Hollywood in Bollywood

Salman Khan Unlimited's
MARIGOLD
a romantic comedy, written and directed by Willard Carroll

Salman Khan plays a choreographer who teaches Marigold, the actress, to dance.

MARIGOLD'S LEAD ACTRESS CONFIRMED!
Salman Khan's Hollywood co-star finally announced!

Salman Khan fans can finally rejoice! Progress is finally being made on the superstar's much-awaited film Marigold. The Hollywood actress Ali Larter (star of the Final Destination movies) has signed the leading female role in the ambitious movie. She plays an American actress who becomes stranded in India and falls in love with a Bollywood choreographer, played by Salman Khan. The shooting of the delayed film begins in June and locations include Northern India and London. "Ali has brought a fresh approach to all her roles, and she's fearless about the challenges of singing, dancing, physical comedy. And 10 weeks in India during the summer!" said writer-director Willard Carroll.

Who is Ali Larter ?? Visit Salman Khan Unlimited page on Ali Larter

Hyperion Pictures India, a subsidiary of Hyperion Pictures, USA is all set to roll with their first Hollywood-Bollywood co-ventured film titled ‘Marigold’. Marigold, a ground breaking collaborative effort uniting creative forces from Hollywood and Bollywood, the two largest movie industries on earth, will have Salman Khan playing the lead opposite a popular actress from the US. Written and directed by Willard Carroll (Playing By Heart, with one of the biggest Hollywood cast such as Sean Connery, Angelina Jolie, Gillian Anderson, Madeleine Stowe, Dennis Quaid, Ryan Philips, Ellen Burstyn), Marigold is a truly a bi-cultural collaboration at every level: in it's financing, in it's casting, in the composition of its crew, even in its shoreline and theme.

Story : MARIGOLD is about a B-grade American actress who is shooting for a B-grade film in India. The shooting gets cancelled and she is stranded in India penniless. Salman, a choreographer in Bollywood, befriends her and gets her a role in a film called PYAR BINA KYA ZINDAGI. While teaching her to dance, the two fall in love. But there are some cross-cultural problems...

Music : Trio composers Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy have been finalized to do the songs, choreographer Farha Khan, lyricist Javed Akhtar and art director Nitin Desai have all been finalized to work on this film. There will be six songs. Shankar-Ehsan-Loy will compose the songs, which will be in Hindi and English. The girl sings her songs in English all through. But when she and Salman sing, the tracks are bilingual.

Javed Akhtar is doing the Hindi lyrics while some of the lyrics is coming straight from Los Angeles so that the songs can appeal to the American audience.

Shooting : The film will be shot in Mumbai, Goa, Agra and Rajasthan. The film will be shot in a single schedule of 11 weeks starting in Feb 2003 and will be shot in Sync sound using Panavision camera.

The Hindi version of Marigold will be two and half hour long while the English one will be one hour forty five minutes only.

What they say...

A production officer from Hyperion Films says, "We have always believed that Salman has a lot of untapped potential and needs a good director to exploit it. Examples are Sooraj Barjatya and Sanjay Leela Bhansali. Our findings show that Salman appeals a lot to non-Indians. His personality is such that he can be paired with any foreign actress. He has also given a lot of valuable inputs during the scripting of the film. Writer-director Willard Carroll wrote the script with Salman in mind."

Salman Khan says, "I was initially very worried about doing my dialogues in English so that kept me away. Then I met Willard and he gave me a script which is a kind I relate to. There is comedy, emotions, romance, and everything else in the film."
Carroll says about the targetted andience, "Salman has what it takes to be accepted by an American audience. You have to remember that basically MARIGOLD will cater to the American audience. It is not being made primarily with the Indian market in mind. It is a mainstream Hollywood production."
Carroll says, "I got a lot of inputs for the script through my interaction with Salman. He gave me a lot of insight into the cultural nuances that would otherwise have been lost. After the script was written, we put it through him and he did make many suggestions, most of which we incorporated."