[procaare] Bollywood Plots AIDS Message Despite Stars' Apathy

["Reuters" <procaare@healthnet.org>]

Bollywood plots AIDS message despite stars' apathy
- By Kamil, Reuters Jan 22, 2007
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Zaheer NEW DELHI (Reuters) - Four top Bollywood directors are to make short 
films dealing with HIV/AIDS that will be shown before blockbuster releases, 
hoping to use their stars' pulling power to spread awareness of the deadly 
virus in India.

The low-budget, 12-minute movies will be shown at theatres ahead of 
full-length commercial Bollywood films that star well-known actors, said 
Mira Nair, the India-born director of "Mississippi Masala" and the sensuous 
hit "Kama Sutra," on Monday.

"The idea is to piggyback on blockbusters to spread AIDS awareness," Nair 
said at a news conference in a country that has the world's largest 
population living with the deadly virus.

"We want to use cinema (against AIDS) so that it holds a mirror to the world 
and gets under your skin."

The movies will be funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation which is 
spending $258 million on HIV prevention efforts in India over a five-year 
period.

Nair, who is making one of the 12-minute films which will be titled 
"Migration," said she had been unable to get A-list Bollywood actors to 
feature in the films on AIDS.

"Lots of stars don't want to be associated with the virus," the feisty 
director said, adding: "Some live and don't learn."

The other directors involved in the venture are Santosh Sivan, who directed 
the critically acclaimed "The Terrorist," Farhan Akthar, who made the box 
office hit "Dil Chahta Hai" (What the Heart Wants), and Vishal Bhardwaj who 
made "Omkara" -- a Bollywood take on William Shakespeare's Othello.

"We do not want to preach but entertain. Once you start preaching and 
teaching, people get bored," Bhardwaj said.

The directors are hoping the movies will be released in cinemas within a few 
months, and Nair said the initial response from distributors had been 
positive.

Two of the short movies would be in Hindi while the other two would be in 
south Indian languages like Tamil, a press statement about the AIDS Jaggo 
(Wake up to AIDS) initiative said.

According to UNAIDS, India has 5.7 million people living with HIV/AIDS and 
stigma and prejudice is widespread.

Many people, including some federal lawmakers, believe that a person can get 
HIV by shaking hands with an infected person, surveys have shown.

In recent years, Bollywood has made two full-length movies on HIV/AIDS. 
Neither was a commercial success.

Source: via Yahoo News
Online: http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070122/hl_nm/india_aids_bollywood_dc_2