Year: 2002
Language: English
Format: 35mm Colour
Runtime: 103 min
Director: Deepa Mehta
Producer: David Hamilton
Executive Producer: Camelia Frieberg, David Hamilton, Ajay Virmani
Writer: Deepa Mehta
Cinematographer: Douglas Koch
Editor: Barry Farrell
Sound: Elius Caruso
Music: Sandeep Chowta
Cast: Ranjit Chowdry, Rahul Khanna, Lisa Ray, Moushumi Chetterjee, Dina Pathak, Kulbushan Kharbanda, Jessica Paré
Production Company: Bollywood/Hollywood Productions

Rahul (Rahul Khanna), an attractive and wealthy Indian man living in Toronto, has broken a deathbed promise to his father by becoming engaged to a white pop star (Jessica Paré) instead of choosing an Indian girl. His overdramatic family will not rest until Rahul has been paired appropriately. When his girlfriend dies in an accident, Rahul employs a mysterious, strong-willed woman named Sunita (Lisa Ray) to play the part of his Indian fiancée and thus get his family off his back. Slowly but surely, they overcome their differences and eventually fall for each other.

Mehta began working on Bollywood/Hollywood after production was halted on Water in 2000 due to violent protests and death threats. Bollywood/Hollywood merges the lavishness of East Indian cinema with the more conservative but equally big-hearted brand of Hollywood escapism. Melodrama is merged with to farce and song-and-dance numbers break out with whimsical spontaneity. Bollywood/Hollywood opened the Perspective Canada programme at the 2002 Toronto International Film Festival® and was released internationally, though reviewers generally found it overly self-conscious and reliant on cliché. It was nominated for five Genie Awards and won for Mehta’s original screenplay.

By: Andrew McIntosh