By Subhash K JhaFrom Berlin where he is currently shooting for Farhan Akhtar's Don 2, Shah Rukh Khan will be heading for China for the premiere of My Name Is Khan (MNIK). A historic occasion that fell into the MNIK team's lap. No Indian film has been released in the last 30 years in China.At this very moment intense preparations are on for the grand premiere tentatively on 30 November in Beijing.
Producer Karan Johar who has been traveling to the remotest part of the world for the release of MNIK, can't get over the Chinese windfall.
“It's an honour, I agree, specially since China allows only the release of 20 foreign films a year. I can't remember when was the last time an Indian film was released there. We must have done something right this time, no?” says Karan alluding foxily to the negative comments on MNIK that prevail in a section of the film industry.
Karan is already planning Shah Rukh's clothes for the Beijing premiere.Though he's tightlipped about it, we did get to know that Karan has something in
Vijay Singh CEO of Fox-Star, whose team has been thrown into a flurry of activities by this sudden Chinese invitation can't get over the singularity of the honour. “The Chinese authorities are really hard on foreign films. To be asked to release Khan is an amazing honour. We're still trying to figure out all the nitty-gritty.We can't figure out how it happened.We're caught unawares. We were certainly unprepared for a release in China.”
Apparently the Chinese administration had reservations about the film's theme of Islamic insurgency. Since the problem has lately cropped up in China the authorites have clamped down on the theme of extremism in art and culture. According to reliable sources, the Chinese authorities finally decided that the humanitarian theme of MNIK far exceeded its Islamic content.
Fox-Star and Karan Johar are most happy to play the release game by Chinese rules.
Says Vijay Singh, “We've practically no say on how what and where the film will be released in China. We're just too happy to comply. I think commercial releases of Indian films in China ended after Raj Kapoor's films which used to make their way from Russia to China.”
While it has been decided that the international edition of MNIK would be shown in China it is not sure yet if Shah Rukh would speak in Chinese. Plans are afoot to dub the film in China.
However considering the limited time available to Karan Johar and Fox-Star to make it seems more likely that the film would be subtitled in Chinese.
Shah Rukh, however intends to build on his fan-follwing in China with at least a week of stay beyond the premiere to meet the Chinese people.
Wonder if 3 Idiots too can scale the Great Wall Of China! Your call, Aamir.
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