lived, breathed and dreamt TZP for years and years and years – and he is nowhere around when it matters. Obviously the friends had a falling out (Khan admitted that once the shooting part was over, Gupte decided he did not like the film and pulled out completely) and that’s a shame!

I personally feel Gupte’s pain. I’m a writer and a filmmaker. And I cannot stress how different the two mediums really are. As a writer for cinema, it’s very important to be able to have the vision to take what’s written on paper and extrapolate that on to the visual medium. I can totally picture the scene between Khan and Gupte. As good a writer Gupte was, he probably was not as equipped visually and that’s probably what bothered Khan about the rushes initially. And I can envision this because as a writer and filmmaker, I felt the exact same way when I directed my film. My scenes got so much better towards the end of the shoot as opposed to the beginning. The initial scenes were so wordy. I had my actors repeat each and every word on the script verbatim. But when I saw the rushes I was appalled. I understood the importance of visuals over words and the power of silence onscreen. Obviously I’m speculating about what may have happened between Khan and Gupte but the above I think it’s a reasonable surmise.

I was just thinking of how I would feel if I were in the position as Gupte is. Tamil actor Vikram is a dear friend of mine and I wonder – what if I had pitched one of my stories to him and things had turned out the way it has between Gupte and Khan? It would’ve devastated me. But wiser heads would’ve prevailed. I hope Gupte gets the fact that worse things could have and often do happen in the film industry (and I should know). He could’ve had some of the more established directors direct it and still have it completely mutilated. Having someone like an Aamir Khan direct your story is a huge compliment and the way I see it – I’d much rather have an Aamir Khan direct something I write and do it well than my script lying somewhere in my hard drive. Gupte should quit sulking and let bygones be bygones and stand by Aamir and use the accolades that would surely come his way. Better to be in the limelight and gain from it than hide away. And I hope Khan would let bygones be bygones and make more of an effort to include his friend. I’m sure he tried and Gupte rebuffed him. But he should be the bigger person here. After all - it was Gupte who gave him a gift of story like TZP. Khan would not be enjoying his success as a director but for a writer’s creativity that afforded him the accolades that’s come his way.

Hope it works out between them.
 

For my blog here, I plan to write about all things Hollywood and Bollywood.

To begin my blog, I thought I would write about three actors who are not just my all-time favorites – each one of them also uniquely represents the three diverse film industries in the world.

• Christian Bale (Hollywood)
• Aamir Khan (Bollywood)
• Chiyaan Vikram (Tollywood?)