West to East

He was the supervising art director of this year’s multiple Oscar-winning film The Hurt Locker,but David Bryan is ready to move on and is already looking forward to his first ever Bollywood production,film-maker Abbas Tyrewala’s upcoming romantic comedy,1-800-Love, featuring John Abraham,which is now in the post-production stage. “”Working with a Bollywood crew was a great experience,much more than on a similar British film,” says Bryan in an email interview. Curiously,the art director,who was critically acclaimed for his life-like replication of the battle-scarred streets of Iraq in The Hurt Locker,was apparently the one who got in touch with Tyrewala. He showed him footages of his work from the film to convince Tyrewala to take him on as production director.

His experience came in handy,since Tyrewala was looking for someone who would help capture the essence of London,where much of the movie is based. “For Abbas’s film,we wanted to portray the real London. It’s an amazing city with very diverse locations. In particular,we were looking for a really iconic studio apartment for the lead actor. Later,in autumn last year,we shot the climax of the film. It turned out to be an epic four nights of filming on Tower Bridge with John insisting on doing his own stunts,” he reminisces.

The movie,which has music by AR Rahman,is expected to release in the latter half of the year. Incidentally,this is Tyrewala’s second film after Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na.

Twice is nice

Bryan,of course,is not the only Hollywood guy involved in an Indian production. Sanjay Puran Singh Chauhan’s film Lahore,which releases on March 19,had American sports consultant Rob Miller,giving his inputs for the sports-specific portions. Miller,who heads ReelSports,says,“The idea is to bring the element of authenticity and realism to the film,to keep the story-telling in sync with the action,to make that punch look like a jaw crusher,the fights hard and mean and the actor,like a real sportstar.” Miller,whose resume includes films like Jerry Maguire and The Longest Yard,has already worked with Shimit Amin in Bollywood,for his successful film Chak De,and is now looking for more projects in Bollywood. “I am in talks,and you’ll hear about it soon,” he says.