On the sets of KAANTE

20th October 2001, If Bollywood's reach into popular culture in the UK was established beyond doubt with the cover story in London's Time Out magazine , then the LA Times front page story, 'Bollywood comes to Southern California', suggested that film industry is strongly creeping into US sentiments too. Drawing parallels to Sir Laurence Olivier, Marlon Brando and Regis Philbin, the article begins with an ode to Amitabh Bachchan, who the writer interacted with on the sets of Sanjay Gupta's Kaante, shot in 31 days in Los Angeles. This heist film also stars Sanjay Dutt, Sunil Shetty, Mahesh Manjrekar, Lucky Ali and Kumar Gaurav. Two songs remain to be shot.

The LA Times article says that the budget of this film, "around US $6 million", is "chump change for a Hollywood blockbuster but extremely high for an Indian production". And the producers are following a wholly American way of filmmaking. This included the catering. Says the article: "A catering truck served ribs and hot dogs to the dozens of American crew members and extras, while the Indian participants indulged in lentils, curried vegetables and rice served by an Indian cook." However the true picture of what Bollywood means in the West did not go unmentioned. "Formulaic fare," says the writer, "blighted love matches, dreamy song-and-dance sequences." The quiet Romeo on the same Kaante sets was... believe it or gasp... Lucky Ali. Credit it to his guitar strumming maybe... he just had to play a sad, sad tune and the American blondes and brunettes were hooked. The post-production of the film will also be done in the USA and the producers plan to release the film by mid-April.