With security at an all time high after two bomb scares, the Kites team is keeping its fingers crossed for the premiere at Times Square in New York
The English version of Kites will now see some radical changes. The chase sequence that forms the climax has been made longer for the foreign audience, while for some crucial flashback sequences, Hrithik Roshan has done some voiceovers to explain the Indian context to foreigners.
At another level, some more possible changes could be on the anvil, but of the worrying kind. With two bomb scares at New York's Times Square within a week, what happens to the proposed grand premiere of Kites at the AMC Theatres Empire multiplex at Times Square?
Though the Kites team maintains that the premiere will go ahead as scheduled on May 16, reports indicate that security in and around the area has become exceptionally heavy.
“We're regularly monitoring the situation there. Things seem to be getting back to normal. We'll of course have very a lot of security,” said Sanjeev Lamba of Reliance Big Picture, the international distributors of Kites.
But how successful can a premiere possibly be when it is held under the blanket of such security?
Even if the New York premiere does happen, producer Rakesh Roshan, his son Hrithik, leading lady Barbara Mori, director Anurag Basu and Rush Hour director Brett Ratner (who re-edited the English version), will be watching a film substantially different from the version that will release in India on May 21.
“Yes the action is longer in the international version of Kites,” said Lamba. “We wanted to give it a slicker spin so that the versions in Hindi and English are two different experiences. We hope the English version of Kites takes Hrithik's career to an international level.”
As for the much-discussed ‘topless' sequence that seems to have been shot with Barbara Mori only for the English version, Rakesh Roshan explains, “The same shot is there in the Hindi version, though from a different angle. And by the way, it isn't a topless shot. It's a backless shot and all the heroines in Bollywood nowadays wear backless clothes. What's the big deal?”
