Osama Lookalike in Bollywood Comedy in Tere Bin Laden

Pradhuman Singh, the 27-year-old who plays an Osama lookalike in the recently released Tere Bin Laden, says he felt like a celeb the first time he walked out of the vanity van. �We were shooting in a studio, and the moment I stepped out, heads started turning and then there was pin-drop
silence. The security had to come and take me through the crowd,� he recalls.



Singh was working with a software firm when he got a call from an old buddy, debutant Abhishek Sharma, the director of the film.

�We knew each other from our theatre days, but we hadn�t spoken in years. When he called, I thought he wanted me to assist him. When we met, he said �I want to play you something�, and gave me was an Osama Bin Laden tape!� he informs.

Singh didn�t think he resembled Bin Laden till people started reacting to his look.

�It was as big a shock to me as everyone else. My family and friends knew I was working on a film but had no idea that it had anything to do with Bin Laden. It was only earlier this year that I asked a few close friends to see the promo of the film on YouTube,� he says, and remembers being flooded with calls asking him �Where are you in the film?�, though some recognised him because of his smile.

The actor had to lose a lot of weight for the film. �I was 74 kgs, and now I am 63. I had to hit the gym because they didn�t want an Osama with a paunch. But now I plan to gorge big time to make up for the time I didn�t eat my favourite delicacies. I also learned Arabic for eight months to get my diction right,� he says.

Son of a naval officer, Singh studied at Delhi�s Naval Public School, and then enrolled at the Institute of Hotel Management. He didn�t like it much, so didn�t graduate. �I was working with Wipro when the Osama offer came along,� he says. �I quit my job because I couldn�t sail in two boats.�

Pakistan delays decision on Bollywood 'bin Laden' film

Ali Zafar plays the starring role


'Tere Bin Laden'will no longer open on Friday as planned after a review of a ban on the film was delayed

ISLAMABAD � Pakistan on Friday delayed the review of a ban on an Indian Bollywood comedy poking fun at Osama bin Laden, which censors said was a threat to security and offensive to Muslims.

Pakistani censors banned "Tere bin Laden" (Without you, Laden) before it was due to open at cinemas nationwide on Friday. Advertisements for the film in the Pakistani press have been accompanied by "subject to approval" notices.


Indian Bollywood actor Salman Khan


The film is a spoof about a Pakistani reporter who wants to migrate to the United States and hopes his interview with a chicken farmer who is the spitting image of the world's most wanted man can get him the visa he has been denied.

Pakistani pop singer Ali Zafar plays the starring role, but the board of censors said the film could incite suicide attacks in a country already suffering Islamist militant bombings weekly if not daily.

Censors said the film ridiculed Pakistani society, was offensive to Muslims, portrays bin Laden as a "coward and ridiculous", contained vulgar language and could fan hostility among "fanatic and fundamentalist elements" in Pakistan.

Bombs and attacks blamed on Taliban and Al-Qaeda-linked militants have killed more than 3,560 people across the nuclear-armed country since government troops besieged a radical mosque in Islamabad in July 2007.

But the film's promoters appealed the ban as a violation of freedom of expression, forcing government officials to review the decision.

"I'm astonished they did this," said promoter Nadeem Mandviwala.

"There are many TV programmes in Pakistan criticising the president, prime minister and everybody else in a comic way. Our society has become tolerant."

Pakistan has a relatively free media, but authorities in May briefly shut down YouTube and Facebook over blasphemous content on the Internet. Internet links to material considered offensive are still blocked.

Government officials on Friday attended a private screening of the film to decide whether to uphold the ban or release it for public consumption, but delayed a decision -- meaning that the film will not open on Friday as planned.

"We have postponed the meeting and delayed the decision until Wednesday," culture ministry official Moeen-ul-Islam Bukhari told AFP. He attributed the delay to members of the appeals' committee failing to show up.

The "Tere bin Laden" controversy comes after a number of Gulf states banned a hard-hitting Bollywood film that claims to tell the true story behind violence in the Muslim-majority region.

In India's entertainment capital, Mumbai, the film's producer, Pooja Shetty, said earlier that they were still hoping for clearance for the film.

"I'm hopeful that they will look at it in a positive light," Shetty, the joint managing director at production company Walkwater Media, told AFP.

"I don't think it's a preachy film, neither is it making fun of terrorism. It's about a fake Osama... It's a comedy, a spoofy film."

The film was being released in India and a number of countries on Friday, including Australia, Britain, Singapore, Malaysia and the United Arab Emirates.

It is expected to be released in the United States at a later date, added Shetty.

The film's subject matter and publicity about Pakistan's ban have catapulted the low-budget film into the spotlight in India and abroad.

The Times of India newspaper gave the film three stars, despite saying its production was a "shade amateur".

"'Tere Bin Laden' has both: smart script and some smart acting."

Hollywood and Bollywood join arms to fight piracy

Hollywood and Bollywood linked arms Thursday to fight piracy, with the announcement of a coalition among the Motion Picture Association of America and seven Indian companies to tackle counterfeiting in one of the world's largest film markets.

 

The alliance comes as Hollywood tries to tap global markets more aggressively and as Indian movie studios grow in size and stature � narrowing the gap between Indian and U.S. filmmakers, who have not always seen eye-to-eye on intellectual property issues.

A year in the making, the coalition to fight film piracy in India will work with movie theaters to crack down on camcorder piracy � the source of 90 percent of all pirated DVDs � with police to tighten enforcement, with Internet service providers to fight Internet piracy and with politicians to create more effective laws.

MPAA, which has similar anti-piracy alliances in the U.S., Europe and Hong Kong, would not disclose the size of the coalition's budget but said funding would come from members.

The Indian film industry has a rich history of copycat productions and traditionally has had less respect for the sanctity of intellectual property than Hollywood would like.

In 2008, for example, Warner Bros. unsuccessfully sued to block the release of an Indian Punjabi film called "Hari Puttar � A Comedy of Terrors" on the grounds that the name was too close to its Harry Potter series.

That friction has started to ease with the rise of corporate studios in India, like UTV Motion Pictures and Reliance Big Pictures, which last year took a 50 percent share in Steven Spielberg's DreamWorks for $325 million.

Over the last two years, a growing number of successful partnerships � like "My Name is Khan," produced by two Indian companies and distributed by Fox in India and the U.S. � as well as successful crossover movies � like "Slumdog Millionaire" and "Avatar," which both did well in India � have also strengthened ties.

"People are becoming more of the same mind," Dan Glickman, the outgoing chairman of the Motion Picture Association of America, told The Associated Press in an interview. "The Indian film industry now understands their product is getting stolen at significant rates."

Piracy cost India's $2.3 billion film industry $959 million and 571,000 jobs in 2008, according to an Ernst & Young study, and pirated DVDs account for 60 percent of the market, according to KPMG.

"Piracy is one of the most pernicious problems facing the entertainment industry, and the Indian industry in particular," said Reliance Big Pictures chief executive Sanjeev Lamba.

Lamba attributed part of the financial success of "3 Idiots," distributed by Reliance Big Pictures last year, to the studio's aggressive anti-piracy efforts.

Round-the-clock work helped prevent 10 million illegal downloads, he said, adding that at one point his staff was finding new illegal digital copies of the film on the Internet every five minutes.

Piracy has gotten worse in India as Internet connection speeds have improved and DVD player usage has increased.

In the last two years, the number of Indian households with DVD players surged from 4 million to 45 million, said Harish Dayani, chief executive of India's Moser Baer, the world's second-largest CD and DVD manufacturer.

He estimates that Indian consumers snap up 700 million illegal DVDs every year, giving them little incentive to go to theaters and generating 15 billion rupees ($330 million) for counterfeiters.

Reducing that leakage is crucial for Hollywood studios as they try to push into India.

"More and more, the growth of film is outside the U.S.," Glickman said. "Hollywood is now looking at the world as their marketplace."

KPMG expects Indian film industry revenues to hit 136.7 billion rupees ($3 billion) by 2014, an average annual growth of 8.9 percent.

"This is a country of 1 billion people who love movies more than anywhere else in the world," Glickman said. "We'd be foolish not to want to come into this market."