Hollywood buys hit movie

2005-04-14 11:14

India - Hollywood film studio 20th Century Fox will remake a blockbuster Bollywood movie about a thug who enrols in medical school to win back the confidence of his father, the film's producer said on Wednesday.

Vidhu Vinod Chopra, a well-known writer, producer and director, said he sold the rights to the 2003 hit comedy Munnabhai MBBS to the US film studio, which will release it under the title Gangster MD.

Chopra, who co-wrote the screenplay with director Rajkumar Hirani, told the Associated Press that he would be an executive producer for the Hollywood version.

He said it was the first time a Hollywood studio had bought the rights to an Indian film, but declined to discuss the terms of the deal. Details about the US version were not available.

The Hindi-language movie received rave reviews in India and was a success among South Asians living abroad.

The dialogue was so popular that crowds at cricket matches in India and Pakistan last year were heard shouting the rough Mumbai gangster lingo of the character played by popular actor Sanjay Dutt.

In the movie, Dutt portrays a thug who pretends to be a doctor so he won't disappoint his parents, who often visit him from their nearby village and think their son has made it big.

Chopra has directed seven Indian movies. His debut documentary on Mumbai's street kids, An Encounter With Faces, was nominated for an Oscar for the best short film (non-fiction) in the 1980s.

He is currently preparing for the worldwide release of the Hindi-language Parineeta - The Married Woman in June, which focuses on the different perceptions between genders about love and commitment.

Hindi language films are widely watched all over Asia and the Middle East, and by Indian migrant communities around the world particularly in Britain and the United States.

- AP