MUMBAI: Actor – producer Tom George Kolath, winner of the ‘Best Feature National Award’ and the ‘Indian Panorama Award’ in 2004 for Malayalam film Akale – At a distance, is all set to foray into Hollywood with his directorial debut Gandhi Park.
The movie, which will be produced by Dr. Anil Paulose under the banner of Amerasia Pictures Corp., stars Anupam Kher, Sneha Ullal, Brandon Sommers, Vikas Kalantri, Krishna Mohan and Sush Nayar.
“It is a contemporary, cross-cultural romantic comedy. At heart it is a love story that deals with the realities when an Indian girl played by Sneha Ullal and an American boy – Brandon Sommers – fall in love, the family tension, the inherent conflict of cultures, the pressures of going against strict family traditions. It is a story of every Indian and unlike many crossover films that subscribe to cultural stereotypes; it will bring Indian values and traditions to the limelight,” says Kolath.
He further adds, “I believe that a directorial endeavor is nothing but hard work coupled with confidence, perseverance and common sense. A director must have a vision of every aspect of his creation. I define vision as ‘the art of seeing things that don’t exist.’ A director has to be able to visualize cinema from beginning to end by simply reading a screenplay. Many crossover movies focus, unfairly at times, on the poverty, slums and negative aspects of India. I want to change that with Gandhi Park, where the focus will be on our rich culture, traditional values and the fact that winning the heart of an Indian girl means more than just wooing her. It means winning the hearts of her family too. I don’t want to reveal too much about the plot but rest assured that it would be a movie worth family entertainment with romance and comedy peppered in.”
“I don’t believe in quantity but quality of my movies. If I can make one great movie that captures the hearts and minds of millions, then I can say I have succeeded in what I wanted to achieve. I am well aware that making inroads into Hollywood can be uphill and fraught with competition. Being of Indian origin tilts the scale against me a bit because there is a stereotype built into that idea. That sometimes makes it more difficult to reach mainstream cinema and viewers. I would not dream of erasing my heritage and values for any commercial aspirations, on the contrary, I want to bring those very heritage and values to international attention by making a movie based on those,” Kolath adds.
The shooting will kickstart soon with its first schedule in Goa followed by a 70-day schedule in New York.
