Hollywood actor Tom Hanks’ thoughts quite resonate with that of a million cine buffs. The Oscar winning actor recently revealed that for him Indian cinema meant megastar Amitabh Bachchan ‘running around in glasses and beating up the bad guys’. He said that the unique storytelling techniques of Indian cinema will remain a mystery for the West till Bollywood makes inroads abroad.
Tom said that for many years, they did not quite understand what was going on in Indian movies. For them it all came down to Big B’s antics, him landing punches and blows on the bad guys. He then went on to say that it is important that everyone speaks the common language of cinema.
“If everyone starts speaking the common language of cinema, it will start representing itself," Hanks told IANS in an interview here.
Talking about when Indian stories will make it to the West, Tom Hanks said that it was only a matter of time.
"Like the cinema from Japan and China have impacted the entire cinematic narrative of the West like ‘Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon' by Ang Lee. Those guys are working in American films now. The fact is that we have not just been able to see films outside of Bollywood for whatever reason, or outside Satyajit Ray's films.
"But it is only a matter of time because people in the United States see everything...All you have to do is be available," he added.
Hanks has worked with Indian star Irrfan Khan in his forthcoming Sony Pictures Entertainment's film "Inferno". And he says he is open to attaching his star power to any Indian project, but would not do it "just to break into the marketplace".
But Hanks will not be seen as a super spy climbing on the roof of Taj Mahal or doing stunts on helicopters – he'd rather do a film on "stereotypes of public life in India".
(With IANS Inputs)
