Indian blockbuster “PK” is set to get a wide release in China, following a deal between Disney India and Chinese state-owned distributors.A contract was signed in Beijing on Jan. 27 in the presence of the Indian ambassador to China and Tong Gang, Vice Minister, at China’s State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television (SAPPRFT).The film is to be released by China Film Group and Huaxia Film Group, with a promised 3,500 screens, at an unspecified release date.The film,...
Vinod Chopra Films
Vidhu
Chopra
Vidhu Vinod Chopra admits to being complicated and having few friends in Bollywood, where he says relationships are shallow and based on flattery. The media often portrays him as angry and arrogant. None of which makes him any less successful.
Fascinated by film from an early age, Chopra defied his parents to go to film school in Pune. There he learned to speak English, nearly failed the course, and made a documentary short, “An Encounter With Faces,” that was nominated for an Oscar. Success came with “Parinda” in 1989, which was India’s foreign-language Oscar nominee.
The big time arrived in 2000 with actioner “Mission Kashmir” which Chopra wrote, directed and produced, and 2003 buddy comedy “Munna Bhai MBBS.” That paired Chopra as writer-producer, with director Rajkumar Hirani, a winning team that scored global success with “3 Idiots” in 2009.
Having attempted to make worthy films that make good money, Chopra says that success came on his own, forthright terms. A recent foray into Hollywood, with “Broken Horses,” a thriller set against the backdrop of U.S.-Mexican gang wars, was less successful than his Indian efforts. He is married to film critic and former Variety writer Anupama Chopra.