Now in Hindi!

By Bollywood Hungama -

January 31, 2007 - 12:00 AM IST

Heres a major scoop and like always, its on IndiaFM first! In March last year, Homi Adajanias directorial debut BEING CYRUS had a select release in the domestic and international market. An English film starring Naseeruddin Shah, Dimple Kapadia, Saif Ali Khan, Boman Irani and Simone Singh, the film won rave reviews, besides picking up several prestigious awards in India and abroad. Almost a year after its release, the film has been dubbed in Hindi and will see a mainstream release in the forthcoming months. Reminds me of TITANIC, which was released in English language initially, but after completing a 25-week run at several centres, it was dubbed in Hindi language for the traditional belt. Back to BEING CYRUS. What prompted the producers to dub the film in Hindi? Three reasons, Munish Purii, COO of Mirchi Movies [a Times of India foray into film business] tells me, Firstly, the response to the film was extremely positive when it opened last year. We decided to explore the Hindi version subsequently. Two, different kind of films and varied themes are being attempted of late. The audiences have developed a taste for non-masala movies and since BEING CYRUS was appreciated tremendously, we decided to reach out to a larger audience by dubbing the film in Hindi. The third reason being, the film boasts of a solid cast and is embellished with powerful performances. Saifs performances in BEING CYRUS as also OMKARA won him tremendous acclaim. Besides, we were humbled by the accolades and awards that keep pouring in to this date. While the film started with 30 prints in the first round, the number grew to 100 as weeks progressed. We did tap the metros and even a few cities where English films have a market. But by releasing the Hindi version, we would be exploring the traditional market and also the Hindi belt, Purii adds. While the English title has been retained for the Hindi version, the producers are waiting for an opportune period to release the Hindi version. The release chart is choc-a-block with new films, so weve decided to wait and release BEING CYRUS in an appropriate week. One of the prime reasons why BEING CYRUS worked was because we had released it in an open week and were looking at an open week for the Hindi version too, he states. BEING CYRUS is produced by Ambika A. Hinduja, Dinesh Vijan, Raman Macker and Munish Purii.