The newest feature film offering from writer/director Deepa Mehta (Earth) is currently in production in Toronto. Bollywood/Hollywood sees Mehta at the helm of what producer David Hamilton calls the director’s take on a romantic comedy. It is about an NRI (non-resident Indian) family living in Toronto and the influences Bollywood films continue to have on their lives in Canada.

‘Bollywood is a huge industry and people that are from India follow it,’ says Hamilton. ‘A lot of what happens in Bollywood films influences how people live their lives here.’

Hamilton is producing with Bob Wertheimer under the banner Bollywood/Hollywood Productions. Mehernaz Lentin is line producer on the six-week shoot that wraps Nov. 12.

Jessica Pare (Stardom, Lost and Delirious), Rahul Khanna and Lisa Ray star.

Budgeted at approximatley $2 million, Bollywood/Hollywood, like other Mehta projects, says Hamilton, will look like it was shot on a budget twice that size.

‘If you see any of [Mehta’s] films, you will be amazed at what she is able to accomplish on a fairly modest budget,’ he says. ‘In this case, we’ve had tremendous help from the crew and cast because I think there is a lot of respect for Deepa in the local film community, and that respect has really come powerfully into this film.’

Funding assistance came from Telefilm Canada, the CTF LFP, the Harold Greenberg Fund and private investors.

Mongrel Media will distribute in Canada. An international distributor has yet to be secured.

Big Star makes The Promise

Toronto’s Big Star Entertainment Group has teamed with Reno, Nevada-based coproduction partner Kingdom Entertainment on a six-project deal, starting with the one-hour docudrama The Promise, which wrapped shooting Oct. 14 in Toronto. The special tells the story of the first Christians in Israel in 1 AD, beginning just after Judah returns from witnessing Christ’s crucifixion and resurrection.

Kingdom, whose mandate is to produce Christian and family-oriented projects, originally planned to produce a documentary on the early Christians, but quickly changed the genre in order to appeal to a broader audience, says Big Star producer Frank A. Deluca.

‘We threw around the idea of trying to get this content to be more entertaining, and all of a sudden we realized that we can reenact this,’ says Deluca. ‘It went from reenactments with a group of people to casting it. We had a script drawn up and a docudrama was born.’

The script was written by Kingdom producer Albert Israeli, with Big Star cofounder Giacomo Moncada directing. Nick Mancuso (A Time of Fear) stars as Judah.

The budget is approximately $1 million, entirely provided by the production partners. Deluca says a third production partner wanted to buy into The Promise, but Kingdom politely said no. Kingdom was even reluctant to get into presales before the project was completed, says Deluca, adding all parties involved wanted to finish the production before showing it around.

The Promise was shot over three weeks in Toronto and surrounding areas, following six weeks of prep and set construction. The set builders recreated a 10,000-square-foot courtyard similar to one in old Jerusalem.

Deluca says now that The Promise is heading into post, it will probably first materialize as a direct-to-video release. He is planning to pursue some televised options as well although no firm deals had been made at press time.

‘The idea is to approach the Christian stations, but it is more like an Easter special, so I’m hoping there is a life for it beyond purely Christian channels,’ says Deluca, who adds this is Big Star’s first religious-themed production. ‘It’s an Easter special and the message of Christ, so it has a much broader market.’

Big Star and Kingdom plan to team on five more projects, all of which will have a religious bent, but details are being withheld until The Promise is completed.

Mob to hit History in March

Toronto’s Henderson & Gentile Productions has begun work on Mob Stories, a new documentary series for History Television and Canal D. The low-budget, four-part series will profile some of Canada’s most notorious organized-crime figures through documented footage and dramatic recreations, says producer Peter Gentile.

‘We are mixing documentaries with really strong visual recreations of things,’ says Gentile. ‘With the success of The Sopranos, [organized crime] is a subject that people are fascinated by; we take a little more of a psychological approach to the characters and the show. Our show is different than the A&E [type of non-fictional programs], which hang on the killings and the events. That’s in our show, too, but we try to get behind the person, find out what makes them tick.’

Gentile says he became interested in creating a series on Canadian mobsters after reading a book about Hamilton, ON’s Johnny ‘Pops’ Papalla, the last Ontario Don, who was murdered in 1997. Papalla will be the subject of episode two, after fellow Hamiltonian Rocco Perri, known to many as the king of the bootleggers, grabs the spotlight for episode one. Montreal kingpins Paolo Violo and Frank Cotroni will be explored in episodes three and four, respectively.

Director Mitch Gabourie is helming the two Hamilton episodes, with Laine Drewery directing episodes three and four.

Interview segments are being shot on 24p HD and the dramatic recreations on 16mm film.

Gentile says funding has come from Telefilm Canada, the CTF LFP, tax credits and licence fees. He is now looking to explore distribution options.

The series continues shooting until the end of November, and is set to air on History in March 2002.