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‘Kites’ seeks non-desi US watchers
With the record-breaking success for 3 Idiots and My Name is Khan in the United States this year making it a lucrative market for Bollywood films, Reliance Big Pictures will release two versions of the Hrithik Roshan-starrer Kites next month in over 200 screens in America, a new high in terms of theatres in the territory, reports Anirudh Bhattacharyya.
With the record-breaking success for 3 Idiots and My Name is Khan in the United States this year making it a lucrative market for Bollywood films, Reliance Big Pictures will release two versions of the Hrithik Roshan-starrer Kites next month in over 200 screens in America, a new high in terms of theatres in the territory.
Other than targeting theatres that specialise in Hindi films, the studio is looking at the mainstream market since over 80 per cent of the film is in English.
And to make the film more appealing to an American audience, the 130-minute original has been trimmed to a 90-minute version Kites: The Remix. Behind the remix is Brett Ratner, the director of the Jackie Chan Rush Hour series as well as X-Men: The Last Stand. Ratner has removed songs and scenes from the original Kites for a “swift” version that “will target a younger, hipper, more action-oriented crowd than the original.”
The studio believes that the film has crossover appeal due to the presence of Mexican actress Barbara Mori opposite Hrithik. Reliance Big Pictures CEO Sanjeev Lamba said that the film had “a story that has international appeal.”
