MOVIES: Disney's Cheetah Girls head to Bollywood
This Friday the Disney juggernaut will bring
The plot of the movie, shot in Udaipur, involves the trio in a fictitious Bollywood film, "Namaste Bombay," produced by Roshan Seth's character. There are also rumors of a romance with an Indian maharajah and elephant rides.
More from Newsday:
Though they arrive in India without boyfriends, Aqua has one of those only-in-a-musical moments. While in the States, she was calling computer-tech support in India, despite not really needing it. She falls for one of the support techs on the phone. They meet, fortuitously, at sunset on a footbridge. Amar (Kunal Sharma) is smart, sweet, handsome and fabulously wealthy (of course).
Other actors of South Asian decent in the film include Deepti Daryanani and Rupak Ginn.
The film's soundtrack features Bollywood inspired beats interwoven with teeny bopper tunes like Dance Me If You Can and Fly Away.
Here's a exclusive snippet from an exclusive interview with the stars of the movie, from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch:
Bailon: We didn't get to see the Taj Majal. That's our one big regret.
Bryan: It was a two-day trip. My parents did get to see it. They showed us pictures.
Bailon: We got to see Mumbai, which was an amazing experience. That actually was the first place we ever went to, and it's like the third-noisiest city in the world.
Q: What was it like to ride an elephant?
Bailon: We're not going to lie. It was scary at first. Definitely, it's not something I would ever do if it was not a part of this movie.
Bryan: Actually, the elephant lies on her belly.
Williams: Ramu.
As saccharine-sweet as this movie will inevitably be, the formula behind it reflects the changing demographics of the viewing audience. From The New York Times:
“This group of people is reflective of the life we all live right now,” said Debra Martin Chase, an executive producer of “The Cheetah Girls One World,” which will be shown Friday on the Disney Channel.
“One-third of the U.S. population is now nonwhite,” said Ms. Chase, one of a handful of prominent African-American producers in Hollywood. “That is reflected in the Disney Channel projects because they are committed to diversity. It has been a priority for them all along.”
None of which should be particularly surprising in the 21st century, except that television in general seems to be caught in one of a series of repeating cycles in which diversity all but disappears from the small screen.
Let us know what you think.
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Posted by: jessica eruchalu | August 26, 2008 at 10:00 AM